Greetings!
Work continues with painting inside the lighthouse.
We ran into a problem in the winter kitchen. We were aware that behind the counter on the wall at the window there were holes in the wainscoting. We were not aware how extensive the problem was until Chuck started exploring by removing a lot of wainscoting. The axiom when working on an old building like our 1868 lighthouse is expect the unexpected. The plaster behind the wainscoting had deteriorated badly and the lathe and furring strips were pretty much rotted away. We suspect that moisture coming up between the wall and brick behind it caused the problem. The moisture apparently came up from the crawl space through a gap between the subfloor and brick wall.
Every problem has a solution. After much thought, head scratching and consultation with our do it all contractor Mike Laaksonen we arrived at a plan of attack. After we saw how bad the damage was in the extensive area Chuck opened up we decided to remove all the wainscoting on that wall. We did not want to leave a possibility of unseen damage. The plaster, lathe and furring strips above the wainscoting appear to be sound. By removing everything at the bottom of the wall we can seal the gap between the subfloor and brick along the entire extent of the wall and eliminate future moisture issues. Mike will then install rigid foam in the open area, then OSB with new wainscoting on top of the OSB. Yesterday he said he could start on that tomorrow Wednesday Apr 23.
Work is moving along on the barn and summer kitchen. The foundations had a vapor barrier installed on top of the gravel fill. Next came solid rigid insulation and rebar. The barn had electrical connections put in place for in-floor outlets and a conduit to the far side of the foundation for the future well. Jude is planning on pouring the foundation floor slabs Thursday.
Ed