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?

Timeout To Oragnize

Everything is pretty damp at the Blue Myrtle House so I took the time to catch up on organizing all the material I want to keep. Mike came down and helped me out. The pile of debris on the side yard is a little bigger now. I plan on going the dump next Saturday. I hauled home another load of boards full of nails.

Lots of Rain

The weatherman said there was going to be a lot of rain this week. He was right. On Sunday I bought some rolls of plastic to cover the front part of the house. I got it all stapled down and secured before the rain came. When the rain did come it was really heavy and I worried about all the water that was accumulating on top of the first story. I drove down on Thursday to see how the house was holding up, pun intended. It was doing fine although some water was leaking in.

In the meantime I got to work pulling out nails. It took me about 8 hours to get them all out. I think I'm going to trim up all the redwood clapboard siding instead of just stripping the paint off and reusing it on a shed. I got the idea of making it into 3/8 x 5 inch planks of varying lengths and using as an interior wall/ceiling covering. I think it will look real nice once it's planed, sanded, and stained.

From January 2010

Termite Damage

I started on the bottom back of the house today. As you can see from the video below not much was holding up the back corner of the house. I got a lot done today. I gutted most of the interior walls and removed the clapboard siding from one side and the back of the house. I also removed the studs from the east side of the back.

Instead of going to the dump this week I started a pile of debris in the side yard. I plan to go to the dump at a later date. I needed the trailer to take home a load of boards I want to keep. I'm taking them home to remove the nails in the comfort of my garage. It's suppose to rain this week so I figured I could get something done while it does. I plan to bring the boards back after the nails are removed.

From January 2010

No Mo Second Flo

The second floor is completely gone now. I got the last couple of walls removed yesterday. Todd and Alec helped me lower the two remaining widows today. I was able to extract them from the walls, but they were too heavy to lower to the ground by myself.

From January 2010

Happy New Year | 2010!

I've had lots of help in the last couple of weeks. The Saturday after Christmas my brother Jim and nephew Trevor came down to help fill the trailer and pull some nails. The three of us (Trevor) decided since the trailer was full we might as well take it to the landfill. Trev got a splinter while unloading at the dump and we got stuck waiting for a train on the way back.

My father-in-law Mike came down on two separate occasions, once with Jim and Trevor, and once with Todd and Alec. Todd and Alec along with their grandpa helped me tear down the walls of the second floor. We filled up the trailer again and removed several windows and the top door. As you can tell from the pictures we nearly got the top floor completely removed.

Merry Christmas | 2009

Tomorrow is Christmas but I took advantage of my day off today to make a trip to the dump. Yep that's right I went to the dump on Christmas Eve day. Actually I was going to go by the Cottage Garden next door to the Blue Myrtle House and get a last minute Christmas gift. They weren't open yet so I decided to take the trailer Todd and I filled up on Saturday and empty it. The dump was only open a half day so I had to get there by noon. Since I've mentioned the dump so many times I figured I'd put a picture of it on for you. I took it with my phone so it's not that great.

From December 2009

Rain Forecasted

The weatherman said it was going to storm this afternoon and by all indications it looked like he was going to be right. I left the Blue Myrtle House in a mess on Saturday and the trailer was uncovered too. I took off from work early so I could clean up the debris and cover the trailer before the rain got here. I stopped by home to change clothes, while there Todd offered to help me with the work I needed to do on Myrtle. We picked up all the debris from Saturday and tossed it into the trailer. We filled the trailer then covered it. It took us about an hour to get everything done. It started to rain just as we were leaving.

Almost Topless

The entire roof is nearly off. I worked most of the day clearing debris from the second level. It sure piles up fast. I cleaned up the alley side of the house. I didn't mention in the last post about the big sewer pipe we pulled off the side of the house. There are, or were 2 big sewer pipes that ran/run up the side of the house. The only thing holding one of the pipes in place was the hole it was fished through in the roof. One still remains and is actually attached to the side of the house. You can kinda see the big pipes going up the side of the house in the picture below, click on it to enlarge. I don't know what they are made of but they are very heavy. Mark held the pipe in place and tied a rope around the top. I went to the ground and pulled the rope in the direction we wanted the pipe to fall. Had it fell on its own it would have probably smashed the white picket fence along the alley.

Today I freed the last remaining portion of the roof from the top plates of the walls. This was another great video moment missed. When I cut the last remaining support it came down with a crash within the interior of the house. Man was it loud! I'm pleasantly surprised how sturdy this house is considering its condition. After I pulled off the metal sheathing, old asphalt shingles, and most of the planks from the fallen section I called it quits. I can't remember if I mentioned there was a layer of asphalt shingles under the metal sheathing or not in a previous post. It's actually rolled asphalt and it is very dried out and crumbly. What you see me covered in is that stuff. It's a good thing it doesn't snow here or else this roof woulda collapsed under the weight years ago.

From June 2009