Day 28 - the foundation begins

The digging is complete and now the building back up begin.  A huge team meeting was held yesterday to determine the location of the new party wall. Jodi and I, Roger, Joey and Daniel participated and in part due to a lack of a recent survey, we determined the location of the new wall by running a string along the existing party wall and simply extending it out. 

The footings were poured today and the mason is in tomorrow to start placing the huge pile of blocks you see in the pictures.

There was our first hiccup with the city as the inspector came today and indicated that there is no party wall agreement on file which would us to build the new foundation.  Joey assures me that this will be sorted out and Dan is going to keep moving because we would lose the mason for a week if he doesn't start tomorrow.  I'm sure this will not be the last wrench caused by an inspector.

Windows will be ordered today and a decision on the siding is needed this week. Otherwise we're on track at the moment.

Day 22 - this s&@# is getting real

Boy have things progressed!

First set of pictures below are from yesterday when they were removing the dirt from the middle section of the basement (both our side and Roger and Susan's), taking it down to new lower level. 

Second set are from today when the excavation of the addition began. That hole is MUCH deeper than I expected. We get our first physical impression of how big the addition is going to be and it sure looks like a lot of space!

The 10 year old in me insisted that I jump down into the hole, as you can see, one of the guys showed me how to use the excavator to climb my way out!

Day 15 - part 2

Small thing but the big tree out back was trim to accommodate the addition. Hard to tell from the pictures but the air space above the dirt is where the new structure is going to go. 

Speaking of structure, the framer Paul was by yesterday to review the site. Everything on track, though he is going to be ready a few days before the underpinners are. He also told us that he is not able to frame on top of the 4" step created by the underpinning so we're going to lose that space on the three exterior walls unfortunately. It is still going to be more space than the foot+ that was being taken up before but still a little disappointing. 

On other front looks like we have a roofing plan - to go with a sloped flat roof as we already have, even though Joey wanted to build a parapet roof - as well as a good lead on windows which might save us a few thousand dollars (wouldn't that be nice for a change)

Finally we order bathroom fixtures from DB today with Eleanor, it's nice to be ahead of the game on that one. 

Off to Myrtle tomorrow, more when I return. 

Day 15

The second sections of the footing have been poured and the digging for the thirds have begun. You can see in the third picture that only the middle remains now. Once the 3rd sections have been poured then the middle comes out!

Day 12 - many hands make light work

More progress on the new foundation, as you'll see from the shots below the process of getting the concrete down into the basement is not easy.

An exmaple of a #2 form beside the recent poured #1

The concrete arrives.

This is how they get the concrete into the building - very very manually 

and finally down into the form

Day 8 - the great wall begins

First signs of our new foundation walls have been seen, interesting to see how this is done. The new basement walls will be built on top of this 4" ledge. They were starting on the #2 holes today. 

Day 6 - New home sweet home

A long weekend of packing and moving is behind us and we are into our new casa. All 750 square feet of it. Lots of credit goes to Jodi for all the work, especially the unpacking that she led the way on on Sunday. I would have been happy to stop working and live with boxes for a few days but she was not having it. 

The pics are a little dark but you can see our space and how quickly we have filled it up. Feels like we have been living here for a couple weeks already. There will not be much in the way of entertaining, that's for sure!

First walk to school in the morning, should be fun trying to get out early, leaving the house is never a problem for us. Hopefully the opportunity to walk with new friends will help motivate. 

Day 5 - more digging

Not much change, the wood frames are the molds for the concrete pour, these will create the part of the new foundation. It is being done in thirds, #1s are tomorrow with the other 2 later this week. 

Day 3 - 1 bin down, 19 more to go

More shots of the basement work. Everyone is pitching in to help!
Even with the Bobcat, still a very manual process.