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Well, as you can see, the roof was much worse than we had thought. Because of the way the patches had been put on the roof, moisture was being held between the decking and exterior surfaces. This caused the slow decay of the decking from the top side and is why the roof looked much better from inside the attic! There are several roof joists that are completly rotted through and the top of the outside wall is gone!
This isn't the best picture in the world, but it shows the new decking on what was the Chapel floor. The floor in this corner of the house (the same corner where that big rock we chisled is), was so far gone we took up half of it to replace the joists and re-attach the floor to the walls! We had to temporarily move the Chapel into someones bedroom for a while, until all this work is completed. Worship and prayer go on, no matter where,... or how messy!
Thank God for tounge and groove, hardwood paneling! That was the only thing holding this wall together, literelly!! You can see we put in a whole new window frame and wall studs on either side. The dark brown areas to the right of the window frame is actually the back of the oak paneling in the Chapel. This poor room was ready to fall off the house if it weren't for whoever installed that paneling so many years ago!
Well, after five days, in the hottest time he've had around here in a while, the rock is gone! Or at least the part that's in our way! Four days on an electric jackhammer and 16 hours on a compressor-driven, 100 pound air-hammer, and we have a drainage ditch! I NEVER want to do THAT again!! But now the house is safe from the water run-off and settling debris (leaves, limbs, etc.)from the mountain behind us. On to the next phase.
This view really shows some of what we were up against,... or what was up against us! The trench straight ahead had to be dug to allow the installation of drain tile (a pipe that runs around the house, from uphill side to downhill side, to divert water away from the foundation). No drain tile was ever installed here and water pours into the downstair (the red part of the house at the bottom left, by the trench) when it rains a lot.
Those cement 'pads' in front of the doorway are called footers. Something that the original builders of the old staircase failed to install. This caused the old, cement stairs to pull away from the house and allowed water to pour in downstairs. This allowed erosion, which made the stairs pull away more.... well, you get the picture! These stairs went up to the area behind the house you've seen before.
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