Girls only?

Hours invested to date: 17

Today marked the first day of many plastic surgery facelifts, as the rotted transom was hammered, sawed, and pried out of it's frame - sounds simple enough right? Well, it was! My secret weapon however wasn't the Milwaukee sawzall, or the termites which may or may not have helped loosen up the wood a bit, but rather my friend, Tim. Tim, who is a phenomenal craftsman and woodworker in his own right (Seriously. He can build you anything you'd like, and even build a box to put it in), offered up his talents to help me through the tedious surgery of ripping out the transom, and only the transom. :) To say the least, we had a blast!

Going into this project, Kayleen and I were fully aware that the transom, at some point would need to be ripped out and replaced. If the skylighted holes and the soft exterior didn't give it away, the sheer smell of rotting and wet wood did. As Tim and I sawed into the delaminating plywood layers, the stench of gasoline and wood rot filled the air - we joked that perhaps the gas soaked wood was really a long forgotten, failed attempt at bon-firing the 16 foot barge...

About 75% of the way complete. Our tactic: cut out sections and hope for the best!

And it's out of here!

 To some, this project might appear to be a debatable disaster. A chaotic mess even. However, through my eyes, it is a project undergoing the remarkable stages of progress. Next up: a trip to Edensaw (which I hear is better than Disneyland) to purchase new marine grade plywood to rebuild the transom.