Fixing rotted floors and walls in a trailer

The original trailer roof *just* touched the exterior walls, as a result, when it would rain, the water would basically run down the walls instead of drip off to the ground.  This was especially a problem where we had windows rather than siding to deflect the water.  We’ve replaced walls under other windows and we really weren’t surprised by what we found under the carpet and paneling

Peeling up the carpet and padding:

 

 The rotted floor area is exposed: 

 The general nastiness under the window: 

 Prying up the carpet strips caused more damage, but on the plus side this was the easiest spot to remove them from  

 Pulling off the paneling revealed the rotted wall under the window: 

 Jon removed the insulation and put in new because this was entirely coated in mold.  Face masks were used for this entire project.  You can see that the wood stud along the bottom of the wall is rotted too.  Jon fixed that using pressure treated lumber.  The area, although moldy doesn’t seem to be wet.  A new roof was put on the house ~12 years ago and we think that all of this damage was created prior to that.  Hopefully after fixing these areas we won’t have any additional problems. 

Have you ever started a project only to find many more “projects” hidden within it?

 

Living Room Renovations

Originally our trailer was 75% carpeted.  The only rooms without carpet, the kitchen, mudroom, bathroom and pantry room.  That leaves wonderful carpeted areas like the dining room and the other bathroom.  Except carpet in the dining room and bathroom is anything BUT wonderful!  We got rid of the dining room carpet a couple of years ago and we’ve been saving to make some more changes to the rest of the house.  Between three animals, the mold problems that are inevitable in a trailer and my allergies, the carpet REALLY needed to go.  So we’re in the process. 

Here is our starting point:

 

 It doesn’t look too bad until you get close to it, so you’ll have to trust me that it was gross!

 

 

 But before we could start putting in the laminate floor we had to take care of the problems that were hiding under all that… like a rotten subfloor and wall…..

 More fun to come

2012 Catch up

It’s been a while, huh?  We’ve been working on catching up on all the neglected tasks that the wedding trumped this past summer/ fall.  We’re also settling into our new life as husband and wife and making our house even more of a home. 

 So what stuff have we accomplished since last blogging? 

• We’ve FINALLY cleaned up the gardens and put up the tomato cages and such. 
• We’ve increased the run area for the chickens and they have finally completed their molt cycle and grown back their feathers.  They look much prettier and we’re getting ~8-10 eggs a day (not bad for winter!).  They have become couch potatoes with the recent cold weather though.  They don’t like to go far from the coup. 
• We’ve cut down ~40 trees in our back yard to make it bigger and to set up a better spot for our greenhouse to be put up.
• We’re ripping out the old nasty carpet in our house and replacing it with laminate wood flooring.  The living room is complete so far and looks AMAZING.  We’re also doing a whole lot of repainting around the house. 
• There has been some canning activity in the form of broth and beans.
• We’ve spent lots of time with our cows and I’m happy to say that they actually like us now :)  Well they associate us with food anyway!

We’ve also got lots of exciting stuff yet to come and hopefully I’ll have pictures up to share soon. 

 Is your 2012 off to a good start??