Footing #2

This is the other footing, sitting on top of the massive fireplace footing. Check out all those shims between the existing post and beam. That post pretty much can move around under the shims - scary to think that's what was holding up (or not holding up) our house!

Footing #1

Footing is poured. I think the shallow plinth is there because we will eventually have a thin layer of gypcrete over the whole slab to even out the floor, and that way the column stays above the concrete. You can see the Simpson Tie set into the plinth - it's there to eventually accept a new 6x6 column.

Jehovah's Witnesses and Dead Birds

Our contractor is going on his one and only vacation today for 10 days, so there won't be much progress in the next week. He'll have a couple part time framers here though, who also happen to be Jehovah's Witnesses. Apparently they are as honest as they come and during their off time, they are off spreading the Word.

All of the perimeter framing and floor sheathing will remain and be reused. They will start framing the window rough openings and the footing is ready to be poured since we passed the rebar inspection yesterday. Aside from our waste line issue, everything has gone smoothly so far. They did find a bunch of dead birds in the framing though....most notably a mummified one in the kitchen wall, probably very old. (note to my college roommates: can you imagine what they'd find in the little brown house? mummified squirrel families??)

I'll take this week to post our 3-D floor plans - gota love Sketchup! (See link on sidebar)

Exterior Rendering

Here's a rendering of what our finished house should look like - colors are still undecided but we were playing around with this dark blue with a brick red door...I'm working on getting our floor plans rendered to post soon.

Chimney Foundation

This is the hole where the chimney used to come down into the basement. That's the crawlspace beyond.

Lumber is here!

Our lumber has arrived and is sitting under this tent on our parking strip.

First SNAFU

I was wondering when this project was going to get a little exciting. It turns out that our sewer line crosses under our slab, which, according to our contractor who's a plumber by trade, says is very unusual and difficult to do. The big deal here is that this is the place where our new footing is supposed to go. We're going to end up cutting the pipe here and re-routing it but we will have to abandon our toilet and shower in the basement because there's no way to get the slope we need. Also, it's so rigged up right now that it's a failure waiting to happen and the rest of the house plumbing will be tied into it. Our other option is to get into an ejector system which would be megabucks. Luckily we will still have 3 bathrooms in the house.

Corner Office

Dugan's got his work table set up next to our bathroom...

Fire Pit

That hole is where the fireplace used to be

Our House! 

More Demo

All of the exterior sheathing has been removed, as well as the flooring and chimney.

Studs Left

Apparently our existing concrete porch and stairs were poured OVER another existing set of concrete porch and stairs. They broke out the newer portion and you can see here a smaller set of stairs in the center from the older days. They're getting a Bobcat over tomorrow to tear the concrete out.

Open Floor Plan

There it is. Our house. All they have left to do on Monday is to remove all of the exterior sheathing (horiz. boards), flooring and fireplace/chimney.

Open House

House is completely open. Somehow it looks a lot smaller this way.

Back of the House

Those horizontal boards will be replaced by 1/2" plywood sheathing.

More Demo

All the siding with the exception of those brick planters in the front are now gone. All of the interior walls to be demo'd are gone, and so is the ceiling framing. Now the house is completely open to the sky.

Basement Demo

Most of the interior walls and ceiling panels have been demo'd. Furnace and Hot Water Heater are being removed as well.

More Demo

siding is off on the north and south walls

View from above

This shot was taken from the second level of our neighbor's house across the street.

Sky

The ceiling's gone!

Right on Schedule

There's Derek talking to the demo guys. As projected, the roof has been demolished today and they plan on finishing up the rest of the demo by Monday.

Roof Gone

Dugan and Derek

This is Derek with our contractor, Dugan.

Hard Hat Area

Bathroom

The only intact room left in the house

Living Room Ceiling

The popcorn is off the ceiling now and encapsulated with a glue-like substance.

Kitchen 

Looking through Lola's room into our old room 

Fireplace 

Dining Room

The lath and plaster has been removed from all of the walls inside the house. Tomorrow the roof is scheduled to come off!

The demo has begun.. 

Pella Windows

We need to figure out a good way to install these Pella windows that we're saving - they are replacement windows, built with a sloping sill to match the existing conditions of our house. Now that we want to reuse them, it's going to be a tricky waterproofing issue.