Enter the Sawzall*, followed by a considerable amount of reconstruction to the framing of the wall, and then...

... there was a complete hole.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough day left to go much farther than that (this was all happening last Friday, but between one thing and another, I haven't gotten around to posting about it until now), so we had to spend the last half-hour or so of the working day constructing a temporary non-hole.

This presumably doesn't look like much on the outside either (it never occurred to me to go and have a look at it from out on the street), but tomorrow, gods willing and the crick don't rise, we should be able to install the door.

After that, the project may be derailed for a while as Dad tends to responsibilities up north, where various more senior members of the dynasty require assistance with assorted things to do with being old. This is kind of irritating, but only in a "life, why you do this" sense.

--G.
* other reciprocating power saws are available
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.