Workroom: the termite damage & future plans

Not major major work but still needs repair before I can put the window sill on properly. The things you find when you open a wall in a 60 year old building…I’m not going to share all the bad & the ugly but here is one shot:

I have the sewing machines in the way preventing a good phtos right now but down in the far corner is the worst currently visible damage. And yes that is reed glass for privacy. The neighbors don’t have to watch me work and I can still get window light in there. I’ll probably put up draperies but they will be open during the day.

For safety reasons the entire wall is going to be taken off the all termite damaged boards repaired and the exterior checked for water-tightness to protect the newly run electrical lines. While I have it open, insulation will be installed. I wanted to do this myself but taking another weekend off work isn’t going to cut it. On Monday, the wall should get ripped of and hopefully done in one day. I’ll be doing client meetings in the house that day unfortunately. Fortunately the house is nice to meet in (and before my house was my workroom)!

The workroom started with only two outlets on one wall so the entire electricity has to be re-run through the ceiling studs. If I had known I’d be doing walls I’d have tried to coordinate those two projects and run them cleanly in the wall. As is, I’m stuck with ugly wire until I finish off the ceiling. That will be more like a 5-10 year plan at this point.

Boy houses eat up your life. I’m loving it though. Maybe I’ll put up a few quick posts on the house progress too. Plumbing stuff, re-oiling wood, & researching and learning more about 1920-30s houses etc… All fun projects but not sewing pretties I’m sad to say. I’ll take some photos of the workroom “as is” today. Moving in is just as much work as sewing but I’m not finding inventorying items as satisfying as sewing. Nope, I’m just not. But the moving and organizing is pretty rewarding work in itself.