Still here

And so is the big hole in our wall. We weren't able to finish last night- it got too dark and without a light at the top of the stairs V couldn't see well enough to make the cuts he needed to to frame the window. So we tacked up the sheathing to cover the opening over night and will finish today. But here's a few of the photos and adventures from the day.

The hole begins!

Do you see that splintery stuff? The original builders used old paneling as part of the wall construction. Now, don't get me wrong- I'm all for recycling and making do- but in house construction?!

I work on taking down siding panels while V plans his next step.

Pulling down bad wood

Oh, and do you notice that wire hanging down in that last photo? We discovered it in the wall. It's an old cloth covered wire, not capped or anything, stuffed into the insulation. We assumed that it was disconnected since the light fixture by the back door was there but not connected to anything. Guess what? After working around it for a few hours and having it get in the way- V decided to cut it off- It turns out that it was LIVE!!! Thank God he was using insulated wire cutters!!!! And thank goodness there has never been a fire with it not capped or anything in the wall (especially a wall that has had lots of water damage!) or that any of us got injured since we were all working around that area, even the children. What stupid people leave an uncapped live wire in a wall????????

But, thankfully it all worked out well. V tracked down where it was connected into the system and managed to disconnect it. But that used up valuable construction time and put us behind schedule. We could have waited to track it down but it blew out the same circuit that the refrigerator was on so we didn't want to wait too long.

Looking out from by my pantry

Nearly ready to start the rebuild.

We discovered the original siding on the old house- I like it much better than the stuff that's there now. And someone painted it pink!

Reinstalling the mudsill!

Justine takes a break.

Of course, I'll probably get no end of grief showing this one on a Sunday....

Well, it's off to get going again. More updates later- if I can stay awake.