May 24, 2006
Preparing Floor for Hearth Slabs
Posted by dana at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2005
Roof Comes Off
Big bummer. For the engineering plan, the roof has to come up so that nails can go into the sheer wall from above.
Posted by dana at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2005
Windows Demolition
Though the windows are not here yet, they are supposedly on the way. So let's demo the existing! The house finally looses its curb appeal, and looks like a house being worked on from the street.
Some before and after shots:
Hall bath window:
Side 2nd bedroom window:
Front Second bedroom window:
Front Windows (check out that pink the house used to be!):
The house:
Posted by dana at 12:07 PM | Comments (2)
November 09, 2005
Siding Comes Down
The master closet bad add on siding came down today. This is the first time you can see the work from the street. And when you are inside, it feels like you are in a big pop up tent.
As was.
Going...
Going...
Gone!
From the back before.
From the back after.
Posted by dana at 07:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2005
Back Windows. Out
Remember that sliding glass door that started it all. Good bye. But it took them over an hour. I guess with all the demo the house settled and jammed it in there.
Finally!
Also, the windows in the back came out. Now it feels like the house is this big empty shell. Inside is outside. Hope it doesn't rain.
I hope it's more than that piece from the patio cover holding up the roof!
Posted by dana at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
Good-bye Patio
This is the most heartbreaking thing so far. We loved this patio. We had great dinner parties here. Memories of friends here. The lights and the ambiance. Such a comfortable place to be. But it did have its problems. When we had day time pool parties, we would slip on the bricks when they were wet. Kids would too. And the dogs. So we decided it would really be best if we put in bricks to match the ones on the decking around the pool. They are a little rougher and give more traction when wet. Plus the patio cover or trellis was old and decrepit. So we are biting the bullet and rebuilding them. Here is the demo from a few points of view. It started last Saturday.
Point of View 1:
From Point of View 2:
From Point of View 3:
From Point of View 4:
From Point of View 5:
Posted by dana at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2005
The Garage Gets It
Meanwhile we have to clear out the back garage wall for its demo. This involved getting everything out of the wall units. Took me a good chunk of last Sunday. To make room for it all, I had to haul a bunch of rubbermaid containers filled with old clothes up into the attic. Why do I hang on to t-shirts for 15 years? And fleece, and old jeans.
They need to get into this wall to put in a 4x4 post which will provide support to the big 12x6 beam that is going where the sunroom and living room meet. That beam was ordered a long time ago and it still hasn't arrived. It's basically ordering a tree. All of this is purely for structural integrity. We are just as happy though because in 1950 or something, someone hit the back wall with their big Cadillac and left a huge hole -- patched with newspaper of the day -- the rats loved it I'm sure. Also, the shelving was rickety. We don't yet know what we are going to do there.
Before:
During:
After:
One great thing about our crew is that they leave the place very clean when they finish up. they sweep up at the end of the day everyday. This is really important. We have not had the problem with dust we were warned about.
Posted by dana at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2005
Hidden Treasures
From the beginning, we have fantasized about finding something long lost and worth a million bucks! Maybe some old jewelry, old letters, a treasure map. Well we haven't found anything like that yet, but that doesn't mean there aren't surprises to be found in old houses...
I always thought that smell was Roxy.
Posted by dana at 05:16 PM | Comments (2)
September 07, 2005
There's Going to Be Nothing Left!!
Today was so loud, I am glad we sent the neighbors the chocolates. So Loud! Jackhammers went for 4 hours as they dug a trench for the new bathroom wall. I need to post the house plans so you can see the new floor plan. But the new master bath is a third will come from the sun room a third from the master bedroom and a third from the old hall bath. So there is a little wall rearranging going on.
And here you can see the wall came down between the bedroom and the sunroom. I know it wasn't load bearing, but it still makes me nervous. Last night I woke up from a nightmare where the roof fell in.
Posted by dana at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2005
Still More Demo
We are really getting down the the bare bones of this place. Wow. Pretty soon, walls are going to come down to make the new master bath. Yikes!!
I thought the demo would take 3 days, just a lot of smashing and crashing, right? But they have been working hard on this for 21 man days. It's a lot of hard dusty work.
The sunroom ceiling came out.
Looking up into the attic is bizarre. We didn't know the air conditioning unit was hanging from the roof instead of resting on the ceiling beams. I guess that is a good thing.
From the master:
Another view of the sunroom and the master. The sliding glass door in the background is coming out and will be moved over to be centered over the brick stoop.
They also did a little more demo in Bedroom 2/den.
Posted by dana at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2005
Show!
I left the house yesterday after the No Show entry because I was so flustered and wound up. In the car, I called our architect and gave him a status update. He said that I shouldn't be mad at this. If they are on schedule, then I have no control over when they show up for work. Most people don't live throught a remodel of this scale, so they don't know all of these details. He told me to calm down or I would drive myself crazy.
I went to Lowe's to get a 3 pole fader for the bedroom. So that when the electician showed, it would be there. Then I got a burger before returning home.
And guess what? There they were! Demoing away! So I need to learn to ignore it when anyone gives me specific times. Should I ask the foreman to not give them? I should also not spaz when they don't show up one day. I'm sure there is a whole personnel management facet to this business that I am unaware of.
So anyway, this is what they accomplished yesterday:
They took out the wall between the master closet and the master bedroom.
And they took out the ceiling in the master bedroom
the first whack!
The electrician was here to take care of everything we needed on our side of the house.
And the plumber made his first on site appearance. He pulled up the floor in the old hall bath to get a start on the old piping. There are still some galvanized pipes that have never been replaced. The house is mostly copper, but some of the galvanized survived.
Here, you can see the crawl space under the house for the first time.
They guys are here again today. Pix to come.
Posted by dana at 11:17 AM | Comments (2)
August 26, 2005
Five Days Later
I must say, despite yesterday's unfortunate event, things are looking pretty good. Our architect came over just now and is very impressed with the progress made. He is also impressed with how clean they are managing to keep everything.
Upon inspecting the opened up walls, he doesnt see any surprises that will prevent us from carrying out our plans. Sometimes there can be support walls you didn't count on, or other such roadblocks. So that there are none so far is a blessing and a surprise.
We are also intrigued to see little glimpses into the house's past.
Here, you can see two doors the previous owners sealed up. The right one is from the bedroom to the sunroom. When the house was first built, this was a door to the outside. The left door was to a master water closet. We think it must have been a half bath.
You can see the two doors. Sunroom in the background.
This is the master bedroom from the other way.
This is the closet wall which is coming down. The large header beam indicates where the new wall will be.
Here are a couple more closeups of the cement floor. The bedroom / closet wall will be built on this seam.
You can already see how the living/sun room is opening up. In the first picture, you can see the wall and doorway involved in my freak out yesterday. And you can see the plywood barrier placed in the doorway to the dining room. Also, you can see a covered up window that looked from the dining room to the sunroom. It was covered up probably at the same time the master door was.
Here is the plywood from the dining room.
Underneath the tile was a cool looking jagged brick painted white. I couldn't get a picture of it because it was so dusty. Oh well, it's gone now. Now that it is demoed down this far, our architect took exact measurements for finalizing the stone and bookshelf elevations.
Posted by dana at 05:23 PM | Comments (1)
My First Freak Out.
This happened yesterday. There I am happily working in my office, thinking that this isn't going to be so bad. The dining room is actually cozy. The noise isn't driving me crazy as warned.
How silly.
I suddenly smell dust. Not so much a smell as a sensation. But a plaster particle invading my nose sensation. Wait! How is dust getting way back here? Hmmm... Let's go investigate!
One of the guys who was taking plaster off the sunroom wall shared with the dining room got to the plastic covered doorway and took down the plastic to continue his work!
I repeat, he took down the plastic protecting our part of the house so he could get at the doorway. What the heck!!!
"Stop everything!"
I hated to yell at them since I can't communicate in Spanish, but what were they thinking? I tell them not to do any more work until the plastic is back up. I call the foreman and the contractor to advise them of the situation. The foreman was in El Salvador due to a death in the family. The contractor says he will be over in 2 hrs.
I leave to get some fans so that at least there will be some airflow and the dust will be carried out of the house. Lowe's was out. Linens and Things was out. Target was out. Great. I get back and they were hammering away, and the plastic they put up was riddled with holes!
"Stop everything!"
Time for micromanagement. I know demo is not skilled labor by any means, but I guess some people need supervision doing anything. These guys were not thinking. (Which reminds me, I need to comment on the labor and how it fits into the larget economy.)
I told them to put up plywood and get it taped up and also got another door taped.
I got my scotch cloths, used for my computer equipment, and dusted the dining room. It could have been much worse had I not been there to catch it quickly.
By the time the contractor arrived, I had it under control. But good grief. I told him it was important to me to have consistency in labor. I want the same people coming so we dont have to reeducate people everyday. He apologized profusely and took me to lunch, so all was not lost.
Posted by dana at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2005
The Demolition Begins.
Our contractor told us that they were going to just drop off a few things. Maybe do a little work, nothing heavy. Well, I got news for ya. BOOM! By 8:30AM, the place looked like a bomb went off.
They show up at 7:00AM. Eager and ready to go. I think they really want to get a job started, because as soon as the first thud hits, you are commited. There is no going back. I liken it to getting on an airplane. You are on, and you can't get off until the flight is finished.
Because of the DirectTV debacle, we hadn't moved any of the furniture from the Sunroom to the Dining Room. After all, we could not miss the Series Finale of "Six Feet Under." So the first thing they did, was help us move our furniture into the dining room, our new living space.
Moving stuff out.
And moving it in.
Plastic went up to protect our side of the house from dust.
Keeping the dust out.
And then all hell breaks loose!
We were thinking we could leave a few things in the Bedroom #2 for a few days. Until they really got going.
Uhhh... No.
The closet was here.
And now it's here.
The old master bath / new hall bath gets a beating.
You can now see thru the original door for this bathroom to the hall. The entry hall is in the background.
And the hallway is opened up.
And while all of this is going on, there are still clothes hanging in the closet! And I have no where to put them. I go running out to Target to buy some racks and some more sterlite bins. And get everything outside before it's too late!
A lot of our clothes ended up in my office. We ended up giving a lot to the Cancer Society store and to Out of the Closet. It's one thing to have crappy clothes you never wear hanging in a back corner or your closet, it's another to have them hanging in your office right in front of you.
The sunroom gets a beating too.
My camera was getting dust in the lens, so I decided to stop taking pictures. Dust was everywhere.
Yesterday and Today, the demo is going even further. I will post those pix tomorrow.
Posted by dana at 12:51 PM | Comments (3)