Bamboo is disappearing!

Machete!

There was a lot going on today.  First item on the list – the bamboo is being removed!  Ed said that he could have the yard cleared of bamboo, branches, firewood, etc for $800.  He had a couple of guys out today taking care of business.  I expected them to have chainsaws to cut the bamboo into smaller pieces… instead they had machetes.  Looks like a lot of work!  The loaded about half of the bamboo into this little cart.  It was really quite an impressive sight.

All this was cut and loaded by hand

Bamboo removal

Brick is almost completely cut through

While the bamboo was being removed outside Ed was inside removing our walls.  The hole for the french doors is almost complete.  They removed the interior wall layers – plaster, wallboard, studs, and cinderblocks.  All that remains is the outer layer of brick.  They cut through the brick on all sides but the bottom.  Tomorrow they will knock that out and stick the doors in.  To support the weight of the wall/roof above the doors they put in a steel lentil and a large concrete beam.

those wooden beams are temporarily holding up the ceiling in this room

The concrete beam used to support everything

In the basement of the barn (where Jingles used to live…) we found a number of old doors.  We’ve been working on fixing them up for use in the house.  I think they’ve been out in the barn for a long time – the wood has expanded to a point where most of the doors no longer fit in the door frames.  Not really sure how to fix that.  Maybe they’ll shrink back down?

Old door, very dirty

Hard to see in this photo, but the door has a really nice wood grain

FYI, you can click on any of the photos to view larger versions.