Moving along now...

OK. I was unable to sign in since my last post. It has taken this long to get it sorted out. In my last post I talked about uncovering 6 steps...wrong! There were 11 steps buried up to 4 feet deep. We dubbed them the "Stairway to Hades". They extend down past the French drains. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cover a couple back up to keep from having to relanscape the entire eastern slope. I'll brick the bottom for a platform and Bobs-yer-uncle.

The new roof got started today with tearoff. Should be done midweek next week. Should. We'll see.

Monday we'll start the electrical and some of the reframing. The belltower is opened up as it the rotted floor in the northeast corner. We'll work there first.
Will be posting new pics to the link http://nickelchurch.shutterfly.com/ There will be more later.

Constructive destruction

OK, I know, long time gone. Back from Kenya and working on a show (The King and I) @ PCT. While I've been off the air we've gotten a lot done.

While releveling the street-level floor, we found extensive termite damage to the pillars holding up the joists. I replaced the worst ones and marked the rest of the damaged ones. I'm going to eventually have to replace all of them- maybe with steel or concrete pillars. In the meantime, I have contracted Chasten Pest Control to terminate the termites. Their process and warantee are the same but half the cost. They will commit mass termicide this week.

The roof repair is another big issue. The first bid I got was way out of line, so I'm getting another. Again from a local business. I'm a big believer in keeping your money local when possible. When I got into the attic to check its condition, I found a couple of a surprises. First- clean and dry except in one little spot. Second- the roof was partially constructed with recycled BURNED wood! That's right- wood from the 1910 fire that destroyed the church the first time! The roof joists are fine; ceiling joinsts-fine; ridgeline- no problem. Braces- all burned...but interestingly not dropping any carbon in the attic. Maybe they are "flame hardened".

We also undovered some buried steps...six of them...under 14 inches of dirt. I really think there has been little to no maintenance for many years. I'll post some more pics of all this tomorrow.