The First Steps

As I have said before when I first began this endeavor I thought it would just be repairing some damage, sprucing up a bit, moving in, and all will be peachy. Well no, not exactly. A very wise woman told me that when you work on a house remember two things:
1. It will cost you twice as much as you think.
2. It will take twice a long as you suspect.

I think she might be right. I am a computer guy by trade so I am not unused to a project getting bigger more costly over time. So I am no stranger to projects running out of control. At this has not been the case thus far but I am very wary of the runaway project.

There are two major concerns that I had originally felt were the most pressing, they were the leak in the kitchen and the subsequent dry rot in the basement below and the roof.

The Kitchen leak.
It looks like it he basement was not in as bad shape that it appeared at first. My brother turning of the water allowed the wood to try. There was also some excellent weather in the area that aided in the effort.

The roof
I was planning to replace it in the first place, therefore it was a known factor and did not worry me to much outside of the cost. I was not, however, planning to get on the roof and work on it myself. Roofs are best left to professionals. Although the roof is not high off the ground and the pitch is manageable, it is just high enough to break limbs and for me to possibly die. I made the executive decision to let someone else take the risk.

After establishing what needed to be addressed most urgently, I was feeling pretty good about the project. I decided to prepare the basement for a general contractor to take a look at the dry rot in the wall directly below the kitchen sink that had been dripping.

The intention of preparing the area is to remove the drywall and strip the walls down to the studs. I did it because when I speak to the contractor I did not want to leave anything to interpretation so I made the area clear so when they came to examine it they could get a good look at the overall problem.