Parting Shots

Well, leaving the house for a full week of work with three different crews. this place is going to look quite a bit different by the time we get back. Ironically, I am not sure that anything in this picture will really change, but you know what I mean.



Reason #45 why I dont do work at home. I figured out a way to break this hammer while pulling out a bazillion nails in the second floor of the house. In just two short hours I figured out how to break what looked to be a pretty new wood hammer. I did not throw it. I swear.


Fence! Yup. Put one up. Property is no longer easy access for the rest of the neighborhood to wander around in. Pretty funny how something as simple (but massively visual) as the fence makes it feel more like a construction site.

While we are go there will be 3 main pieces of work beginning:

- Rear roof re-construction. The lumber has been ordered. The carpenter is due back from vacation and we are ready to roll. Tuesday morning they will be dismantling a decent majority of the south half of the roof. We will be putting in a new ridge line with LVL, new 12" main supports, and new collar ties. All of this is being done to make the back of the house look consistent instead of two awkward roof pitches.

- Excavation of basement and Pouring of Footings. This will be some of the most important and time consuming work that is going to be done on the house. They are going to dig out 600 sq feet of dirt down a minimum of 7" to lay an entire new base for the house. Part of this includes laying footings for the support of the stairs in two places, and where the new steel beam for the main support of the home will rest.

- Plumbing. Most of this relates to having the floor open. We had to decide how this was going to go exactly, but we basically have the ability to make the home impenetrable. While the floor and dirt are excavated we will be doing all of the underground plumbing - connecting the main downward drains pipes (stacks) with the sewer lines, and running the floor drains for the laundry, bathroom, and under the hot water heater in the basement. Along with that we will be putting a drain tile along the perimeter of the house to help with runoff water trying to come through the walls / floors of the foundation.

There is a quite a bit more to all of this, but thats the plan for now. More to come through the week as I get more details over the phone.

Demo Complete

Stage one (of who knows how many) is complete. The demo crew finished the last of their work today taking off the last little bit of stucco from the front porch.

I learned today that the floorboards in old houses were laid on an angle so they would provide further support to the floor; making it feel sturdier under foot. Pretty solid. Also, its interesting to see the old lumber milling style compared to what we use today. A modern 2x4 is actually 1/4" of an inch smaller today then it was in 1907, so they have a distinctly more robust profile then what we use today.


A little bit closer on the floor showing the weathered nature of these boards. There are quite a few "3 penny" nails sticking out of this flooring. The flooring was most likely 60yrs older or more.


Nora's room. The second floor actually had two layers of hardwood. The primary 3/4" thick flooring that was on the first floor is present (and shown) and there was a second veneer 1/4" red oak flooring on top. Because the original was still predominantly intact, we took up only the veneer upstairs. This will allow us to put 3/4" on top of this and make an incredibly sturdy floor.



Closeup of all of the nails in the floors. These are all going to have to be taken up, or pulled out....and soon. Not sure how this is going to go. Might end up needing a late night nail party or something to get them all out quickly.



East fascia of the house. As you can see, all of the stucco and siding are off the house. We will leave the tar paper and nails in the fascia as it will not affect the exterior work we are going to do. Next up for the fascia is re-working all of the window openings to fit the new windows which have arrived and are sitting at a warehouse.

I think its going to be 2 weeks (maybe more) until we are able to tape and wrap everything which will allow us to start putting the actual windows in. Once the windows are in, then we can start siding the house.

Next week is going to be an incredibly busy week with 3 different tradesmen starting up on the house....all while we are out of town. Details on that just before we leave.

Signs of the Times

Thats right. A port-a-potty. Its fantastic supplying all of the neighborhood scrappers and bums with a toilet....wait its for the construction workers, I forgot.



I was on the main floor yesterday checking out the water damage and saw this laying a pile of rubble......and paper from the original construction of the home. See the date at the top? Yeah, its old....February 8, 1907....I am not sure that I have ever possessed anything older.


Exterior rear of the home. As the stucco is coming off the exterior clap board is exposed. Hopefully we will be putting house wrap on this house in 2 weeks or so which will limit the amount of weather that can get in through the holes and cracks.


Interior rear of basement. As you can see, the foundation wall is brick, and is sitting on 10" thick stone footing that we are going to be digging down to the bottom of in order to gain a few extra inches of height in the room. The basement has yet to be fully emptied, but that should be happening over the next few days.


Rear of the home. You can see where the stucco used to be. This is going to be a much different view in three weeks with the 2nd story roof being completely remodeled, changing the window sizes in the kitchen, and adding the sliding glass door at the back of the dining area.

There is not going to be a lot of work happening at the house this week other then the balance of the demolition. This should be done Tuesday / Wednesday of this week. The carpenter is on vacation, and we haven't chosen a mason yet, so there will not be any major work going on until the following Monday. The demo people will be cleaning up the entire property at the end of their job which will make for a good set of pictures to base all of the remodeling on.

Torrential Downpours....

It become apparent that we are going to see tests through this entire process, no matter the stage we are at, and the last 12hrs have been no different. We have received what has to be at least 3" of rain (I am underestimating here, its probably 4 or more) since yesterday around 7pm. Meanwhile, over at the construction site, there is a hole in the roof from where the chimney was, open back windows in the master bedroom, two holes in the frame of the basement, and a large opening on the west wall as well. So, the torrents of rain that have been coming down since last night certainly were disconcerting from an assumptive perspective. I would be lying if said I wasn't laying in bed last night listening to the rain absolutely pouring on our roof and wondering what we were going to be dealing with today over at the other house.

This morning I trekked over there with my camera in a gallon zip lock back prepared for the worst - completely wet interior, flooded basement, freshly built stairs warped and found something completely different. The interior of the house was mainly dry. Sure, the stairs were wet, and the area directly under the hole in the roof were wet, but generally the house was dry. More importantly, there was little to no water anywhere but in areas that are still going to be getting work anyway. As I sloshed through the 3-4" of standing water in the backyard I was left with one more potential disaster - the basement with a dirt floor - and potential standing water. More importantly, I was curious to see the foundation walls and if they were seeping. Again, I was happy to see that, while there was standing water, it was only from the holes in the ceiling / wall in the floors above, and not about water coming in through the foundation. Whats more, the foundation seemed to be fairly free of seepage. Seepage would really be less of a concern in the grand scheme of things with us putting in a drain tile, but it's still nice to see that we wont be overloading the sump pump even in rain storms like this one.

Oh yeah, and I didn't take any pictures because there wasn't much to document, and I didn't want to take my camera out of the bag and chance getting it wet. If the rain stops today (its not supposed to) then I will make sure to hop over and take some pictures.

One Day, Thats All It Takes

This was the scene this morning when the carpenter started on the house. Having had a lumber delivery the morning before and doing some prep work for the structure; he was set to build the stairs. He and two other guys showed up at 7am. And this is what they got done today.....



Crazy. Maybe its just me, but it seems to me like its a lot of work to get done in a short period of time. Its also partly due to the fact that we have been taking the house apart for the past two weeks instead of putting it back together. The progress is definitely more tangible.



Close up of the construction of the stair, and the south wall of the bathroom that will go on this floor. Looking at this makes me realize just how nice and level and straight things are going to be. Its been a long time since we have had that living in our old house.


This is standing in the dining area looking through the kitchen into the open stairway. I took this for two reason. First, and more important, is the support that was lacking for the second floor in this ceiling. There were literally joists being held together by 10 penny nails. Not good. Now, the home is supported properly with 12" LVL - laminated veneer lumber - which is stronger then the new growth wood people use in homes. This is a common usage in main supports for the home as it gives the tensile strength needed to be the backbone.

The other reason I posted this picture is because we are also looking at the plumbing wall for part of the house. This wasn't exactly the plan, but its turning out to work quite well. Because this wall had to come out for the stairs to be re-worked anyway, so we decided it made the most sense to run all of the plumbing for the west side of the house (essentially the master bath) in this wall. It will keep us from having to build soffits around the house which will keep the interiors of the house, nice and clean.


This was the interior core of the house last night before they started with the new support at the top and bottom of the stairs.

I have one more day with the carpenter this week, and then he is gone for the next three days on another job that was already planned, so there will be a bit of a stall out on the progress.

Start Your Engines

After one of the longest and most agonizing months in recent memory, I was able to finally commandeer a building permit.



I haven't been talking about it too much partially due to not jinxing it, and partially to not call attention to the fact that I didn't possess a building permit. Nevertheless, we have it, and its posted right out front on the house for all to see.

Now we can finally start construction on the house and get things moving in a non-destructive manner.

More specifics tomorrow.

Finishing Line.......of the demo

The last vestiges of the old house are start to slip away (aside from the exterior of course). Above is the view of the first floor with no flooring anymore. The tile and hardwood have both come out, and we are left with a mish-mash of holes and inconsistencies. Its going to be interesting to see how they put that back together when this is getting on the road to repair.


Whats fun (and frustrating about this) is when you get surprises. This one isn't bad necessarily, but it's just really old school. This is a picture of the footing in the basement. Its brick. That hasn't been the standard in a really long time. Very few of them are this way anymore. We will just have to decide if we cover it up as we have been planning, or if we try to figure out a way to leave it exposed....could be pretty tough with how cold that could get in the winter.


This was the state of the basement on Thursday. On Friday and Saturday they took out the majority of the floor that hasn't been taken out. This much of the basement being taken out took the better part of a whole day. Tough work.



More views of the basement. You can see that all of the mechanical and supply lines from the old house are still there. This will all be coming out, so all that is left of the house will be the frame. We will be doing entirely new electric, plumbing and HVAC.



And the ramp. Ah, the ramp. I was required to build this ramp by the purveyors of the dumpsters. They were having trouble getting the 50,000lb trucks (loaded) with a full dumpster out of the lot due to there being a height variance of at least 18" between the alley and the property. In the end they took the loaded dumpster and said they were not coming back with an empty one until I got a ramp built. In the next 24hrs I arranged for the delivery and distribution of 10tons of limestone gravel. I must say thank you to John Gobo, he really helped me out in a pinch with getting this gravel spread out the right way and fast.

BIG, HUGE, Terribly necessary building permit meeting tomorrow afternoon. Assuming that I get the permit tomorrow, we should be on track to start with rough carpentry, drain tile in the basement, and working out the window openings for the windows that should be delivered in the next week or two.

Should be a busy week.

Empty Inside....

Its not how I feel necessarily.....just how the house looks. We are basically down to the core structure of the home. The only things that are left to be taken out is the hardwood flooring, the cement floor in the basement, and the exterior fascia. I know I have said it before....its crazy how small this place is with no walls in place.


This is the 1st floor standing in what will be the main living area looking back towards the kitchen. There used to be a fireplace where that hole in the floor is, and its no longer there.

This is where the chimney used to come up to through the second floor into the roof. We are removing this so we can straighten the stairs and make the upstairs more open.

First floors standing in the dining area looking aback at the front of the house. Its starting to give the idea of just how wide open we are going to have the first floor. Hopefully some of the things we are doing for spacial definition will help make the space look bigger.

Why the picture of pavement close up? This is a photo I have sent to the local "ward" office in an effort to prove that my street has not been resurfaced in the last 5yrs. I am being told that I will have to pay a penalty for opening the street to update the water service since it has been resurfaced in the last 5yrs. I am arguing that it has not been resurfaced in the last 5yrs and they have confused our side of the street with the other side.

I am headed back to the city office later this morning for another meeting....hoping to be a step closer to obtaining my building permit for the build out.

Ups and Downs

The deconstruction has been going in fits in starts. Not tons of progress since the last update, but I figured a few more pictures wont be bad.

Destruction @ 50% Completion

Per the guys doing the demo, we are more then halfway through the interior demolition. Its amazing how small the house looks with nothing but wall supports. Hopefully it will make the house seem bigger again when we put it all back together. I am already starting to see where the design changes are going to come from now that I am able to visualize this space in a much more realistic perspective. For instance, I am not sure we are going to be able to do the master bath the way we want to. It might have to be tweaked.


The aftermath isnt pretty. I know its more responsible to rehab a house then to build a new one, but we are going to end up filling 5-6 of these dumpsters through the process. Its unavoidable, but its a LOT of refuse. Amazing to think how much more it would be if we tore this whole house down, then built another from scratch.....eeek.


This is a closeup of the steel beam that ended up being in the ceiling of the first floor. We weren't 100% sure which way this was going to go as the support wasn't obvious. The great news about this is that the ability to set the new laminated support system partially into the ceiling joists is 100%, there, and that will allow us to do more simple design with the ceiling.

More Destruction

These guys are really plowing through the rough parts of the house. I wont spend too much time talking about it as its much of the same, but we are at close to 1.5 dumpsters in 3ish days....thats a lot of refuse.....Oh yeah, and the fireplace is barely as shell of its former self....amazing how quickly it went away.


Close up of the what used to be a large fireplace...


Standing in Astor's room looking across stairway to master bath....