Week 6

Many, many doings this week, & another milestone: excavation done!

Not much happened on Monday -- more men walking around & looking at things. Then on Tuesday, I came home to this:

The neighborhood was very, very excited to see us put out a debris box right across the street from the one already there.

Here's where all that dirt came from:

It's easier to see in this photo just how deep the hole is (3 feet):

They decided not to bring in a bobcat to dig this out. It's basically 3 or 4 guys with shovels & pickaxes doing all this work.

Wednesday

About halfway done:

More posts were put up to support the kitchen, as they removed more of the existing structure:

They are digging up all kinds of old bricks and chunks of 100 year old concrete, and tons of tons of animal bones of various shapes & sizes. It's hard to add to the Critter Count^TM, because they're all bits & pieces. Let's just call it 100. And, yeah, let's just go ahead & assume they're all animals.

They also dug up half a rubber rat, which I think does actually count toward the Critter Count^TM, per standard regulations, bringing us up to 105 total critters:

That wooden stump thing coming out of the dirt wall above the rubber rat is the root of the monster rose bush we moved in Week 4.

Thursday

Done!

All told, this filled two of those debris boxes. 

They dug up plenty more random stuff on the last day. 

Horse shoe:

Rusty old cooking pot:

Boot:

Lots of broken up concrete (some 100 years old), & some giant slabs of granite (?) that were actually part of a foundation under there once upon a time:

Here's a slab that's still in place:

And here is an old sewer line that they uncovered:

It's hard to see, but there is actually a floor drain attached to it, sitting maybe a foot down from where the floor was when we moved in. Seems like this was once much more of a room than we thought.

On the right side of it, there is also a place where the rain gutter ties in -- it seems like whoever set up that rain gutter thought that it was a good way to deal with the rainwater...but then didn't realize that this is actually a sewer line to nowhere. It stops on the left, just past where the buckets are, and drains all the rainwater straight into the dirt under the house. 

Friday

There was a little bit of a miscommunication on Friday. Mr. Bunkport asked Jonathan to remove the floor in the little room in the garage (this one), because the plumber needs the floorspace for work next week. 

I came home to find this in the kitchen, and a very sheepish Mr. Bunkport & Jonathan:

Apparently, Jonathan thought he meant the floor of the porch:

Mr. Bunkport said he would cover the cost of the mistake, & he can either put up a temporary floor now, or if we don't mind waiting a couple weeks, framing will be finished & the real subfloor will be going in anyway. We're going to try & wait.

Ok, no problem!

It's nice that the painting of the flower is still up on the wall. It makes it feel a little homier. Despite not having a floor.

Here's the debris from the Wrong Floor:

Including a layer of linoleum that was under the greenish vinyl tile:

And another layer that was under there somewhere:

Half the insulation in that room was probably just layers of linoleum.

Saturday

Mr. Bunkport had to send Jonathan on Saturday morning to demo the Right Floor, so that the garage would be ready for the work happening early next week. So, I got up early to do some stuff I wanted to accomplish before someone was there to tell me that I would Hurt Myself or that I was Doing It Wrong.

I moved the heavy granite things, the really old concrete, plus a couple heavy old clay pipes out of the way, & into the yard for future use in the garden:

I also removed a dead rose bush that had been to the left of that pile -- I figured I should do it while there was still a pile of dirt in the yard that I could use to fill up the hole.

Jonathan made quick work of the rest of the little room, removing the entire floor & the short wall in about half a day. He didn't find any critter skeletons, but he did find these & about 7 more small (about 6 inches tall) boxes of French's instant mashed potatoes under the floor:

That long, whitish thing is an animal bone, by the way.

There was a cupboard in the corner that was full of rat droppings & old walnut shells that we just boarded up & left alone after we moved in. When he took the doors off, this denuded tennis ball was there, along with all its fuzz:

Just to be clear, this ball didn't roll in there on its own. It was brought in. Gross.

Here's that room, after he left:

I went in there today & removed the last of the sheetrock that we didn't clear out during February. We're going to have them put the little room back in, but may have them make it a little smaller -- maybe around 10'x10' (it was about 12'x13'). Plenty of time to figure that out! Next week, they will be opening up the floor in the garage to replace the sewer line, & confirming all sorts of drainage things about the future bathroom. Then, the foundation pour will happen either this coming week or the following week.

Week 5

This week got off to a slow start, but it ended with the achievement of a milestone: the end of the demolition phase!


Monday

Nothing happened here on Monday, so here's a picture of the construction happening across the street (similar project to ours, as it happens):

And a picture of the 2-foot tall jack the excavation guys are using to shore up the house:

Tuesday

Nothing happened on Tuesday, so here's a picture of the water still in the hole, at the base of one of the cribs (i.e. the giant Lincoln log stacks). 

They think that they might have hit some underground water, so I guess we'll see what that means.

Wednesday

The possible underground water appears to not be a problem for progressing. The house is now officially shored up:

Oh, and then this happened while they were doing that:

This is painted-over wallpaper that loosened up & ripped open in the bedroom while they were shoring up the house. No cracks underneath, so I guess it's all fine. Ok, no problem!

Thursday & Friday

Not much happened. Some poking around & looking at things, mostly. And a termite man said there are no new colonies to worry about. So that's good news.

Saturday

Progress! Debris has been hauled away:

The stuff left in that little room is all stuff that can be reused elsewhere in the project.

The siding is off the back of the house:

My plastic! My beautiful plastic! 

Mr. Bunkport feels that the original siding is actually in decent shape. Anything salvageable is great news!

The last of the demolition phase was in removing the rest of the old, beetle-eaten walls:

This isn't a wall, it's the back of the neighbor's fence:

Meanwhile, the yellow rose bush is blooming:

Next week, they will be excavating down two feet, & after that, starting to deal with plumbing.

Week 4

It was fits & starts this week, due to some unusual weather: heavy heavy downpours, thunder, and hail on Monday & Tuesday.

On Monday, we came home to a big development: no back wall!

View from inside the garage:

 


View from the yard, showing how little there actually is holding up the back of the house:




Somehow they're figuring out how to continue to cram more debris into the little room in the garage:




Meanwhile, the excavators moved these piles of lumber into the garage. These will be used to build the giant lincoln log towers that will hold up the house:




Work continued on Tuesday, despite the heavy rain. We came home to this:








Here is the last of the rosemary tree:




To get those supports properly situated, they had to dig down two feet (by hand, by the look of it) for each one. Because of the heavy rains, the holes promptly filled up with water, and work had to stop until they drain. As of today, Sunday, it's almost finished.

Wednesday was sunny. You can really get a sense of how warm and comfortable that room is going to be when you see how the afternoon sun comes in through the back wall, where the glass doors will be:




No further work happened this week, until Saturday, when AJ & I moved the monster rose bush. It was going to have to go from the middle of the yard to make way for the terrace steps anyway, so rather than just let it go straight to the giant compost pile in the sky, we decided to try & move it.

First, we took out the screwball pink rose bush in front of the panda. Here is AJ (gleefully) chopping it up with a hatchet so that it will fit in the green bin:




Pickles was fascinated by what we were doing, & was especially enthralled by the stinky fish fertilizer gunk Momma Arave advised us to put in the hole before replanting. Luckily, she didn't fall (or leap) in:




Next, we did our best Morticia Addams, & pruned off all the flowers & buds, so that the energy of the plant will go into re-rooting itself in its new home:




Then, digging the monster out. The soil here is very dense clay. After all the rain this week, it was heavy & unbelievably sticky:




Yet, we perservered, with shovels, spades, & determination. And cursing.




We were rewarded with two glass marbles:




And this 2-inch tile:




And the eventual freeing of the rose bush:




Pickles didn't seem to notice or care that this giant bush was getting placed two feet from her napping spot.

With that giant dirt pile already in the yard, filling the hole in was a snap:




Then the last & very important step of scraping all that mud off our shoes:




Success!

The main root was literally as big around as my arm. We have no idea how old this thing is, but we're hopeful that we saved enough of the root system for the bush to survive.

Here's the view of the rose bush in its new home, when you first walk into the yard:




On Sunday, I took the opportunity to put all the stuff back in a less Hoarders sort of way:

And then we had a picnic.

Next week is going to be hot & sunny, so we're looking forward to more work happening. Let's get this show on the road!