Good Bones; Bad Damage

Have 5 customer houses in right now.  This little baby came in for some minor rehab work:

Needs a little love

A well-loved childhood house that seemed to just need a little sprucing up on the surface.  Customer wanted a general clean-up, missing doors/windows reinstalled, railings replaced, maybe some fresh paint on porch, and interior papers removed/replaced.

Missing door is inside house

Rug needs a vacuuming or replacement!

You can tell exactly where the rug was in this room

So at first it seemed like the work was all cosmetic alterations...until we noticed some "high character" shingles on the porch roof:

Those wavy rows add character to the house, right?

Add the noticeable discoloration on the siding under the window and we knew there was a previous water damage issue happening.  A glance under the porch revealed more damage:

Window is popping off the house

With buckling siding and windows being pushed away from the structure thanks to the swelled wood and brittle siding, this rehab project just went to a whole other level.  The bare bones of the structure was solid though so we spent yesterday starting the clean-up, disinfecting, and removing the rotting areas:

Left window is cleaned, right window still dirty

As you can see in the photo above, a good scrubbing with a toothbrush helped the window mullions: you can tell the difference between the left side and right side!

Porch floor was blue, not gray!  Who knew!

Even the floors benefited from a good scrubbing:

So much better!

Small chips and holes remain, but if the customer can live with the imperfections and wants to save on rehab costs, we might be able to just poly these floors!  They may have another few years of life in them after the scrubbing!

Chip along the front edge of the house

Hole at the bottom of the stair

This large chip isn't as noticeable thanks to stain underneath

Next I tackled the porch, ripping away all the rotted wood -- most of it just fell apart or splintered apart as I grasped it.  As I got closer to the "good wood" I used my handy I-drill to make a clean cut. (I love my oscillating I-drill!)

Pile of rotted porch roof wood

Some remaining mildew/rot on the house

There is still some remaining dry rot/mildew on the house that we will sand off and cover with KillZ to stop the mold from growing and seal it up tight!  And, yes, taking off the siding revealed the round wires that had been hidden underneath.  But on the interior it appears as though they were cut out/off many years ago.

In progress

So rotted, dilapidated porch roof has been removed and we will create a new one later next week.  (Got to fix up the siding and paint first.)

On it's way to repair

New siding has been cut to fit.  Needs paint and to be glued back on before porch can be reconstructed.  Amazing what 3 hours worth of work can do: this baby is well on it's way to being brought back to life!