We Finished It!

I kind of left you hanging, didn’t I.

In my defense, we were exhausted after we finished the project, and you know how time is: it keeps on marching even when we say, “Enough of this infernal marching! I’m taking a break.”

So that’s my excuse.

However, I didn’t want to leave you hanging forever.

My last post about this project ended with this photo.

 

After that, we pulled down the wall studs and salvaged most of the 2×4’s.

As you can see, we also pulled down the roof and slowly but surely dismantled it.

As always, safety is our number one priority, so we used ropes and mechanical power (rather than human muscle) to take apart anything that would put one of crew members in harm’s way.

After the roof was completely gone, we focused on removing the floors and floor joists.

We also salvaged most of the old, massive beams.

Unfortunately, some were burnt.  Although they were still incredibly heavy, they were too far gone to save.

Fortunately, most of the old framing was not charred.

During the wood extraction process, we were also knocking down the brick piers (even this very precarious one) and we took  several loads of old brick home with us.

During this entire process, I was removing nails from boards, loading brick into our trailer, or cleaning up the jobsite.

Concerning the latter, one of the things I discovered while on trash duty was this old label from one of the original cedar shake shingles.

“NEVEROT”  the label proclaims.  I can attest that most of the shingles were not rotted.

When it comes to salvaging an old home, the final cleanup is one of my least favorite things to do.  It has to be done, though. While the guys concentrate on dismantling and loading wood much too heavy for me to lift, I’m concentrating on bagging up debris that has scattered throughout the deconstruction process.

We pride ourselves on leaving behind a very clean lot.

This is what was left behind of Pecan Cottage when we departed the last day.

This is what remains of the first house we tackled, Pin Oak Cottage.

I’ll end with the before’s and after’s: