I had gone back to work during this time and Amanda was still attending school during all of this. My work schedule is pretty tight the weeks that I work. I do little else. I commute and work 80 hours in 7 days so that leaves little time for anything besides sleep. I spent a lot of time (at work) that week researching the projects that we were facing such as wallpaper removal and laying floating laminate flooring. I watched a lot of DIY episodes just trying to learn, if nothing else, what not to do.
Amanda would spend her days at school and some of the time studying and doing homework. But when she didn't have her kids and had a few free minutes she would head over to the house to doing the single person jobs, such as cleaning toilets, bathtubs, kitchen cabinets, etc. At this point I will remind you that the hot water heater was not working nor the heat. It is January and cold. Amanda is so determined to work on this house that she brings her microwave from her house over to warm the water that she is using to clean so that her fingers didn't literally freeze. I'm telling you this woman is one determined person. If she says it can be done when you are saying it can't, I would suggest that you just move out of her way and start preparing yourself to say, "Perhaps I was mistaken. It can be done."
Every week when I would get off we had talked all week about what we were going to do first that we could hardly wait to get over there and tackle the jobs. The next job on our list was to to tear down the cyprus logs in the dining room and living room.
The contractor that came by gave us a little warning about a second beam that was in place above most of the logs. He said that it was not structural and therefore may have settled throughout the years. No problem. If it is not structural then we can work around that.
We decided to start in the dining room since, a) there were fewer logs and b) the beams on top were shorter. Also, there was the hideous wall paper that would have to come down in there and we would probably have to patch some dry wall after that, so no worries if we happen to do a little damage to the wall during the removal.
So, we have a few pry bars and a whole lot of excitement. We set to work on the first log. We start prying and prying and what do you know it we are able to get it loose with little to no damage to the wall and the beam seems to be still in place. A little victory dance was done and a few celebrity pictures taken. The first log is out the door and on the front lawn. Yay us!!
This wasn't going to be so bad. We would be tired because it didn't just pop off the wall but it was doable, and we were doing it. The wall behind them was plain sheetrock which didn't come as a surprise to us because when we took the wainscoating down in the bedroom it has already shown us that they probably didn't finish any drywall that wouldn't be showing. Makes sense, as a builder. As a renovator a little disappointing but we would just have to learn to do that before we paint.
We were ready to tackle the next log. We pulled and we pushed. We were prying it loose with all we had when it finally came free from the wall. Yay, again. We started pulling it out from under the beam and suddenly I realize that it isn't getting lighter. I look up and see that the beam is coming down with it. Yikes!!! "Put it back! Put it back!" I screamed. We shoved it back under the beam wedging the beam back to it resting place on top of the log.
This was one of the first of many times that we stopped and stared at the situation. At first, I kept thinking of how bad it could have been. But then I thought, but it wasn't. We saw it as it happened, made adjustments and averted danger. We can still do this. We just have to figure out what to do with those beams.
We had two choices. They stay and we figure out how to make them stay. Or they come down and we figure out how to deal with the hole behind them. We walked around the dining room and decided that they could come down and we would just patch the dry wall and it would be fine. We may need some help getting them down safely but it would be fine. Then we walked into the living room following the second beam all the way around the dining room into the living room. Taking them down seemed great until we saw this area.
We quickly realized that it would leave a gap above the brick on the fireplace as well as on the brick wall on the other side. Well, that was it. They would be more trouble coming down than it would be to figure out how to make them stay. Decision made, now how to do keep them up there. And I mean KEEP them up there. They would be there with no previous support with our kids walking under these 6x4 beams, slamming the doors and shooting nerf bullets "accidentally" into them. You never know there may even me a child hanging from them while one of us had her back turned. I wouldn't put it past these five kids.
After much scratching of heads and debating, we decided that they would have to be bolted to the beams above them. You know the ones that were structural and would not come down unless the house came down as well. So once again we were off to Lowe's to see if they had the right bolts and a drill bit. I had already decided that we probably would not find bolts large enough or long enough to work without countersinking the bolts. I was not too happy with the thought of having to try my drilling/countersinking skills for the first time on something that would be permanently in our house, but I would if it had to be done.
We actually found the perfect bolt for the job and they had just enough. Actually, they had two extra so we bought them too. Just in case. We could always bring them back if we didn't use them, or put them in as extras on the beam that we thought looked most tempting for hanging in the kids eyes.
Now to find a drill bit. I am sure that the contractor turned Lowe's employee had a great laugh at us when we explained what we were doing. Then we asked exactly how do you pick out a bit. He was VERY helpful with a little bit of concern in his eye. He even gave us the tip to measure how far we wanted to drill into the beams and put a piece of tape on the bit at that point so that we knew when to stop.
See, it's little things like that we NEEDED to know. And those types of trick only come with doing things like this a lot. I know things like that only they don't have anything to do with construction. They are more along the lines of: if you are baking a cake that will not be iced, such a bundt cake, powder your greased pan with powdered sugar instead of flour. The little bit that is left over on your cake will taste good instead of bland.
We headed home and for the next couple of hours we drilled and bolted our hearts out. The beams were now bolted in place so that the logs could come out. Back to work on the logs. We finished a few more but ran into a snag or two. As with most things, I skip the snags and keep moving if possible. So we left the one on the corner that had two HUGE nails into the beam above and came back later.
After thinking about it while removing a couple of other logs I decided I would tackle the saws all or reciprocating saw. No other tool, makes me quite as nervous, still. Well, no other tool that I will use....a chain saw scares the heck out of me but you will never see this little girl with one in her hands. I am strong but I don't pretend to be anywhere close to "man" strong. Men can control things with their hand strength that it takes my whole upper body strength to accomplish. And I would consider controlling a blade that is moving back and forth at a rapid pace an important thing to control. That being said I carefully, cut the nails free and got that log down as well.
And just in case you were thinking of building something using these type of cyprus logs as decor. I will just say that there were wrappers etc. in the back of more than one of these logs that had been hollowed out by little visitors. They make perfect little hiding places, so don't say I didn't warn you.
We were not quite finished when it was time for school to get out so we went to pick up the boys. (Amanda's were back with their dad.) We thought we would just toss out the idea that we could go over and let them see what we had done and maybe we could get another one or two down. They said yes and we did. With just one more hours work we had all of the logs down in one day, even with the beam falling set back.
I will say out of all of the renovation accomplishments this one ranks high on my list. It was challenging for just two women to take down and move all of the logs in one day. I think God knew we needed to gain some confidence because he knew what else was ahead.