Nothing Left, Well Almost Nothing

Todd and Mike helped me with the last two walls. It was a nice day to work, no rain in sight. We completely removed the actual house structure. The last remnant is the enclosed patio attached to the now removed house. I'm keeping some old wood in here that I want to reuse.

Mark stopped by to see how things were going. He was surprised to see how much was done. I was actually about to leave for the dump when he showed up. He was in the middle of running errands so he left after just a few minutes.

Got Up Early To Beat The Rain

I didn't get too much accomplished today because of the rain. I knew it was coming so I got up early. There was a lot of wood uncovered so I got out the plastic and spread it over it. There was also a lot of debris on the slab that would've been a nasty mess to clean up if it got wet so I picked it all up and disposed of it.

Just The Front

I removed all the floor t&g planks, joists, and wall on the back half of the house. All that remains is the front half. I did leave the west wall on the back up. I did this for a couple of reasons, mostly to prevent alleyway lookyloos. I also took the large debris pile in the yard to the dump. This was the biggest load so far. I actually had to pull over once to even out the load. It was causing the trailer to tip to one side and rub on the tire. Once at the dump I had to wait in line for about a 25 minutes. It's a popular place on Saturdays particularly at this time of day (noon thirty).

Whoa.. A Ferris Wheel!

Today was the second day of the Glendale Chocolate Affaire. There were people everywhere. The event had a ferris wheel erected just 80 feet from the Blue Myrtle House. All day long I could hear the kids whoopin' and hollerin' on the rides. The smell of kettle corn was also heavy in the air. The traffic (foot and vehicle) started just before 10 o'clock and was really heavy at 3 o'clock when we stopped working on the house. I actually had to stop traffic on Myrtle Ave so Todd could back the Tahoe out of the driveway.

I started the day by myself pulling up the plywood that was screwed to the planks of the floor. The floor actually had three sub-surfaces. The first was what appeared to be redwood tongue/groove planks, then linoleum tile, then plywood, and finally more linoleum. The plywood was a bear to pop loose. It was held down with numerous 2 1/2 inch wood screws. I was unable to unscrew the screws because of all the adhesive from the linoleum. Mike showed up after I removed about 4 4x8 pieces. I was sweating like crazy. He brought with him a big steel wrecking/pry bar about 4 feet long. This made the job way easier. I finished the rest of the popping loose in a fraction of the time.

I went home for lunch while Mike continued working. After lunch Todd came back to the BMH with me and we started pulling loose the redwood tongue/groove planks. I won't be able to use them again as flooring, so I plan to do with them the same as the redwood clapboard siding; trim and plane. I can't bring myself to throw away redwood for some reason, or oak for that matter.

Rose, Beth, Austin, Kayleigh, and a friend of Kayleigh's stopped by. They were all at the Chocolate Affaire. Austin stayed for awhile and helped Mike pull nails from the planks, and help me store the nail-less planks.

Oh yeah, I found a 1938 Arizona Chauffeur badge and a 1953 wheat penny! I keep hoping and praying I'll find something that'll finance the rebuild;) You listening St. Anthony?