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.

Celebrate good times

Melinda and Saffy came home today!  Yeeaah!!  They had a good time in California, enjoying the beach and the pool and the sunny weather and spending time with family.  Saffron had so much fun playing with her cousins, but she was very glad to be back home and see her Daddy and siblings again.

Many thanks go to Sunny, Dejah, and Marsha for babysitting the kids, to Arden for keeping us on track (and sane) during the remodel, and Kevin, Scott, and Lorraine for driving safely on those dangerous California freeways.

As well as celebrating their safe return, we also celebrated Independence day with family a few days ago.  Here are some pictures of us with family at South Salt Lake’s firework show, which is held and Granite High School (which is now closed for good.)

 

Melinda enjoying an orange popsicle in the crowd.  Karen and Miles hanging out on the grass.

Lisette always love fireworks.  Here’s a big group enjoying hanging out.  Connie found us a great spot, as usual.

 

Here’s Joy!  A little oldies band named “Crash Pontiac” played for us.

 

Ooohhhh!

Aaaaahhhh!

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!