While Ginger oversees the demolition from above, the downstairs bathroom is completely gutted...after many unsuccess attempts to patch parts of it (I should know better by now!) ... 
I finally had to enlist some professional help (no not a psychologist, but that may not be such a bad idea!). I'm glad I did; Gary made framing out the kitchen look easy in a few hours!
Down in the cellar we found at least three more places where beams had been rotted or eaten out by insects...and repaired by some yahoo using bite-sized pieces of wood and a nail gun. These were replaced with double 2x8 studs...we can now put in heavy things like a refrigerator and a bathtub.
Well, we need to start on the bathroom but at $25.00 an hour, we'll see how far this goes.!
D
