Bearing the load

When you spend a crapload of money on a new roof, you have a vested interest in keeping it on top of your house. So when we discovered we had a load-bearing wall, we called in reinforcements.  

 This wall

I posted a question on Facebook (I wonder if that'll still be around by the time you're reading this? It's all the rage now) asking for a referral to a contractor.  Somewhat enigmatically, my friend James said "Don Fisher! He's an artist!"  Now, this was a little confusing to me because I know Don is a literal artist—he's an actor.  But presumably James was referring to something construction-related. I dug a little deeper and got the idea he was a carpenter. When I called, he told me he's actually a licensed contractor and cabinet maker.  And due to a lucky turn of fate, he was also available!

Don came over about a week after our demo.  We chatted about the house for quite a while (so long that his wife texted something along the lines of, "Are you bidding on the job or DOING the job?"), and we decided to enlist him in our project. 

Our plan called for removing a window—it was too low for counter height.  This must have been the world's smallest eat-in kitchen.  So it was either replace the window or close it up and gain some wall space—in our case, a new place for the fridge.  We opted for more wall space.  When Don came over, he noticed that the other kitchen window—which had a bump-out of a few inches—appeared to have been leaking.   It needed to be replaced.

 We think it was the flashing that was leaking

So we encountered a bit more scope creep in our plans—a new window.  But the good news is that Don knows how to do a lot of things that (as was quickly becoming apparent) were well beyond our ability.  So we kept some of the tasks we are capable of completing ourselves.  In my case, painting—not impressive, I know—and in Lalo's case, moving the gas line and plumbing.  Yeah, that's right.  Skills, yo.