We removed the siding on the front side of the 2 story part, and took the window out. This window will need to be rebuilt as it had quite a bit of rotten framing.

We also had to reinforce the framing around the window. We used treated lumber to prevent future rot. 

A view from inside…it’s very bright in the living room! It will be nice to close up all of those air gaps 🙂

This pictures captures how much we’ve rebuilt!!

Plywood going up, and building the scaffold!

Next will be putting the windows back, adding furring strips and then the siding can go back. We insulated from the inside.

The attic was next.

There was no shiplap on the inside of the attic, so when we removed the siding, it was all the way open. We added plywood, tar paper and furring strips. Most of the siding is primed and soon it can go back.

Before we put the plywood up on the front side, we slid 30 2x10x16’ joists up into the attic! We closed it up and then got to work installing all the new joists.

The 2×4 joists in the attic were not strong enough. The ceiling below was quite wavy, so we decided to sister them all with 2×10’s.

We also decided to move the attic ladder out of our bedroom to a more convenient location. It now comes up at the middle of the room, so we don’t hit our heads on the slope of the roof anymore when we go up there.

By using 2×10 joists instead of 2×4’s, it’s now strong enough to be a sleeping loft, if we ever want to turn it into that! For now, it will be storage and the kids play room!

Here it is with all new joists, and most of the walls are up.

We are mostly done with this for now. Soon we plan to lay hardwood flooring and finish the walls. We lost 6” of height by raising the floor, but it will be fine for kids. They are SO excited for this to be their play room! It reminds me of the Little House books 😊