Not a how-to, a how did.

To put up a how-to video, you have to have a baseline of expertise. 

I don't have that. So, this isn't really a how-to post so much as a how-did. This is what I did. Should you find yourself in a similar situation, you may want to hire an expert.

I am not that smart.

Here we go.

When last we left, we looked like this.

Rotten.  Yeah, there's a rant coming.

 I have to get that rot out and replace it with good wood.  The problem is that the outer and marriage line walls in a double wide, are load bearing. It isn't a good idea to take out large sections of load-bearing walls.  So, I went out to the yard and got my old friend from the sliding glass door framing project.

Hello timber my old friend.

This is what it looked like from the inside.

I had to put on my construction Crocs. That explains the socks.

We ripped out the drywall. It was nailed to the studs we needed to remove.

Time for the big stud.

Banged it into place and nailed it down.

Things didn't look any better from the inside.

Sometimes you just have to grab the sawsall and hope for the best.

The rot goes all the way down.

Oh yeah, flooring. Hard to rebuild a wall if you don't have a floor.

The rot goes all the way up too.  Sigh

At least I had a helper. Max was learning and helping.

Michael was out mowing. He was working too.  I just didn't get a picture of it.

We had to put in some bracing to keep the squeaks down and provide stability to the edges. I'm getting better at making holes in the floor that it is easy to cut out of a plywood sheet. Either that or I'm getting better at cutting weird shapes out of plywood sheets. Maybe both.

Screwed it down, forgot to glue it down.

Removed all of the rotten structural material up top.

I've ripped out boards, cut out floors, sawed through nails and generally demolished a huge amount of this house. The two screws holding the upper wall frame to the roof were the toughest part of the house.

The sawsall didn't phase them. Papa joked that it wasn't cutting them so much as polishing them. I ended up having to rip it out by hand.  

Stinking screws.

 About this point I realized the day was getting away from me. I didn't stop for a whole lot more pictures. I used the nail gun and framing nails to get the pieces lined up and held together until I could use wood screws to hold them fast.  The actual framing went up pretty fast.

New board up top.

Cut to a new window frame. I added back some more bracing after this.

Believe it or not, I'm tired. Back to work tomorrow. Both here and the hospital.

Here we go again.

A quick update of progress and then on to today's rant. (Edit: the rant had to wait.  It needs it's own post.)

We have a sliding glass door! 

Papa was on hand for supervisory purposes.

Yep, it's a door opening.

Flashing tape, caulk, house wrap integrated into the opening.

That is a happy face.

Tada!  With the ubiquitous ladder.

All the windows are in. Time to put up furring strips.

Work in progress.

Our house has stripes.

There is still the one section of blue siding left, but only one.

Then it was time to pull off the last section of siding. This was the only part of the whole house where OSB sheathing was used. Still no house wrap or flashing, but sheathing. It must be in better condition than the rest, right?

Yeah, no.

So far, no good.

This picture encapsulates my rant. Note where the worst of the rot is.  Notice the gutter above it?

It wasn't any better under the OSB.

Got most of the OSB of

Yeah, I'll be replacing some studs.

I had to remove the porch to get at the rot under the door.

Strapped for time today. Lots more work is done. I just wanted to update a little while I had the chance.

Oh wow, where were we?

Lots done, lots to talk about. Progress is being made. 

Weird. These first pictures are so far back, they look strange to me. 

This was the last little bit of the blue T-111 siding off. 

I love that picture because it shows Sarah hard at work. She's out there with me every step of the way.

Yeah! You know it was bad when the insulation looks better than the siding.

To be fair, it only looks better because Sarah vacuumed it. Yeah.

With the help of Papa, we got the OSB sheathing up all the way around.

Sarah works, Max is the entertainment.

And then, suddenly, everything is black.

With Papa helping, the house wrap went a lot faster.

And maybe a little straighter.

With all the house wrapped, we could put in some windows.

Honestly, I kind of liked the dark cave we created. But... Sarah is a creature of the sun. And there is so little of it up here sometimes that you must revel in every photon when you can.

Remember, the old way this was done? How they just nailed the siding up right on the studs and had no flashing or weather-proofing on the windows or doors? Yeah, not this guy.

Flashing tape under the window and over the tar paper. Screws screwed in straight

We put putty tape behind the flange and screwed it in. The we put flashing tape over the flange. Bottom first, then sides.

Finally, a layer under the tar paper at the top, but over the side flashing tape. And another little bit to cover the cut.

When we went inside for the night to sleep, the windows felt really weird. I mean, we had blue tarps for a couple of weeks, then black tar paper for a few days. The clear windows left us feeling really exposed. I know there was no one out there looking, but still. Especially since I left the ladder right outside where I stopped working. Nothing like looking out your bedroom window and seeing a ladder.

So Sarah made curtains... Out of sheets.  It amazes me how she is able to take whatever, wherever and make it feel like home.

Don't laugh at our toilet-box nightstand.

My amazing hot momma!

OK, time for a break.  Lots of work getting done. Time for some fun.

How about a concert at the George Gorge?

Dave Mathews? I think we will.

Holy Cow!  This place is gorgeous!

So is she. Especially when she's that happy.

Not a bad place for the boys' first concert.

Read the socks and know.  We did. We carpe'ed the fuc*^ out of it.

No time for too many pictures. It was nice to be in the moment.

But, after a long day of fun and driving, it was back to work.

Those windows didn't put themselves in.

And so we leave it today, like this.

Yeah, we have quite the mess to clean up.

But progress is being made.

Yes, I may have driven my wife mad. That is a flower pot, on the pot, on the porch.