Dash Sheetrock

That's my new nickname. Remember that hapless Hollywood movie star character named Dash Riprock from the old Beverly Hillbillies show? I used to love that show, even today it still has it's hilarious moments. I always have to laugh whenever I hear that name too, Dash Riprock, a very goofy name . Except, I don't feel like a movie star! All last week I've been tearing the lower half of all the damaged walls out of the house, mostly sheetrock and paneling in some of the rooms. First you have to pry all the moldings and trim away and pull all of those nails. The paneling goes from floor to ceiling though.

About half of it is done now, and what a dirty, nasty, dusty job it is. The stuff was very moldy (which was killed by spraying a bleach and water mixture on it) and the part that was wet crumbles pretty easily but further up near the center of the wall it's pretty hard to pull out. After you get that stuff down then you have to pull out every individual nail that was holding it to the studs in the wall. And then after that you have to haul it all out to the curb in front of the house. A major pain in the ass!

Click images for larger.

Above: Living Room

Above: Front Hallway

Above: Downstairs Bedroom

Above: View from the kitchen, normally you can't see the bathroom toilet from the kitchen area but you can now! LOL

The way things are going I'll estimate that it will take as much as a year to get the house back in order. We've had surveyers come out to check on the how much the house has sunken into the ground as a result of the huge tree that was leaning on the back wall and the ground being flooded and saturated. The house has sunk quite a bit to the rear, you can actually see it very easily and when you walk thru the main hallway from front to rear it is immediately noticeable that you are going uphill!

The entire slab will have to be raised as much as 3 feet to put it above the new flood plane that they have set for our area and that will have to be completed before all of the interior walls and insulation and kitchen cabinets are replaced. This is going to be a major reconstruction of the entire lower floor of the house. Things are gonna be crazy around here for a long time, what a life changing event Katrina has become. I know I'll be glad when it's all over.