Gee, with 100 (more) yards of dirt gone there’s enough room in the backyard for, say, an RV?

We were seriously considering “popping” down to Big Bear for a July 4th, but just couldn’t face the sixteen hour round trip. In the end, it was just as well because our concrete guy called on Friday and asked if he could have 60 yards of dirt. After much deliberation we agreed.

When the dump truck and bobcat showed up, we found that the driver was supposed to load his own truck but he’d never driven a bobcat. Ch.t offered to do the loading for him, which turned out to be a big help. So the dirt slowly dissappeared and our plan to work on the forms turned into a surprise earth moving day. Brian’s bobcat is a real gem – it has AIR CONDITIONING and a fully ENCLOSED cab. I had to pry Ch.t out of there with a crowbar. All the thing needs is a cooler for Ch.t’s Mountain Dew and it would be perfect.

As the day went on, we learned that the folks taking the dirt would like more than 60 yards if we were willing to give it. After much brain twisting and discussion of what we were going to do landscaping/grading-wise, we agreed to a total of 100 yards. Having put up that top form board, we can finally measure grade around the house and it appears that there isn’t much that needs to be added.

Five loads were taken Friday and another five on Saturday. Sat afternoon, we got back in the basement and formed up the south end of the house. We stopped around 5:30pm, cleaned up and went to watch fireworks. Sunday we made flan (yum!) from the henny’s eggs and formed up 17-ft of wall on the west side of the house. We’re starting to get a system down for the forming and we’re getting much more efficient, much to my relief.

So we got 42 feet of wall formed, got rid of ANOTHER 100 yards of dirt – and as a bonus – got to clear out an area for a new chicken yard, and clear out all our parking areas. Now if we just had someone in an RV to park there. Hmmm… wonder were we could find someone like that?

 

Cute Family Pics

Check out my Flickr photostream for some classic pics of the Smith kids.

Mom just had these digitized from a bunch of old slides. Aren’t they amazing?!

 

At laaaaasssst….. we’re putting form boards u-up on the wall… our sluggy days are over… and life is like a dream! Mmmmm… at la-ast!

It only took two WEEKS for us to prepare for hanging the form boards. We got the studs finished a couple of days ago, then halted while Ch.t worked a trade payback day. We figured out brother Paul’s laser level (thanks Paul Jr!!!), picked a ceiling height (since the house isn’t level and the floor joists are deflecting – the fun only grows), and marked the location of the top form board. It took one and a half days to put on the top form board (a 2×8) all the way around. There was about 1/8″ error in the marks, so we checked level on the top board all the way around. It looks very nice, if I do say so myself.

This afternoon we tentatively took the next step and started dragging those 20-foot 2×12’s down to the basement to form up the exterior wall. We almost finished about one sixth of the perimeter and our approach  seems to be working. We’re very happy to find that we’re able to wrassle the big boards into place. These puppies are very heavy. Very, very heavy. But we’re able to do the job, so that’s a big relief. Because those boards are heeeevvvvyyyy. Yikes. Oh, and I can’t say enough good things about the impact driver I got for Mother’s Day. It is saving my little life.

 

My house is surrounded by studs

I can’t believe we made it around the whole house.

We’re going to level and set the first form board next. Then we’ll do the patio. Migrane very bad today. Will be happy when it is gone.

 

New Plan: Start Out Slow and Taper Off

This week it seems that we’re adopting our old marathon running approach: start out slow and taper off. Yesterday was excruciatingly slow – even for my darling Ch.t – and that is saying a LOT!

On the 24th we made sufficient progress, getting around the bay window (which we thought would be a hassle but it wasn’t) and all the utilities (which we thought would be a bigger hassle but it wasn’t too bad). Today, we reached the back porch (which we thought would be a hassle – and it was).

We’ve been preserving as much of the stairs as possible to ease our entry/exit from the house, but today we had to take out a couple feet of the bottom two (for now) stairs. This included a big chunk of concrete which is now in the basement and I imagine we’ll have to break it up to get it out of there!

We had a visit from the concrete guy and cleared up a couple of concerns we had about building the forms in such a way that they wouldn’t impede the actual pour. Very productive conversation and we have a good view of our process for the next few weeks. We set up a string for the back porch studs (which had to go THROUGH the stairs – hence their removal) and had all of THREE studs set by the time I had to leave to pick up the girls.

We also had two enjoyable visits from neighbors. If nothing else, this project is putting us in much closer contact with many of our neighbors. This is a hugely satisfying side effect and we’re loving all the new and enriched contacts.

My daily (cold-induced, sinus) migraine appeared right on time at lunch. The good news is that it is NOT being caused by using the level. The bad news is that this cold is really hanging on. I took some meds and made it thru the afternoon. Unfortunately, the caffiene in the meds makes me nautious, so I was not my normal ball of fire in the afternoon. Sigh. Hopefully my energy will return as we get back to grunt work after getting these studs and the first course of form boards up.

The girls and I picked up Ch.t’s favorite ice cream cake for his bday dinner and then he shared his bday present with the girls – new itsy-bitsy power drills in their own cute carrying case! The girls helped us set the last three studs for the back porch wall. It’s fun when they get to help with the foundation work. I hope it makes some impression on them that you can tackle a huge project and complete it (well hopefully, that’ll be what happens!!).

 

Step by Step

The girls had a big first today. An ice cream truck went by and they begged Ch.t to let them have a treat (they know better than to ask me). He said no, then changed his mind and said when the truck came around again they could have an ice cream treat. They SO couldn’t stand the anticipation and asked if they could go to the corner store for a treat. He agreed and said they could run down on their own. After cell phone instructions and with a ten-dollar bill burning a hole in their pockets they took off for the great unknown.

About eight phone calls later (no lie) they were back with ice cream and huge smiles on their faces. Of course, I watched them almost the whole way, but they got to face a very new experience and build their courage. In an unusual turn around, Catie was bold and Beck was tentative about the whole adventure.

We’re finally getting a handle on the early form building. We did the porch a couple of times on Monday, but realized that night that it still wasn’t right. Tuesday we checked the beam we’d been using as a guide and found it to be bowed. Decided that it would come out too with the porch redo, so ran a string line and did the porce for a third (and final) time.

Today we starting getting a handle on how were building the external forms. We’re putting a 2×4 ledger along the outside of the existing floor joists, hanging 2×4 posts off the ledger, plumbing the posts by screwing them to a stake pounded into the overcut beside them, then kicking them to grade.

Unfortunately, the existing floor joinsts aren’t all the same length. Because we can’t see the walls studs, it isn’t easy to tell if the joists are too short, too long, or if the wall is bowed. The books say that retrofitting a new foundation to an existing home is not a rectilinear process and the foundation should follow the house, so we’ve been accepting the wiggles. Today, however we came to a section where it was very clear that the underfloor extended PAST some of the joists. These joists we decided were indeed too short. So we’ve decided to nail the ledgers to the joists the we judge to be the “right” length and shim the rest. That seems to be working better.

So we got past the bay window today and then through the utilities section where we had to do a contortionist routine to attach the ledgers and studs and blocking in and around the electrical, gas, and water lines. Tomorrow we’ll tackle the back “wall” where we’re deviating from the existing footprint. Then the patio, then fixing and strengthening what we’ve put up this week.

 

The porch, she is not my friend.

We spent the entire day getting the ledger and studs that will hold the outside form boards properly aligned and attached to the front porch.

The porch, she is listing like an old rotten boat in a storm. I’ve posted before that we’ll demo the porch and rebuild it when we build the new cripple wall. It took us most of the day to figure out where to put the form studs so that the future foundation will be under the future porch with an existing porch that is out of plumb and level in every possible direction lying between these two points.

We finally decided that the beam that supports the roof would be our guide. We believe that we’re keeping that beam (it looks to be sound). So we hung plumb lines from the eaves, measured the distance from the string to the center of the beam and then calculated where our studs should be with respect to the string. This was not a simple task. I have a nasty cold and a migraine today and the calcs I had to do did not help matters. But being so under the weather also kept me from going crazy at the glacial pace we set today. The porch is also listing in different ways on each side of the stairs, tipping forward in such a way that the studs were being inappropriately pulled in. We decided to place various blocks in 1/8″ increments behind the studs to get them to around the right spot. We’re accepting a 1/4″ error assuming that the 2×12 form boards will have at least this much variance in them.

I think we’re done with the front porch. Tomorrow we get to work in the shade from the beginning and hope the western wall will go quickly. Yeesh.

I’ve been working on the under slab plumbing plan – complex with four different drainage systems (upstairs drain, basement drain and vent, foundation drain, window well/patio drain) in the same area. The upstairs and basement drains have to be separate by code because the basement sewer will have a backwater (check) valve in the line. I think I have a logical, code-compliant plan that will also minimize the volume of trench we’ll have to cut. Once we have the exterior form wall up, we’ll install all plumbing that has to penetrate it. Hence the plumbing plan.

In other news, twelve of the chicks have been relocated outside. Two are left in the bathtub and will get kicked out of the house next week. Little whitey has started laying the cutest, tiniest little eggs I’ve ever seen.

Here is one of her eggs in the pan with a normal sized egg. Isn’t it precious. Little Whitey has really become a friendly chicken. Everyone can pick her up and if we don’t keep the back door closed, she comes waltzing in to visit the baby chicks. Crazy chook.

 

I want to sleep in the footing trenches

The trenches are SO pretty and clean. Gee. They’re just amazing. The basement is really taking shape.

Ch.t had to work this weekend. His normal cycle fell on Sat/Sun. Beck was asking for a ride in the fire engine so we visited Sunday afternoon. As usual, there was a call during our visit – but the guys came back fairly soon & we had a nice time at the station.

Monday we DID hire some day laborers – four, not three. They dug all the footings trenches we’d prepared & we decided to have them back Tuesday for more digging. We thought for 4 hours. We rented the dump truck and moved 10 loads (about 50-60 yards) to a property about 6 miles away. Unfortunately – with four loads to go – the property owner decided they wanted no more dirt, so we were dead in the water. I took one other big load to Marty on the main drag and could have taken two loads to the lot where we dumped the last yardfull, but that lot was blocked off by a new post system. Arghh! We’ve decided to keep the dirt we have for now – until we do the landscaping.

On Monday night, we remembered that we had to dig the post footings. I got to Dale Hardware early for more marking paint and then started locating the center of the house so I could mark the post locations. I wasn’t quite ready by the time the guys got here, but we got moving fairly quickly. They dug the post footings (30″x30″x12″), then started digging out the patio. The bobcat was banished from the basement and the ramp started getting dug out.

The dratted septic tank continued to be a problem. That thing is a beast. The foundation demolition was cake, but we’re really paying for it with the septic tank demo. We finally made some progress and exposed we is probably around a YARD of broken glass, metal, and other rusted garbage. It was a real hassle trying to work on the patio with four guys and us, trying to keep everyone working. The septic really hung us up in the afternoon. I couldn’t mark the patio wall footings because of the septic. I was trying to dig it out, but wasn’t making much progress. We finally put two day laborers (Roger & Carlos) and Ch.t on it. It still took forever to dig it out. They got out more of the concrete, but we have more to go. Almost half of the patio footings are dug. We’ll finish up tomorrow.

We’re very happy with the accelleration that Roger, Carlos, Ernesto, and Pedro provided us in the dirt moving department.

 

We’re in the Trenches

No big news here. I keep waiting (well working my a** off) to get the dirt phase over, but it just WON’T END!!!! AUGH!!!!

It seemed like a big step when I marked out the trenches, but then we realized – after seeing the footing locations – that there were several places where the overcut had to be widened. More digging. Augh!

And of course, taking out the dirt for the footings will be just a huge PILE of digging. So, yes. We’re still in the dirt.

We have made progress this week… Monday, we dug out the last of the concrete and I took it to the concrete recycler. The dump truck went to work with Ch.t that night and he returned it the next day. Monday and Tuesday we worked on the overcut and started checking and adjusting our floor depth. Tuesday eve, the bobcat had a flat and it got fixed around 10am on Wednesday. So we lost about two hours of working time.

We hired a local guy (Bruce) to help us dig on Weds. He put in four hours Weds and two on Friday. Very hard worker, but not much interested in doing a whole day. We cut back more overcut and continued checking and fixing floor depth.

Thursday I dropped a bunch of plumb-bobs and started locating the footing trenches. I painted lines all over and as I mentioned above, learned that our overcut wasn’t at all as wide as we thought. Don of Perez House Movers showed up to move a post (it had been placed right where a footing would need to go).

Friday Bruce fixed the overcut for about 2 hours and then took off. We rented the trencing machine (ususally used to cut irrigation ditches). Hopefully, it is the right (or good enough) decision for us. Ch.t started trenching mid-morning and I moved dirt from the overcut. By 5pm or so we had to both attack the dirt so that I could mark the area near the new stairs.

I started trying to mark around 6pm and could NOT get all the angles and lenghts to come out right. I finally figured out that the house framing is 4″ narrower than I’d estimated. Yeesh. That fixed the problem so by 7pm Ch.t was trenching again.

The girls & I returned the trencher this morning. Bruce was supposed to come at 8am today to dig out trenches. He didn’t show. Bummer.

We’ll be hiring three laborers on Monday to dig out the trenches. If Bruce shows up he’s welcome to dig as well. I’m also renting a dumptruck for a day on monday and I’ll be moving 60 yards or so of dirt 6 miles away while the guys all dig and Ch.t ferries loads of dirt topside.

This should be a more descripting posting. I’ll have to flesh it out later. Love to all, C

 

The Dutchess of Dirt and Her Sewer Rats

I got a call at 9am this morning asking, “Is this the Dutchess of Dirt?” A neighbor wants some dirt. So I took him about 5 yrds, dumping it in a row of small piles along his property. Lucky guy.

Once the dirt was dumped, Ch.t and I started loading up the “demolition debris.” We’re taking all the painted and composite wood to the local reclamation and recycling center. In the end we threw 1600 pounds of wood into the dump truck. It took many hours. We’d removed some of the  cripple wall sections fairly intact (very heavy that way) and others we disassembled in place. The intact sections still had to be disassembled to separate the painted wood from the unpainted wood. A sledge hammer did a pretty good job on this. I also had to cut many lengths of siding in half to fit them in the dump truck (!). In the end it was pretty full, but we squeezed in all the sheet rock from the basement as well as some of the clay sewer pipe. All in all a good load of 6 yards or so. The recycling center only charged $60 for the load (by weight) – so that’s a great price. I’m so glad we have the dump truck right now.

After I returned empty again, Ch.t filled up the truck with the rest of the concrete. I’ll take that to the big pile by the bay on Monday morning after we demo the rest of the concrete under the front and rear of the house. The dump goes back Tuesday morning.

While Ch.t and I were working today, the girls were playing in the dust under the house. Ch.t ran some water out of the open pipe so they could make mud pies. I think they had four baths today. At one point they called out as a neighbor walked by, “Look mommy! We’re playing in the sewer water!”

I hope the health department doesn’t show up.