When I last left you, the east walls, second story deck and ceilings over the kitchen and den had been completely removed and rebuilt due to rot which was due to both water intrusion and disastrously inept building practices in the original construction of the home in which the wall footings were basically at grade (instead of on concrete piers a minimum of six inches above) and had been wicking up water for years. They must have bought off the inspectors.
So next, Jerry's Kids (as we call the crew) had to remove a portion of the metal siding on the south wall just to make sure the rot on the east wall ended there.
So down came the rest of the decking along the widow's walk.
The replacement 26 foot 15" high glue-lam beam was delivered on Tuesday and jacked into place, and by yesterday the rebuilding of this section of the house was complete. That freed the Kids to start work on the North wall, and of course we had the same problem there that we had on the east wall: the wall footings were essentially buried and wood was sitting at grade in constant contact with moisture.
So today the north wall came down. The trough you see in the above picture has been filled with rebar and six inches of above-grade concrete to support the new wall.
The only silver lining to this part, if indeed that's what you can call it, is that at little extra cost, since it's now unattached, we're going to be able to move the deck staircase over so that there are no obstructions to the new kitchen window (previously there wasn't a window onto the courtyard at all).
Mind you, all of this work basically concerns ONLY the east end of the house, and doesn't address what are going to be the same problems on the much larger west end which gets the direct brunt of winter storms off the Georgia Strait and where, for one, my office is. On the other side of this glass is where I spend too much time every day.
This could be the next to go. 
