Good Morning, Vietnam!

A tale of two days.

Sunday’s “day of rest,” and our gentle efforts with insulation.

Monday’s return to hardcore demolition and construction.

First, the back wall of the kitchen:

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And the upstairs half-bath:

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There’s lots more we can do as the outside weatherproofing is completed. But we also need to put up the lower half of the sheetrock in the half-bath, so we can situate the vanity and toilet and get them connected. Once the plumbing is tested, we can proceed with insulation and drywall in the kitchen and bathroom below…. Order of operation!

Today! Reid appeared (his commitment for today was “tentative”) and we dove in immediately erecting the permanent post supporting the stairs.

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The patch of wood at the center on top is a temporary brace which I’ll take down tomorrow.

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This is the Tek-Post footer that was installed a couple of weeks ago, and is guaranteed not to frost heave. In any case, it’s adjustable, which made installation easier and more forgiving.

Then we proceeded inside to do the penultimate piece of serious demolition of rotted framing that we’ll face — the southeast wall of the upstairs room, and the big double window overlooking the porch roof.

Almost the last, but possibly the worst:

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After getting the window out — which was not worth saving — we took out more of the board siding to get at the frame all the way to the corner…

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…and started to put up studs and framing of new wood, and rough in for the replacement window that I picked up at a yard sale some time ago.

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Some of the replaced framing visible from the porch below:

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Visible on the lower right is what will be truly the FINAL demolition of rotted framing, which Marsh and I aim to tackle tomorrow — sans Reid.

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The final view from outside at the end of the day, with the side flashed, tar-papered, and tyveked, and the windows reinstalled.

Then I took a bath, harvested peas, made a stir-fry with a little too much soy sauce (but it was still good), and spent an hour browsing old youtubes of Robin Williams doing stand-up and interviews.

I had other things to talk about tonight, but they’ll have to wait. Robin Williams’s brilliance and comedic courage will shine for a long, long time. My heart goes out to his family and those close to him.