And We Wanted to Live There During Construction...
And We Wanted to Live There During Construction...
(I forgot to post this picture of the kiddos with their new cousin on Thanksgiving in the last post. Look how cute they are sitting together!)
If you didn't read my last post, we didn't get the loan from the bank. We did get some help from a family member so that we are able to get the most important (and necessary) work done to continue living in our house.
It started with removing everything from the addition including the barn wood from the walls (apologies for blurry pictures).
Construction officially began on a Monday. We moved into my parents house around midnight the night before and woke up to snow. Luckily, the crew didn't have a lot planned for the first day other than preparation and getting a head start on the demolition. We initially wanted to still live at home while the construction was going on, but we are super glad we didn't go through with that plan.
Then came the cool and the fun part....the demolition of the addition.
They took down the bedroom and most of the bathroom the first day then took down the rest of the addition (in about twenty minutes) the following day. It was super quick work!
You can watch the demolition here...
Here's the view from the Arlo camera the day they finished demolition.
They patched up the wall where the addition was and will eventually put siding up.
Then came the excavation. They started with removing all the concrete from the back patio.
Then lots and lots of digging! The wall under the patio is the basement wall in need of replacing. They had to dig out a huge area in order to reach it.
Most of the area was dug out with the excavator, but the crew did have to go in by hand and finish right around the house.
The view from the side of the house after demolition.
This just goes to show you just how far down they had to dig to expose the foundation wall.
We weren't there for the actual removal of the wall, but Benjamin's crew was able to capture this awesome video.
Before excavation, they actually set up bracing in the basement (called cribbing) to be able to raise the house up so they could replace the foundation wall. This picture shows you just how much the house was raised. The house would normally be sitting on the concrete blocks.
Here's another picture of the cribbing as seen from the outside of the house once the foundation wall was removed.
This video puts the size of the area in perspective.
They replaced the wall in under two days! It was awesome to watch the progress.
They covered the entire work space with a giant, giant tarp to protect the area from weather.
Some of the chickens decided to come in the house to check out their work. Sam and I about busted a gut when we found two eggs in the corner of the den.
While we were there over the weekend, Sam, Dad and I moved everything out of the laundry room including destroying the cabinets that were in there to make room for the new plumbing lines.
Once the foundation wall was completed, the crew began tearing up the rest of the back patio. Interestingly, during the removal, they discovered that the bricks had not been attached to the house in the best manner. When they took out the patio, the bricks fell right off the walls.
After the patio was gone, they were able to dig out the area in preparation for the new drainage system.
Yesterday, we went by the house and they were already starting to waterproof the new foundation wall.
Did I mention that we decided to go ahead and have them dig us out an area so we can walk right out the basement door onto a patio?
Long story short, we have a lot, a lot, A LOT going on at the house right now. There is still a lot of work to come over the next few weeks, so you may be getting blog posts more frequently than you are used to (get excited)!
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