Hey, there are termites in here!!

Discovery is half the fun.  And so far it's been a lot of fun.  We've discovered that beneath some of the sheetrock walls were vertical T&G boards.  Some were painted, some were left bare.  We don't know how long before they were covered, that's the forensics part and we're still working that out.  Also we discovered that there were two additional windows in the living room that were eliminated somewhere along the way.  We will probably restore those, as it will work well for the future use of the space as a retail shop (stained glass display).  Now we're uncovering the original flooring.  It was pine strip flooring and most of it spent it's entire career covered by carpet or by plywood - in other words, after it is sanded and finished, it will look gooood.  We've also started stripping the roof and have decided that we will restore the south side to its original wood shingles...well new wood shingles, but we'll duplicate the original rather than the updated version, which was twice covered with "asphalt" shingles - all without benefit of removal of the layer below.  Leaking over the years has resulted in considerable rot and creation of termite and ant habitat.  But that's no problem for a restoration carpenter.  Carol has been in doing demo for a few hours every day for a couple of weeks now - much of the progress we see is due to her tireless wielding of hammer and flatbar.  You Go Carol!

This is one of the board walls we found - you can see one section was painted a cool blue:

This pic shows the south wall with an old window opening (closed in) to the right.  We'll restore that to its original.

Paperwork Paperwork and more Paperwork

We've spent a lot of time getting various paperwork items in order...applications to both the Federal and State of NC Historic Preservation folks and building permits.  There is a lot of time and effort involved in those.  The historic applications ended up being a sheaf of paper too large for a regular manila envelope when it was finally ready to go out.  I haven't heard back from them yet, but I don't expect they'll find any problems.  There will be discussions, no doubt, as that is the nature of this type of project.  The building and development permits are finally OK'd as well.  If any of you have filled out the Ocracoke Development Ordinance Application, you will know what I mean when I say it is one of the most poorly constructed forms I've ever seen. It asks for the same information over and over, which is aggravating and it asks for much information which is not pertinent to certain types of projects.  Not the fault of the current enforcement guy...he's just asking for the form to be filled out.  but it is frustrating.

Now we're waiting for the ten day period that an ODO app must be posted publicly before the permit can actually be issued.   In NC, you can get a gun in a day, but it takes ten days to get a building permit.  !!  I understand the purpose is to allow any "aggrieved" neighbor an opportunity to file a complaint.  I understand, but it is an irony I can't let go by.