"Timber!"

I think Brandon waited until my friend and I finished off a bottle of wine before he suggested to me that the stairwell be cut off using a chainsaw.  A chainsaw, in the house?!  I was feeling pretty good about the house progress, the good company and the tasty food, and about life in general.  Stairs in the way?  Who wants to go upstairs anyway? Do it!

For the second weekend in a row, our friends came out to the house to help with the floor. What would we do without them? I don't know if we would have the courage to tackle aspects of this project without the encouragement and support.  Not to mention expert chainsaw skills!

As you can see in the photo above, the stairs were in the way when leveling the floor.  The stairs were crooked too, since the floor was sloping where they rested, and the treads are too short for our feet anyway.  I'm glad they are off and the floor is level.  Now we get to learn about stair building!  Those termites are really helping us get an education in carpentry. 

One interesting thing about working on the bones of the house is that I feel like we are getting to know this house intimately.  As in, we're looking at and working on it's underside!  Not that I don't have a general idea of what the underbelly of my current home is like, but this is some close up personal work. 

While we have the floor boards up, we used the garden sprayer to soak the floor joists with some Timbor, which is a not too toxic termite insecticide.  It's made of borax, and also helps prevent fungus.  I appreciate all the opportunities for new work experiences that the termites have allowed us, such as wall removal, floor leveling, and stair chainsawing, but I wouldn't mind if they didn't return to teach us more. 

 

We feasted on delicious chips and homemade salsa, guacamole, tomato soup, oat bread, and fresh from the garden asparagus grilled with steaks from a local cow and some kabob peppers and mushrooms.  We washed it all down with coffee and some of my still too young black berry wine, which was nearly drinkable when mixed with a can of generic soda.  For some reason, like most of my homemade wine, the second half of the bottle always tastes better.  If this is what this project will be like, I'm looking forward to many more great work days at the house.  Considering how much work needs to be done, I don't think I will be disappointed!