Reach for the Skyyyyyyy

Our house with the ramp back filled in.  It sure looks like it is resting on the foundation, but it is about 1" too high.  The northwest corner is resting on the sill plate though.  That was the low point of the house

Here is the house all tared up (good job Sandi)

We got all of the gravel we think we need inside for the radon system, so now it's time to close the wall up.

A shot of Liam (almost 5) giving a look of do I really have to be in the picture Daddy?

On July 3, we had a taring and wire cutting party. (Thanks so much Mom & Dad, Lorri & Becca)  We tared the walls that were done, as well as cut out all of the exposed wiring that was under the house.  See an earlier post for a picture of the rats nest that was there.  Sandi and I had gone back and fourth about trying to use the upstairs wire while we were working downstairs, but it just looked to dangerous.

A section of finished wall.  It sure looks great.

One of the 4 holes for a slider window, 48"x48".  It sure looks a lot bigger than I drew it up.

With the blocks in the hole, the masons have something to work with.  This is where block really shines.  Every block that he set is plumb and level, which means my wall is plumb and level.  Also, working around the cribbing is tight in some spaces, but I can't imagine how you would do form walls and expect to get them out.  Here was the first days progress.  Just about as high as you want to go standing on the ground.  After that, it will be on scaffolding. 

 

The first truck is here to deliver blocks.  90 blocks to a cube, 7 cubes delivered.  This guy never came back, our contractor picked up the rest on his trailer.  It was pretty slick watching him pick up all of the blocks, and drop them right where we wanted, all from remote control.  I guess playing video games as a kid might not have been such useless waste of time after all? :-)

The blurry shot you see here is the makeshift bridge that was constructed to get gravel over the footing and into the basement.  In the end, there will be about 8" of gravel for our radon system, lousy naturally occurring radiation.

Thanks for the intro Woody. (Toy Story)

Getting the house (blog) back on schedule.  Last time we were at footings.  Since then, we have watched block being laid, tar being applied, wire being cut, and gravel being poured.

Footings, yessssss

We were surprised on Saturday to find that they we going to pour concrete.  I was hoping that we would, because it would give the weekend to cure and block laying could begin on Monday.

I thought the cool thing they used was the outside form.  It's a plastic form that you leave in place and its secondary use is out drain tile.

Well, it's not that I haven't been keeping this up to date, but rather we had a case of the blues, droplet size blues in the form of rain. The lifters were done on the 17th of June, and it managed to rain Friday morning, Sunday night, Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Tuesday night, Wednesday morning.  Pretty depressing to say the least. History won't record this, but it will remember this as the year that the Elkhorn river flooded half of Norfolk and the surrounding communities. But, the rains stopped, at least long enough to get some footings formed.

Up, up and away, my beautiful, my beautiful houuuuse.

Okay, it doesn't have the same kind of ring as the song, but nonetheless, the house is officially up in the air.  More to follow.

The Great Escape

Tigger II is also checking out the dirt pile.

 

The cat spent the day in the house.  Now that he is out, he is checking out what they were doing under the house all day.

 

It won't be long and I will have to be building a gang plank.  That first step can be a little tricky.

 Watch that first step Sandi!

I was really curious as to how they got the beam under the house.  It couldn't be easier as it turns out.  Grab the beam in the middle with the Bobcat, and just walk it to the roller sitting on top of the crib. It gets pushed in by hand and adjusted along the way with a hammer to keep it on track.

Dale is the man running that Bobcat. Granted, it's what he does for a living, but nontheless, it is still impressive to watch someone who is that in touch with his machine.  Here he is unloading the 2nd beam that will go under the house.

When I got home from work, they were almost done digging out the other side and were preparing to put the cribbing in for the beams.  Rain is foretasted for tomorrow and they wanted to get everything in place to keep the house safe.

This is a picture that has never been seen before at my house in its 100 year + history. People are standing under the floor joists.

Today was another busy day. I came home at lunch to find half of our basement wall missing as well as half of the basement dug out. This picture is of the brick part o the basement wall. I was surprised to see a double brick foundation wall. I'm guessing it was the origional foundation wall.

And, we're off!

One of the roots from the tree. Even though it is down, she is still going to put up a fight.

Not much left on the back porch.  The stairs will stay for a while yet until they get under there with the bobcat.

I'm thinking about writing Alanis Morissette for another verse to "Ironic". Isn't it ironic somebody who hates snakes has so many around his house?

Lots of activity today.  The house lifters were there when I got home for lunch, and already the sidewalks were gone, and they were working on the back stoop.  I'm thinking about doing a snake kill count, which would be a total of 8. Sandi got one when we took down the swingset, and they got 7 today so far from under the slab. We also had the electrician here today hooking up power to the garage so we will have power at the house?  I guess we have to say, power at the jobsite since we have no power, no water, no gas. The house is ere right now walking through it.

The Tree is Gone

Our naked little house.  Most likely the first time it has been hit with full sunlight in 70 years.

The fall of the tree did a number on our sidewalk.

The tree came down. Neighbors within a 1 block radius of our house are rejoicing for there will be no more pine cones in their yard. The stump was oozing with sap, it was sad to see a tree with no damage go.  It was a solid tree.

Back porch removal

We ended up getting a trailer.  Never buy a tool until you need it.  We debated as to whether a trailer was a want or a need.  We had come to the conclusion that it is a need.

Back porch all cleaned off.  I still have the vinyl to remove, but that won't be a problem at all.

Hidden in the roof is a second roof.  Wonderful.

I'm really liking the large freeze board. I have a smaller size on the plans I drew up, I'm going to have to see what a larger one would look like.

This is the progress after Saturday.  It ended up raining on Sunday, and we were both pretty drained from Saturday.  Disposal is also turning out to be an issue.  The nearest landfill is about an hour away, and the transfer station is only open on Friday, Saturday, & Monday.  This being Memorial Day weekend, Monday will be out of the question.

With a three day weekend upon us, it was time to take down the back porch.  As it sits now, it sits on a slab.  We started by removing the vinyl siding.  Found 2 snakes living behind the siding, and found another door.  I love old houses and the cover up jobs that lay beneath.