We’ve been framed!

Progress on the house has been coming along nicely.  Scott and Neil have been working hard, Arden has been doing the more skilled labor, the engineering and generally keeping everything on track and Lorraine has logistics under control.

All of the windows are in, demolition is complete and the walls have all been framed.  These two upstairs bedroom had paneling that was just glued on to the walls.

The bedrooms are now framed and ready for the electrical, insulation, and drywall.

 

The basement is now all framed with all the windows in.  We should hopefully get most of the electrical done this week, and maybe all of the plumbing (keep your fingers crossed!)

The window wells outside turned out really nicely.  Scott did a great job grading the soil so it slopes away from the house. 

We have a new outside yard hydrant that hooks up to the main water line.  Our plants are still doing OK, despite not being able to water them every day. 

 

Yeah for fresh grown tomatoes!

Road closed

We’ve found many revealing things about our house by trying to renovate a couple of rooms (more than we ever wanted to know, to tell the truth.)  Even though we didn’t plan on doing all this stuff, it’s good to get things taken care of. 

Here we have the road closed off just for us so they can put in a new sewer line.  The old one was made of clay and had several breaks in it and it it was partly disconnected out in the street.  

 

That hole by our house is over 7 feet deep.  Here’s one of the backhoes they used to dig up the street.

  

Here’s the dumpster that has become a permanent fixture in our driveway.  They’ve already dumped it 3 times.  Ian has the quite the formidable crowbar skills.

 

Here is our gutted basement family room.  Arden pulled off an amazing bit of engineering to raise the height of the downstairs entrance.

One of the surprises after we pulled down all the ceiling tiles were the 6 structurally unsound joists.  Here’s 2 that they had notched to put in some lights.  Here’s one they cut into for a heating duct that has started to split.

Here is one of 2 joists that someone inexplicably cut straight up into, and then decided they better patch them with some 2x4’s.

  

We are glad to have them fixed before our floor caves in.  What a relief!

Harry Potter and the Out-of Control Remodel

Tuesday we were all enthused about the next cinematic installment of the Boy-Who-Lived chronicles.  Connie bought a big section of seats for the midnight premier, and Melinda, Lisette and Miles were excited to go.  I however got bragging rights because Ian and I got to go see it at 9:00 because a software vendor with too much money on their hands invited me to go (customer appreciation.)  It was really cool to just stroll past the people camped out waiting for the midnight showing.  Plus, they had an open snack bar which was way cool.

The movie was fun and exciting movie and it had quite a few funny scenes in it as well: it didn’t disappoint.  However, I had the sneaky feeling that watching movies in the morning was not quite as fun as in the evening. Though, I had to admit it was better than being at work.

Looks like besides the replacing all of the plumbing, electrical, upstairs heating and cooling, we will also be replacing the main wastewater line out to the sewer.  It has several small breaks and one big one. We thought we were just making a small snowball, but somehow it has rolled down the mountain and turned into a veritable avalanche.

But we’ve made great progress and things are moving along very well.  Our pile of refuse was reaching epic proportions (if you notice it literally has everything AND the kitchen sink). Melinda loaded it all into the dumpster with a little help from Saffy.

Digging.  Filling.

Carrying.  Dumpling.

   

Scott and I got the window wells installled.

Arden and Kevin raised the threshold at the bottom of the stairs so I don’t have to duck anymore.  In case anyone wonders, sawzall saws do cut through galvanized pipes.  Ian took all these pictures in case you couldn’t tell.

Our formerly finished basement is unfinished again, but we are taking some space out of the furnace room to expand the living room.  Here is the installation of one of the windows. 

 

Arden and Scott have worked really hard this week getting these projects done, and I just try to keep up.  Kevin helped us one night and Lorraine cooked us yummy food, too.  Thank goodness for families!

Saw Jockey

Today the Saw Jockey team came to cut out our windows. They did an outstanding job; I would highly recommend them to anyone. They were very professional and efficient.

They use an amazing water cooled saw to cut the concrete.

Goodbye small basement windows!

Hello sunshine and fresh air!

The kids love their new perches. We’ll really enjoy the light and airy feeling that it will give the downstairs rooms. Melinda is a little scared of creatures sneaking into our home at night, but she’s only scared of cougars, raccoons, skunks, mice, rats, cats and dogs so we should be in good shape.

The Amazing Human Backhoe!

Scott has been an amazing worker for us! We’re so glad we can depend on his strong young shoulders and back to do the heavy lifting. It’s incredible how much earth he has managed to move in such a short time.

Project update

On Monday Arden and Alex worked on removing all of the old windows, and cutting out some of the brickwork around the window openings. They also ripped out all of the old ductwork in the living room, and got rid of most of the carpet. Sunny came and watched the kids and chauffeured them to swimming lessons while I was at work (Melinda and Saffy went to California to visit Amy along with Scott, Kevin, and her mom.) Sigh. I miss them.

It’s amazing to be able to go down into the basement without having to immediately duck the duct!

Here is a before and after shot of Carrie’s old room, Connie’s old room, and the “sprout room". Notice the 60’s green and black check linoleum floor

Last night and tonight Miles and Ian helped me tear down the walls in this room and haul the debris out to the pile.

Tonight Arden worked on getting the foundation ready to have the new windows cut out. There’s a nice new breezy hole at the bottom of the foundation. The spaghetti in the ceiling is mostly phone lines in this picture, but there are some truly atrocious wiring going on elsewhere.

The rubbish heap just keeps on growing and growing!

Destruction

Here’s a short rundown of our week:

• Monday  - Due to the swamp cooler overflowing and leaking in the roof, there is some kind of electrical short.  Melinda goes to shower and discovers that the water is conducting electricity.  Fearing that we would just keep showering with electrified water, Arden installs a new GFI circuit for us. Now the lights don’t work in kitchen, bathroom, and reading room. However we can now shower without getting electrocuted.
• Tuesday – We break the water main while digging out the window well. Though Scott and Melinda bail valiantly, some water and mud still gets into the basement. After the water company turns off the water, Laird saves us by patching up the pipe.
• Wednesday – Arden very graciously takes over the management of our reconstruction project.  He was trying to let us manage on our own I think, but now that his grandchildren’s lives are in danger he must get involved. There is much rejoicing.
• Thursday – Thursday was a blur.  What did happen?
• Friday – I have the day off, so Scott and I cleared out the basement and start some serious demolition.  We moved our old ghetto couch and chair to the back porch, and now we have a redneck patio set.

The scope of our little remodel has changed from just enlarging a couple of basement windows and some new walls to completely redoing the electrical, water, gas, and heating/cooling system and framing and insulating the outside walls. Of course, we’ve read This Old House enough to know that this always happens, but still it wasn’t quite in our plans.

Here is Lisette’s old room. (Sorry Mom and Dad, we hope you don’t mind the new accomodations when you visit in a couple of weeks!) and our cozy downstairs family room.

Miles is showing his brother (Ian, previously known as ‘Structini) how it’s really done.  Here is the laundry room which is currently one of the nicer room downstairs. (Notice the water on the floor. Hmm, drain overflow again. We’ll have Apollo Rooter come check it out this week.)

 

The punctured water main pipe. (See what a pickax can do!), and our new outdoor living room (which is about 25 degrees cooler than the inside living room).

 

Rubble and old furniture. We hope the neighbors don’t mind. And we thought a 50-year-old house was new enough to avoid all of this!

      

We are going to send the kids downtown to sing on the street corners as a fundraising activity.  If you see them, please be generous!