On Thursday, the hole in the bathroom floor was finally patched. Where the jacuzzi tub was sunk in the floor is now solid and level. The plumbing drains and vents were also installed.
Friday was great fun. The rest of the chimney came down. The contractor a few years ago had removed the chimney to below the level of the second floor. That left approximately another 16 feet or so to go. Well… it went. With surgical precision. Yes, apparently surgical precision is possible with a sledgehammer– only one wall was opened up to gain access to the chimney and no other wall was damaged during the demolition.
The chimney: Here today...
...Gone tomorrow, er, today.
It’s a miracle this house never burned down
When the hallway ceiling was stripped, we became aware of the fact that there was inadequate support for the hallway above the stairs– just a couple of 2 x 4s. This was a relatively easy fix: a piece of angle iron would be inserted to support the structure. Today, in preparation for the repair, the wood trim– a piece of 1×4 stained pine– on the underside of the 2×4′s was removed revealing 2 surprises. The first surprise was the markings on the underside of the 2×4′s indicated the locations for studs. This means that there was originally a wall here, and the stairs were added later. The second surprise was the fact that this house never burned down. Not only was there electrical wiring tucked up between the trim and the 2×4′s, but there was also a junction point hidden here. Check this out:
Yet another example of how not to do wiring.
And this wasn’t the only one…. In another area, under similar circumstances was another wire with a similar junction point. In that case, the wires were just twisted together and taped without any kind of marrette. Scary stuff.
The first example, the one in the picture, had been abandoned a few years ago when I re-wired the second floor (it was the wire from the switch to the light at the top of the stairs). The second example– the somewhat more dangerous one– had been live up until two weeks ago when I killed the circuit for the renovation. Yikes.
I have to wonder at this point just how bad the wiring is in the addition. Even if we can’t find the funds to rebuild the addition as we are planning, I should probably consider cutting into some of the drywall to run new wiring and abandon everything the previous owner did….
