It’s been six months since renovations started on the Rockaway house. Yeah, I thought I’d be finished within three. Although most of the big, nasty damage was dealt with immediately, I ignored the worst problem until recently.

The rear deck was built into the house without thought of water infiltration. One stair stringer was supported by the house with vinyl siding cut around it and caulking to fill gaps. Gutters on the second floor were not properly cut and pulled away from the siding. Both the first and second floor rear mudrooms had mold and wood rot.

It’s not that the problem was ignored so much as put off. The two rooms were gutted and the deck was repaired to a point months ago. The tough thing was figuring out what to do with those stairs that were part of the house. Just patch it up the way it was?

Nah. Here’s where I needed an experienced company to come in. This wasn’t a DIY or jack of all trades handyman job. After a few phone calls, I went with Topline who does windows, siding and doors. We agreed that the best thing to do would be to take the stairs out completely and redo the entire back wall of siding and gutters, then rebuild self-supported stairs.

(Funny story. I left the room for 10 minutes and my husband created a “skylight”. Totally rotted ceiling/side replaced.)

But this isn’t about the vinyl siding or deck stairs. This is about the two mud rooms that can finally be dealt with because there are no longer leaks.

The entire house was not gutted. Probably should have been, but there were things I wanted to salvage, such as the floors. Anyway, whatever WAS gutted, we took great pains to repair properly.

What does that mean? It means replacing rotted wood. It means adding extra support where there wasn’t any before, including wall studs and flooring joists. It means new insulation.

It’s almost easier to rip everything out and start from scratch but if I did that, I would have to call this blog “Newly Renovated Home” rather than “Reclaimed Home”, now wouldn’t I?