Nesting Overdrive

Back in July, Rick and I decided to get a good jump start on getting the baby's room together. August is always very stressful for me trying to get my classroom ready for the school year, along with all the other prep work that needs to be done, so I really wanted things in order at our house. We had everything ready and thought it would be a simple project of painting, getting the carpets cleaned, and putting together all the little details. Boy, were we wrong!

As Rick began pulling off the baseboard, he noticed some black stuff at the bottom of the wall. We realized behind that area is our chimney, and we were worried that it might be soot, so he started to tear away that wall. Behind there we found rotten beams, crumbling boards, and insulation that was mostly disintegrated. Looking further we saw that the roofing around the chimney and part of the siding was also rotting. We weren't sure if it was water damage, smoke damage or a combination of the two. The chimney people came for an inspection. Luckily it was not a fire hazard and all the damage was from water leaking, but the chimney needed to be tuckpointed for the bargain price of $1000. GASP!

First look at the damage

Daylight spilling in where the siding was rotting

The giant hole while everything was being repaired - you can see our neighbor's house

After that was repaired, Rick and his dad worked hard to replace all the damaged areas. Thank goodness they were able to do it themselves, because I can't imagine how much it would have cost to pay someone to fix all of that! Rick was then able to paint the room, and we finally finished all the details last weekend. The joys of home ownership!

The area behind the changing table is where the large hole had been