Framing Begins

It has been far too long since I've updated this site and so much has happened.  Last I checked in a month ago, the addition framing hadn't started yet.  Now the addition itself is completed framed and roofed in, and the upstairs interior demolition is complete and the interior framing is under way.  I plan to catch things up on here over the next week in a series of posts.  This one will cover the framing of the first floor.

Framing begins!

We had unexpected problems with the structural integrity of the back right of the house.  Our contractor did a great job of identifying the issue and developing an efficient workaround.

Looking from the north.  The doorway on the right will be a sliding door to the patio.

Another, later, view from the north.

First floor paneling goes on.  Looking from the south.

All paneled in from the southwest corner.

Looking from the west at the back window.  We've designed the window to align with the main corridor through the first floor of the house so you can always look out.

Looking at the existing house from the back corner of the addition.  The doorway will be removed, and the upper half of the wall to the left will be removed and will be a pass through the kitchen, with an extended counter and bar stools.  Books shelves and TV/Wall unit to the right of the door.

Looking to the north from inside the addition.

Next up: Second floor construction.

Steady progress!

Here are some updated pictures of the project!  The foundation is done! The slab is poured! Despite the rain this weekend we're hoping that we should be ready to continue stripping the back of the house and starting framing this week!

Gravel added and floor graded.

The insulation is mostly placed.

Time to pour the slab!

Giant hoses deliver the cement from the driveway.

I hope they don't stand in that cement for too long...

Our amazing team, led by our intrepid contractor James (on the left)!  Leveling out the slab and stamping out the air bubbles.

The slab is poured and level!  Let's hope the insane amount of rain we received this weekend didn't do anything bad to it.

Expect more frequent updates to come as the framing commences!

Construction Photos!

It's been a busy last month! A couple of weeks ago we broke ground, and my goal is to update the site with new photos weekly.


Without further ado, here's a photo series showing the progression of construction thus far:

First, the big walnut tree came down.

Then the digger arrived to demolish the old patio.

Once the patio was demolished, the ground was leveled.

A trench was dug, and the wood casing for the foundation footings were construction.  The  footings show the relative shape of the addition.

Here is the foundation footing after the concrete was poured the frames were removed.

Next, they built the framing for the foundation  to sit on top of the footing.

And here is what it looks like now, with the concrete poured, and the framing removed.

Next up, tomorrow they should start filling in with gravel, putting down water proofing and insulation, and then Wednesday or Thursday the concrete slab that will form the floor will go down.  In the meantime, they will start stripping the siding from the back of the house, and next late this week or early next, framing will begin!  I'll try to get up another update next weekend.

Construction begins! (Sorta)

After two years of planning, 18 months of permitting, and a whole lot of drama, pain in the ass, and doubt, we now have our building permit and our contractor is just a few days from starting construction.  Get ready for some heavy duty blogging upcoming!

In the meantime, to save a few dollars, I've taken on the first piece of deconstruction by myself, removing the cinder block retaining wall in the backyard.  The wall was made of around 200 cinder blocks stacked seven high, back by tons and tons of gravel.  While the cinder blocks were not cemented together in any way, they are heavy, and as each row came down, the gravel backing would spill out and require tons and tons of shoveling to clear enough away to get to the next row down.  Here's the progression:

Alarm bells!

The big switchover from old septic tank to new occurred yesterday.  Yay!  Finally!  Other than the giant hole in my bank account, this should be a cause for celebration!  But no.  Sadly there was a complication.

Did you know that our new septic system has an electronic monitoring panel hooked up to a phone line, so it can be monitored remotely (at significant expense to moi) to make sure it is not overly turdy?  And of course, what would an electronic monitoring panel be without a high-pitched, high decibel alarm system?  Ahem...an uncalibrated high-pitched, high decibel alarm system.

So there I found myself coming home after a late night at work.  Had some quick dinner and a little unwinding time.  I turned off the TV, but I couldn't get the ringing out of my ears.  Until I realized it wasn't inside my head ringing, but outside my head ringing.  Right.  The septic alarm.  So in my pajamas I put on my coat and sandals and headed outside, down the stairs, and over to the control panel.  Tracy had instructed me, having dealt with this earlier in the afternoon, that to turn off the alarm, you have to push the giant red lit up Rudolph nose button on the front of the panel.  So there I am, freezing, but at least guided by the light of the button.  And I push the button but nothing happens.  So I push again and hold it in.  After 10 seconds the loud whining ceased.  I waited 10 seconds to make sure it wouldn't come back on.  It didn't.  Relieved, I headed back to the house.

I made it as far as the stairs.  Just as I put my foot down on the bottom step, the ringing recommenced with renewed vigor.  Back to the panel.  I held down the button again, but I see it laughing at me.  The ringing stopped.  I let it go.  Relief.  For two seconds.  I managed to not punch the panel.  But I pushed that button again with more PSI than the recommended limit, if there were a recommended limit.  (Felt reminiscent of the scene with Ivan Drago in Rocky III.)

Hooray.  It stopped and stayed stopped.  Went in and straight up to bed.  Sleep finally.

Not.

After two calm minutes of bed, sweet bed, it started again.  I forced myself to consider this a dilemma, and debated whether to go back down.  But it wasn't much of a choice.  I had to go back down.

Back down the stairs.  Shoes, jacket, down the outside stairs.  The panel.  I looked at it.  I glared at it.  It was still laughing.  But then I gave it "the look"--you know--the one only your dad can give you when he is disappointed or wants to be intimidating.  Head bent, glasses down his nose, looking over the rims.  I pushed the button and gave it the look for a good 30 seconds.  I could tell it had stopped laughing.  I went back inside.  But now I wasn't sleepy.  Just angry.  So I turned the TV back on and researched what makes septic alarms go off.  There is a surprising amount of literature...none of which applies when you've just turned the system on for the first time 8 hours earlier.

Fortunately it stayed off the rest of the night.  Today they told us they had to calibrate it with their "computer people."  Right.  How would you like to have that job?  I'm the computer programmer...for poo tanks.

Let's hope for a quieter night tonight.

The septic install has begun!

After nearly a year of tests, inconsistent positions on the part of the county, and a lot of dollars spent, we finally got the septic installation started!  We're about halfway along.   The tank is in, but the drainfield hasn't been installed yet.  Here's some photos I managed to take since I happened to be at home feeling under the weather when they started working.  More photos to come of the drainfield if one of us is able to grab the camera during the next couple of days.

Here's the truck delivering the new tank.

The hole in the ground awaits its tank.

The tank being backed into position, while another truck shows up with all the septic installation accoutrements!

The tank being lifted into place.

The tank being dropped into the hole.

The tubing for our septic field awaits installation.

Asshattery

After three months of jerking us around, the county revoked its conditional approval of our standard septic system.  Thus ends 9 months of work and negotiation, leaving us with the same twice as expensive option we had back in January when this all started.  Thanks a lot county.  If you'd just denied us then, we'd be well into the construction already, if not done.

Looking at November or December to break ground now.  Feh!