Termites!

We've been a bit lackadaisical in our efforts to post lately, mostly due to the missing usb cable for our camera. One which Gravy chewed up and the replacement, which has gone missing.
It was a bit sickening opening up the walls and being greated by nearly 100 years of termite excrement, but I guess I would rather it not reside in my walls any longer. I removed the areas where there was major damage and replaced boards or "sistered" in boards next to any boards that looked questionable. It's deflating to spend hours tearing open walls only to find more work, but it's necessary and the house will be stronger for all of the work.
Nothing special here, just removing damaged wood with saws and/or chisels and replacing with new wood, but I did get the chance to plug some more holes with caulk or "Great Stuff".
There was no insulation in the "sun room", so we put up a vapor barrier with tar paper and prepared the walls for insulation as well.

oops

The shower fiasco (part2)

I returned to my shower fiasco with the problem of building up enough space between the studs and where the new tile should meet with the old tile. I had some 1/4" backerboard, which had been purchased from the scraps section at Home Depot for a different purpose. But since I changed my mind how we would handle the concrete pier in the kitchen I had this backerboard laying around. I cut the backerboard into strips to fit the width of the shower. However since there used to be about an inch and a half of plaster on the wall, I had to figure out a way to make the 1/4" backerboard meet with the old tile. I ended up cutting shims from an old pine stud that was still in good condition. With some help from brother (aka Gladiator) we cut them at full 1" blocks and nailed them to the studs, after putting in some tar paper for a moisture barrier of course.



After double nailing each shim to the studs, I screwed the backerboad into the shims. You might be able to see at the bottom there is a strip that kicks out a little bit. I tried to get fancy and have some angled tiles at the bottom to encourage the water to drain towards the old floor. In the end the angle wasn't enough and had to use more caulk than I would have liked between the last row of new tiles and the old tiles. But as Grandpa Stanley says: "Caulk is the best carpenter on the job".
finally the tiling began. At the advice of a Home Depot tiling video I decided to use a batton positioned at the center of my tile wall and tile up from there. We ended up spending almost a hundred bucks for the tools and tiles and supplies. Tiles, trowel, grout float, grout, mortar, caulk, spacers, fiberglass tape, etc...We plan on working out a realistic cost of total remodel with and without out puchase of tools and supplies. After taping and mortaring all of the joints in the backerboard, I tile up to the top. Luckily brother let me borrow the wet saw, which made cutting the handle hole much easier.
After removing the batton I tiled down to the floor using tape to keep the tiles from sliding down. Yes this tape was necessary as I quickly found out. Tiling down is completly different than tiling up. As Radiohead said: "he used to do surgery for girls in the eighties, but gravity always wins".
Finally the whole wall was grouted and caulked. Finished pictures coming soon...
Update: The finished shower wall: