Construction Day

The hole in our wall is being fixed as I write. Well, it's being evaluated by pulling off all the siding and looking at what's underneath. It's not a pretty sight. After getting the plywood off, they immediately found an ant farm of moisture ants in the wall. Now they are removing as much as they can to see if there is any structural damage. Pictures to follow, when I get the batteries recharged on my camera.

So far they are a very professional gig. The gutter crew is coming a little later to replace the gutters in the back completely.

I wish the weather was like yesterday. It's overcast and drizzly today instead of sunny. I could definitely use some sun right now.

Update: The gutter dudes are coming tomorrow instead of today, as of the last update I heard from the main guy working on the wall at the moment. This apparently can change at any moment, so they might still arrive today, but I don't mind too much.

The guys taking the wall off are making a wonderful amount of noise, especially to somebody inside the house, which is acting as an echo chamber. It's really freakin' loud in here. They found more ants, including a whole section of wall that was basically one big nest. The damage was mostly minimal, but they are pulling off more siding to make sure the damage doesn't go further.

The guy whose job it was going to be to go under the house discovered that there is less than eight inches of clearance from the ground to the bottom of the floor in the section he would need to work in. They are going to have to do the work from above, because nobody could fit in that space AND work at the same time.

It appears that the critters weren't trying to get into the house to watch American Idol after all. They wanted at the tasty ants.

I'll post some pictures once Blogger stops acting up.

Update: The guy tried going down into the crawlspace, but there just wasn't enough room. So they are cutting out part of the hardwood floor to get at the damaged and ant-infested subfloor underneath. The sound is horrible, even the squirrels have noticed and are watching tensely. I'm depressed about losing some of the floor, but on the other hand, this will save us a lot of time and money down the road, if these guys can get rid of all the ants and water-damage.

Oh crap. They just pulled up that corner. I swear it looks like an anthill. NASTY. They are having to stop work every few seconds to vacuum up ants.