My life for my planet! Doing what I can to make sure our future generations can enjoy the same beautiful Nature that helps make my life complete.

I forgot my camera Tuesday but bought it yesterday and here is a shot from what we had done before starting again yesterday. We got the massive sliding door out to relieve the majority of weight the rim joist basically fell apart into dust particles!
 

I checked my message machine last Monday night (9-14-2009)and there was a frantic cry for help from my dear Mom!

I was ready for bear, meth-heads, or what-ever I had to deal with to help Mom... it is cool whenever I can give her some of the love back she has given so freely over the years.

I called her immediatly and it turned out that the sunroom my late Step-Dad James Griggs built many years ago was "falling off the house!" That was a big surprise! That ol' guy built that place strong enough to hold a tank like everything else he ever built... he started me on my building experiences when I was ten or eleven years old. He may have been the meanest person I ever met but what that man taught me was worth all the hell I ever endured. I feel that must be like karma... kinda like a reward of good things to make up for any of the negative times in my past.

My son Malikai was here and decided to spend the night to head down Tuesday mornin' along with good friend and neighbor Ryan Kessler who also gladly voluteered! We loaded up the pick-up with tools and headed down-river.

Poor Mom looked so bummed and scared... a big ol' bear-hug and a kiss on the cheek fixed that quick!

The roof being bowed down was the first thing I noticed while looking at the east wall then, my eyes fell down towards where the foundation was and all I could see was wood dust from mass rot! The whole wall was shot!

We only bought basic tools... a ladder, hammers, a tear-off shovel and crow-bars. When I first talked to Mom she made it sound like the room was separated from the house already. I told her we would probably have to take the room off and rebuild it. I also told her to think of what her dream would be to have built there.

 With my knowledge from building for literally decades along with son Malikai's awesome building talents he has learned and adding to that Ryan's awesome talents... I feel there is nothing we couldn't build.

Well first Mom said... "a deck would be nice!" Well heck... that would be a cinch! The trip with Mom is that she changes her mind like the oceans change tides!

Last night we discussed building a small walk-way off the front to a small private little deck on the Northeast side of the sunroom and at the end of today she just wants the room rebuilt with less windows so she doesn;t feel like she is "on stage" from all the windows when folks walk or drive by. She also said she doesn't want a deck now because she would never use it! I'm curious as to what she will want by tomorrow!

heh heh! :)

At first I thought the trouble stemmed from the gutter but after looking it over real good... I could tell that it wasn't the gutter but the way the trim was done for the vinyl siding Mom and Jim had installed years ago.

I will get a pic of the trouble posted at a later time but it was built so that water easily channeled in behind the siding and rotted the snot out of the structure... gotta love those "professionals" huh!

 

We cut back two feet and still found some rot! We are ending up having to go back even a little further and are going to "sister" the 2"x10" floor joists back eight feet just for good measure.

 

The SE corner.

 

This is what is left of the header over the sliding door. Ants had a heyday with it!

Neighbors and good friends Kent Miller and Ryan Kessler removing one of the glass panes. Kent also helped yesterday and today... they are a true blessing!

Well it has been a few days and I apologize for not updating this page earlier.... it is now day 16 and we are taking the day off today.

We have basically had to sawzall every bit. We did 4' wide sections and also ended up removing the floor joists back 6' and put in a new support for the joists as you can see above.

It sure is nice getting solid support again... I felt better with every stud we placed.

The shot above is Kai cutting and Ryan standing by.

In my opinion this picture above shows where the trouble came from. That trim piece at the top of the siding! It provided a perfect channel for water to flow under the siding.

Yeah.... more progress!

Malikai!!! I'm tellin' Grandma!

Mom decided she only wanted two windows in place of the six that were there so Kai grabbed a handy glass removal tool! We saved four of the windows so I'll use the other two around here on something.

Ryan (seated) and Kent takin' an observational break.

Kai in one of his serious moments with Frank Jr. runnin' the sawzall and Ryan preppin' the floor.

Past the half-way mark on the main wall.

Above is Ryan demonstration the fine art of Kung-Fu Demolition! It took at least a couple hours to prep for "the big kick!"

It's Super Kent or as we call him... Kentpo. :)

Above is a cut-away view of one of the walls. As you can see the exterior was three sheets thick all skip sheeted and over-lapped as well as each layer being individually screwed to the studs.Luckily the interior was only two sheets plus the sheetrock. Now you can understand why the sawzall is the "tool of choice."
Wall be gone!

It feels so good to have a solid structure under the roof again!


Sorry for the blurry shot but I had to shoot the sunset at the end of Mom's road and didn't have my tri-pod!It was an awesome gift from nature to finish the day! :)