Demolition...

So, first comes the part of any project that my DH is best at (and that I have to admit I enjoy as well)... taking stuff apart. The bad thing about this demo project, however, is that with each new piece removed came more realization of what a big project we'd bitten off...

First, we took the siding off the bowed wall. We weren't really clear what we were looking at after the first piece. It seemed like there was nothing really holding up the wall on the outside...

Here the propane fridge is still in the trailer, and you can see that there are spaces where the structural pieces just don't attach to anything. As we went further, we began to theorize that the propane fridge might be at the heart of all this trouble...



That bermuda grass was more prevalent than we originally thought. Maybe it was heading for the light near the windows and the roof???





It kinda looks like this side of the trailer had been subjected to some sort of impact - all of the wood is shoved toward the passenger's side...


The original water tank - it seems fine, but it's pretty rusty. It's designed to be pressurized with a bicycle pump (essentially). It's also pretty heavy. We might upgrade this to a plasic tank with a electric pump.


At first glance, the header board looked pretty intact, however this photo illustrates some of the evidence that this wall has been removed before. It was sealed with silicone - not really the best material for this application and definitely not what came from the factory.


The horizontal piece you see here is the only piece of wood that runs the length of the trailer between the header and (what should have been) the skirt board. It isn't attached on either end, so everything attached to it is really just floating. This photo also shows why the windows leaked - there was nothing between the glass and the wood at all...


Here's that same board on the other side of the trailer. Not much to hold those cabinets up...


Then, as we continued to probe, the whole "header" board came from together. It did't come out, but the water that had leaked in from the bad sealing at the roofilne had caused the plywood to delaminate. That's some of it down on the ground where it fell all on it's own...


The corner, now with a lot less wood - indicating even more "floating" wall construction.


The inside, now that the cabinets, flooring and outer siding have been removed. Yeah, this is looking more promising all the time. The floor, however, seems to be very solid. That's at least somewhere to start.


One last photo - this one from inside looking at the gap between the floor and the exterior siding at the back of the trailer. This looks, again, like it might be the result of the impact on that right side. Or, it could just be another sign that we are looking at rebuilding this whole blinking trailer...