Day 16- Poles and Plastic

Today the guys poured more cement footings near the car port. They also finished leveling the floor of the basement and prepped it for a concrete floor. They replaced some of the makeshift wood supports with the official steel poles that will hide inside the walls once they are built. I took another look at the new backyard today, they covered the mud with hay making it much easier for Caleb to run on. He loves his new wide open play area. Now about the drop off into the creek... hmm suggestions?

Day 15 - Dirt

My main focus this afternoon was dirt. We had accumulated about 90 cubic yards of "spare" dirt from all of the excavation. I walked out onto the pile today and looked down at over a 12 foot drop. I was not prepared to build an enormous retaining wall and I did not want that kind of "feature" in my yard either. Our property drops 33 ft in about 80 feet. Such an extreme does not blend in with our current gardens. Well the excavator was still on site so I gave him instructions (and money) to move the dirt. We were able to move a lot of the dirt to the lower portion of the yard and get a large area fairly level. We will still have to shovel and wheel barrow some dirt but the heavy machinery made light work of the huge mound. It took around 3 hours to move a large portion of the dirt.
Back to the addition... they added waterproofing to the foundation. They excavated the top portion of the driveway, removing two large shrub trees. They prepared to pour another footing on the side of the car shelter. This new footing replaces the old one removed on Saturday and makes up for the fact that the retaining wall no longer exists. Also a few permanent supports were added to the section where my workshop will be. I know the termite treatment will be sprayed tomorrow and the slab forms will be completed. I can't wait to see the slabs and floors go in later this week. Work should begin to accelerate as the framing begins. I do not have many photos today because I was out working with the guy moving dirt until 8:30. Also I just wanted to add a disclaimer that the grammar and spelling on this blog are subject to my creativity and limited time I have to spend on editing. Please judge the posts on their content and not their grammatical correctness.

Day 14 - Rest

No activity today, Sunday. We are hoping for good weather in the coming weeks to get our project into high gear. Thank you for reading.

Day 13 - The Rock

Saturday morning began with a bang as the workers cleaned out the cement mixer with hammers. Apparently it is illegal to rinse it out before it dries, you have to let it dry and then bang the residue out with hammers so that the concrete does not get washed into the water system. Today's goal was to remove an old and broken retaining wall that was falling apart. Moving the wall was no problem for for the tractor the guys hired for the day. The only difficult part was removing part of a concrete step the guys had installed last week to make up for the fact that we were keeping the wall. Now that the wall is gone, we need to move the step (reinforcement) before they finish building the foundation for the car shelter. Of note: a few doors in the house are sticking a little but I assume we can fine tune the foundation supports once they get permanent walls.

Day 12 - Goodbye basement

The basement is really becoming something other than a basement. The guys are about 90 percent done with the demo and escavation in the basement now. There is still one brick column left to go but all the others have temporary bracing replacing them. So, all the walls and piers are gone and the old slab has been removed and a new section for my workshop has been dug so it looks a lot different now. The crawlspace part of the new construction portion has been completed so after the slabs are poured for the basement and carport we should begin to see some framing. You know we have been reusing the brick from the foundation; what I haven't told you is that on the interior of these walls some children years ago had hand painted their names and a few small pictures. One was a flower another the Greenville High School flag. Well those bricks are starting to show up on various places in the foundation and it is cool that something those kids painted 20, 30, 40 or maybe even 5o or more years ago lives on. I also spoke with my neighbor tonight and we are going to remove a retaining wall that starts on my property and ends on his. The wall is very old and leaning so I think it was a good decision to get rid of it while we can. It would be much more difficult to remove after the construction is completed. I will have to take a before and after photo of that later. Lastly, we met with a stone mason to talk about what we are going to do will all of the excess fill dirt in our back yard. Our lot is slopped pretty extreem so we are thinking about building a few retaining walls for a terrace or two. More on that later.

Day 11 - Tall walls no walls

They built some really big block walls today. They removed several more support piers from the basement. They hit those support piers with sledge hammers so hard the whole house shook. They took apart a wall they built yesterday. The reason was that is was not exactly square. The wall was square it was just square with an out of square existing wall. Drain lines for lower level were run. Sewer lift station was installed. We also met with the designer and moved the downstairs kitchenette bar a few inches to make way for a larger refrigerator (wider). We were thinking it would be nice if when we buy a new refrigerator we could just move our existing fridge downstairs and we needed a few more inches to do so. All this is prep for and inspection and slab pour that should be done in the basement tomorrow.

Day 10 - Small Walls

The guys laid down more brick and block today. Again I think the walls with the salvaged bricks look awesome. We are going to leave them natural and not paint them on the rear of the house where they will not run up against any of the existing foundation. Good progress today but we have a long way to go. There was also more demo today as the slab was removed from the basement and dirt was moved around to get it reasonably level before the gravel is added to bring it to the correct grade. The guys also started escavating the small section of basement where my bike shop will be. It did not look so fun digging through red clay. Finally since the foundation walls are forming they are having to reconfigure some of the temporary bracing into a more permanent configuration.

Day 9 - Blocks

15 pallets of block were delivered today. They required a permit to take up 3o yards of street in front of our house. In addition to the pallets we have a dumpster full of sand and a pallet of mortar. Padlocked to the dumpster is a mixer they will use to mix the mortar. By lunch time a short wall had been constructed at the rear of the house and they were staging bricks for tomorrow when I arrived home from work. I hope to title the next blog entry walls!

Day - 8 The Pour

Today was the day to pour the foundation. This is an exciting day because it is the first time something was "constructed" instead of "deconstructed." Nothing on this project is exactly easy as the site access is small the the grade of the land is very steep. The guys had to move most of the concrete with wheelbarrows and buckets because the concrete slide on the truck did not quite reach every area. As always the guys worked extremely hard and finished the poor before late afternoon. A pallet of type S mortar also arrived on site today along with some of the blocks for the foundation.

Day 7 - Rest

No work today it's Sunday. I want to take this day to thank our Architect and Designer Trey Cole.
http://www.craftsmancourt.net/index.html

Trey and fellow designer J.D. Harrison were great partners with us during the 3 month design phase. Let me give everyone considering and addition or remodel a bit of advice. Always use a designer/architect. Its worth the expense to get good plans complete before even starting to think about construction. You may think you know your home and have some good ideas, but a professional can take those ideas to the next level and make your ideas and dreams a reality.

Day 6 - Weightless

They removed more of the foundation today (yes, Saturday). They also dug another trench for the outside support of the parking shelter. It seems as if the back third of our house is hanging in thin air. I will be happy when the footers are poured on Monday and they can construct the permanent support for the house. Caleb and I did a little bit of exploring around the site today. I wish it were a little safer because it looks like a very fun place to play in for a kid. Loads of dirt, lots of shovels, big holes, bridges, caves, mud. Everything a boy wants.

Day 5 - Closing

We met with the Lawyer today to close our Construction Loan. Fastest closing I have ever witnessed; although I have only done this twice before. 20 minutes. The guys continued to remove brick from the foundation today with the hope of pouring concrete on Monday. I didn't have time to get new photos because of a busy workday and the closing but trust me they made more progress and I will put some photos up later today of the giant stacks of bricks. Here is a photo from a few days ago I like to call Yard Art.

Day 4 - Removal

More of the foundation was removed today. A small amount still has to be removed before a new foundation can be poured. Water heater was moved, and more of the basement slab was removed. An intricate system of supports is now holding up the house. At night a tarp is put in place to protect the inside and all of the tools from wind and rain. The rebar arrived so concrete is not far behind.

Day 3 - Debricking

Today the workers removed most of the brick from the foundation in the rear of the house. This photo was taken before lunch and shows how quickly the guys are working. When I arrived home they had completed removing the bricks all the way down to the dirt on this side; and had a temporary support system in place. Right now there are some large blue tarps covering the holes so I am not able to get a great photo of the completed work. The also dug (by hand) the footers for the lower level of the addition today giving us even more fill dirt for the backyard.

By the way the bricks were cleaned of excess mortar and stacked to be reused in the new foundation. Hey government how about a "green" tax credit for keeping materials out of the landfill?

Day 2 - Ground breaking

I arrived home and just stared at the hole that used to by my driveway and side yard. So much had changed it took a few moments to realize what they had done. We now have a small amount of level backyard due to the excess dirt. They also finished removing the floor of the screen porch...well I say removed...it has to go back so they just kind of detached it and flipped it on it's side to get it out of the way. I don't think it will be long before they start reworking the foundation.

I received a call from my bank today (after 5pm wow!). They scheduled my closing on the construction loan for this Friday afternoon! I guess the financial world read my previous post about loosing their mind and are trying to get it together.

The Financial World has lost it's mind.

Planning. I am ready to remove this word from the English language. Plans are supposed to be a way to set reasonable expectations about what should happen in the future. Why then when you plan each and every step of a process do things still go wrong? Nothing is going wrong with the renovation so far, it's the financing part. I can't get a bank/lawyer/lender/person to give me a good idea of how long this takes. They always say "this week" or "tomorrow" shouldn't be a problem, but when tomorrow comes there is always a problem. Look people! I have guys working right now that need to be paid on Friday! You pre-approved, credit checked, invesigated, appraised and charged me to death, now give me my Money!

After and Before

Day 1 - Let's get started!

07:57 Five trucks just pulled up to the house at the same time, we are going to start with a bang. I snapped two quick photos of the deck and then headed off to work. I expect the deck to be gone when I arrive home this evening.

A few logistics... they should setup the construction perimeter today (this is the section of the yard where anything goes). Also a silt fence will go up to keep run off from entering the creek behind the house. Finally the deck and screen porch will be de-constructed to make way for the new foundation.

Construction Fences

Busy this weekend moving plants to our side of the construction fences. You see, everything on the construction side gets demolished, trampled, crushed or buried. Also, cleaning the last few items out of the basement.

Today we will enjoy the final moments of Caleb's backyard (our deck). It will be inaccessible during the construction phase until the new access from our bedroom is completed. Oh that reminds me I guess I have to move the container garden, hammock baby toys and pool off of the deck. If you know anyone who likes moving heavy pots with soil and plants tell them to stop by.

Monday morning the demo begins

Stay tuned for some deconstruction. The boys from OLeary Cole Construction will be making some noise early Monday morning. I expect the deck to be gone by the end of the day. I better get some good before photos. I am relieved to get started. Oh, and if anyone has a shovel and a spare hour this weekend I will be moving the last few plants from our garden which is now a construction zone.

A few words are needed to thank Vanessa's Dad who helped me move my Triumph out of the driveway on Monday. My poor old British sports car has not run in a while and now it needed to be towed away to wait until the construction is complete. Goodbye my friend.

A Signed Contract

We signed a contract with the builder today and paid them enough $$$ to get the construction permits from the city. Permits could take up to a week. Our official closing has not happened yet but should be complete within a week. So, maybe we will start the demolition phase in 11 days.

Appraisal News?

The last few days I have been wondering what the nice guys that came over and measured the house were doing for 3 days. I still do not know. Come on, I gave you complete architectural drawings of the existing house and addition. Just plug those numbers in and head over to http://www.zillow.com and get an estimate. Although it is frustrating to wait on the appraisal the guys at Rivers Appraisal service were the nicest I have ever met and they promised to be quick and precise. I do expect their results any minute now.
I owe this whole delay to Bank of America who could not after two months get an appropriate loan together for me. Oh, and they still have my application fee. I want to point out that choosing a smaller local bank has been a pleasant experience. If NBSC has decent on-line banking and an ipod/iphone application I might just switch everything over.