Phase III?

Today Mom and I braved Walmart to tackle Easter shopping before it's too late. I am so glad we went together - because if I had tried that alone it would have been horrible. As it turned out I actually had a good time... but I'm completely exhausted now.

I came home to the news that a new phase of our home repair journey will begin a lot sooner than I expected: Tomorrow they will begin ripping up stuff upstairs. I don't know if this is technically Phase III or if this is actually Phase IV being started a bit out-of-order or what... But it's most definitely a phase of some type.

Yes - our original plan was to complete at least one of the previous phases -- Phase I or Phase II (take your pick) before we started anything else... But when you find a willing crew it's really difficult to tell them to 'hold off for a while' when you have been waiting to get something done for 19 months.

To mark this occasion, Dave thought it appropriate for me to take a few 'before' pictures for the project. Work commences at 9 am, April 6th.

The wall. This is where Mom, my husband, our two boys, the toddler, our infant, and I spent the worst part of Hurricane Katrina -- on the floor in that narrow strip between the stair rail and that wall. I hate that wall.

This is the room behind the wall. It's a brownish box with damaged ceilings, horrific lighting, and stained berber carpet.

A slightly different angle in the room. The large wall on the right is the other side of the wall that I hate - and it must be altered.

Same room looking the other way - you can actually see water stains in the carpet in this one. Yay! The prominent wall with door will be relocated as part of this project. An unfinished bathroom lurks on the other side of that wall... and it is our hope to move the wall out into this room a bit, enlarge the unfinished bathroom in the process, and normalize the twisty-turny shape of the bigger room a bit.

Here is what we want to accomplish: we must replace rotten sheathing in the roof directly above this room. We must remove and replace moldy insulation above this room. We must remove and replace damaged sheetrock in the ceiling of this room - and we must replace the damaged flooring and light fixtures in this room.

While we're at it... We're going to install skylights where the roof sheathing and ceiling is already damaged... and we'll be moving walls around now -- before the floors are repaired and while we all still have our drywalling skills fresh and honed. That, in a nutshell, describes this weekend's project.

I'll be back with pictures as they become available.