Surprise! Hole in the wall!

 Working on the living room, and decided to see how far the insect damage went. Rather than strip the trim, I'd resolved to just replace it. It's true 1" x 6.5" base board boards - nothing fancy - no molding, just a slight bevel at the top that isn't noticeable unless you're me. So I got out the tools and gave it a go.

The damage. This had been full of caulk until I hit it with heat and it turned to bubble gum on my scraper. It's been a while since I addressed this. Most of the wood in this section was hollow flakes between the chewed out cells.

I blew through the hollow section, yanked part of the board, and found what I'd suspected - The trim is original, and there had been plaster above (bits of plaster keys remained in the wall.) They replaced the plaster with drywall at some point, but didn't pull the trim and run the drywall behind it - they just stacked the drywall on top of the base board. And it seems like super thin drywall.

 

This base board is held on with square spikes - very rusty spikes. This stuff does not want to come off. It's not going to be as simple as "pull of old, insert new". It's going to be a challenge on how to fix the walls. Do I extend the drywall down? That would certainly make the room warmer, but it's going to add time I didn't factor in.

In other news, Bathroom Guy called - I'm #2 on his list, and he should be by to measure the living room windows at some point this week. (So exciting!)

Weekend trials

It started out with a vacation day, that then turned into only 80% of a vacation day, when a meeting got scheduled that I couldn't miss. Then it rolled into an order I placed online for materials to insulate my bee hives, only to show up to find out they let me order something they didn't have in stock. Then lots of driving, and getting really nothing accomplished with my vacation day, a day so precious to me because I don't get to dictate how my time is spend 5 days a week. The paycheck dictates how that time is spent.

But I got home to the  folk's, and after cooling off and eating dinner, Mom helped me construct some bee cosies. Or Bee-glos, if you will. Using nothing but 2" insulation board and a roll of Zip flashing tape, we came up with 4 snuggies for the bees for the winter.

A mock hive I built in the basement to test fit everything, and some of the board used for insulation.
The stuff is great (R13!) but is embedded with fiberglass, which made it a pain to work with.

Our stack of completed bee cosies, waiting to go on the hives. The fronts swing open so I can slip them over the backs and then duct tape it shut.
It was too wet for me to do this past weekend. Fingers crossed for this week.

Sunday dawned bight and cheerful. Which was nice, but unexpected. I thought it was going to rain all day like Saturday, and had so planned to work on one of Ian's windows in the basement. If the sun was going to be out, there was no way I was spending all day in the basement. After cleaning and tidying, the cat barfing on the carpet for the 43rd billion time, and finding a mummified snake behind the couch in a moth glue trap*, I thought, you know what? It's time for this living room carpet to go. I need to know what is going on in here and how things are getting in.

*Yup, you read that right. Loud words were said. A lot. For a while. Snakes can live in the basement in the winter, they can live in the yard all year round, but they Can Not live in my living space. A very distinct line has been crossed and interlopers will not be tolerated. I have to refinish this room to get rid of any access points.

I get it. Carpets are warmer. They deaden sound.
But I just can't get around having covered up this.

I have to cut it out in strips - Move some stuff, then cut out more strips. Everything could come out but the couch. Not sure how I'd ever manage getting the floor refinished, though I'd really like to. Hrm.

They aren't in the worst, or best shape. The carpet padding was disintegrating, and particles in it had started to melt and adhere to the floor. This had happened to a lesser extent in the office. Some of it
scrubbed off.

This image is very kind, and where I stopped for the night. I had to cut out a notch for the floor register (10x14") so it would sit down properly.

Here's a shot of the odd wear/fading and finish/carpet padding buildup.

They do clean up pretty nicely. I almost wonder if I sanded them lightly with the orbital and hit it with some oil if it would work. It feels like hard maple.

Nice bonus is that I get back almost an inch of vertical space! You don't think an inch is much, but it does feel like it makes a difference.

One of two access points. This is the gap between the floor and wall trim. It was behind that hard to see trim in the foreground.. and much of it had been stuffed with rope caulk.

The more likely access point. Ancient insect damage that comes right up from the sill into the trim. Once upon a time it had been filled with caulk until I started stripping it. Now it's just all going to get removed and replaced.

I'm about 2/3 done removing the carpet. And I know that I'm doing this backwards - I should have fixed and painted the walls and ceiling first while the carpet that I didn't care about was down. But I needed to do something that was immediate, apparent, and felt like a victory. Revealing this floor ticked those boxes, and allowed me to do something that wasn't in the dark basement.