Free Range Ramblings

The Don Perez guys were back today to move cribbing stack #4 and fix some shoring problems under the back porch. Don is so incredibly supportive and helpful. It is an unexpected and very welcome bonus. We appreciate all his advice and help.

For example, today while the guys were setting up the cribbing stack, Don got on the bobcat and did some of our excavation just for fun! He also left us his “small” demolition hammer (I can just lift it) to use till he gets back next week to move stacks 5 & 6. It has three different bits and will greatly help us demo the vertical concrete areas and dig out the dirt from behind the cribbing stacks. One small feature – the on/off switch doesn’t work so you have to have some one plug it in and then get ready to go, go, GO!

While Don and the guys were at work, I started demoing the front cripple wall. I uncovered some wierd stuff and found that the porch really isn’t shored securly because it’s floor joists are all rotten and termitey. The subfloor is a mess and really has to go because we have to make this porch waterproof. There will be shop space underneath the porch in the near term and possibly living space down there long term. The columns are rather weather worn and some of the wood is clearly rotted. Who knows what is going on in the porch railings. Sigh.

We knew there were problems with the porch, but we’d kind of put off dealing with it till after the foundation work. Now it seems that things are so bad that we are a bit precarious in the shoring. We could put backup support braces in and keep going or we could demo the porch now and build a nice solid framework when we do the new cripple wall. Building the cripple wall and porch railing as one unit will also make the railing much stronger (Don’s idea) as we can “balloon frame” it and thus eliminate three hinge joints. So we’re leaning toward demoing the porch now. Sigh. Let’s NOT tell the historic people, okay?

So that it the porch. Now for poultry. The baby chicks are doing great. Growing like gangbusters and plowing through their feed. The are so messy and wasteful! I’ve taken to picking up all the bedding and uneaten food and poop under their feeder and putting it through a sifter and feeding it to them again. Well, ten chicks aren’t really enough I thought, so I drove waaaayy up to Pleasant Hill yesterday to pick up another one.

I’d been planning on adding a Welsummer to the flock for her dark brown eggs. They are hard to find, but this feed store in Pleasant Hill intended to get some May 27 and I thought we could add that baby to the two week old chicks without much trouble. Then Becky’s Little Feather Foot (partridge cochin) was very sadly killed by a raccoon the other day. Mommy forgot to close up the coop that night. Bad, bad, sad, sad mommy. So when I went for the Welsummer, I noticed two other chicks of friendly, gentle breeds that might be a good replacement for Beck’s chick. Now we have three baby, baby chicks in addition to the ten two week-ers (which look HUGE in comparison).

Lastly, the poop. You must really want to know if you’ve come this far. When we laid out the temporary sewer, we designed in a removeable 10′ section that ran right in front of the area where we drive in and out of the basement. We remove the section in the morning, cap both ends, then replace it in the evening. When that section is out, the kitchen, back bathroom, and laundry can’t be used. Well, they CAN be used, but it is not wise. So Monday, I forgot and flushed a poopie down the back toilet while the section was out. At the end of the day, I had to hold the 5-gallon bucket to catch the brown trout that would be leaping out of the pipe as soon as Ch&t took off the cap. That bucket filled up fast (we forgot the back toilet is NOT a 1.6 gal toilet) and I had to put the full bucket down before all the water drained out. Then Ch&t kindly took the bucket up to the bathroom to put it all down the drain (once we’d hooked up the 10′ section again). Much teasing ensued. I was NOT amused.

Well today I did by bidness and DID NOT FLUSH, figuring I’d flush the back toilet after we’d replaced the section at the end of the day. There was just one little problem with that plan. I’d forgotten that Papa and Tata were to come for dinner. I was out picking up Becky when they arrived and they used the back bathroom and kitchen before Ch&t noticed and told them the score. So….. at the end of the day there was no way a bucket would catch the volume of water backed up in that line. We let it fly and I had to pick up the – ermmm – pieces afterward for proper pooper disposal.

We got the western cripple wall down today. It wasn’t as bad as we’d feared. Getting the water table and 1×10 trim off was harder than on the east side as the east side wood was pretty loose and rotten. The west side stuff was still fairly solid. We cracked some of the lowest course of siding on the house proper trying to pry off the water table (which FELL off on the east side). That was a bummer.

But we figured out a way to get the siding off fairly intact. Ch&t hit the back of the siding with a block and small sledge, creating a gap between the siding and the stud. Then he would slide the sawzall between the stud and siding and cut the nails. We’d move stud by stud until the piece of siding was out. We had to move some electrical and work around all the utilities coming OUT of the wall and going INto the wall on this side. That was a pain. It’ll be more of a pain when we try and sheath the new cripple wall. But one problem at a time.

With each piece of siding removed, the light in the basement grew. It now seems so sunny down there and the house is starting to “float” on it’s girders. When the front siding comes off it’ll really look crazy wild. Tomorrow the house movers come back to move cribbing stack #4 to its final location and fix some problems under the addition.

The photo series below shows the progress from around the same spot in the basement over the course of the past 20 days. There is a length of 3″ copper DWV pipe at the far left of each photo that should help orient you as the picture changes.

Well, you probbly can’t tell from the photo, but here is Ch&t studying a concrete wall that USED to be topped by a cripple wall of the original back wall of the house. We took that out today along with the entire EAST side cripple wall. It wasn’t so bad once we got going.

I thought we should continue demolishing the western cripple wall, but Mr. Diggy wanted to get back in his little bobcat and dig, dig, dig! So he did.

After clearing the dirt all the way up to this wall (those are the old stairs into the basement) he gave it (the wall) some strong whacks with the big sledge hammer, but it laughed at us, “Ha! Ha ha! I am not so weak as to crumble under your pitiful assault! I want to LIVE!” Or something like that.

Paul Jr is bringing a demolition hammer tomorrow to see if it will break up the concrete from both a vertical and horizontal direction.

In the meantime, the rubble around the house grows. The western cripple wall is calling us and we are afraid. We’re hoping to preserve the old siding and our experience today indicates that this will be a challenge.

I took the girls for a play date this morning so that Ch&t could continue excavating. Though it was a holiday, city ordinance allows construction 9am-6pm. He got out a LOT more dirt. The pile is growing quickly in the back yard. He also had a productive conversation with a neighbor who has a ranch in the nearby hills. Our neighbor said we were welcome to dump our 250 yards of clean fill up at his ranch!!!!!! Could I have an AMEN!?

This is a huge cost savings to us. Dump fees are $10-12 a yard, so we’re looking at $2500+ in dump fees alone. I was working with the city to see if they’d take the dirt at the plaza project in our little downtown and they were interested but needed testing done, etc. Our neighbor is a MUCH simpler solution. What a relief! Now we just have to decide how we’ll get the dirt up there. We have the bobcat, so it’s a matter of renting a dump truck or hiring someone with a dump truck. Hmmm… decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, Ch&T jammed his thumb while working today. It is swollen and very painful. But as you can see from the photo, he’s still in a great mood. He’s having big fun playing in the dirt.

Papa and Tata are here in town and decided to attend the annual (for 40 years now) Memorial Day Campout. We couldn’t pass up the chance to see them again, but we (I) was intent on NOT packing. Our stuff is stashed all over the house & property, Catie’s camping gear was sent to school last week in preparation for her school campout, and I just didn’t have the energy to pack. Did I ever mention that I hate packing? No? Well, I HATE packing. I hate unpacking just marginally less.

I used to go on serial biz trips when I was a working girl. I’d get home from a week long trip, explode my roll-on suitcase in some corner of the house, pack again, travel, return, repeat. At that time I owned a cat named “Baby Kitty.” She wasn’t terribly fond of my constant travel and would let me know this by peeing all over my piles of  “unpacked” clothes while I was away on my next trip. I think my record was four piles. Really, that isn’t too bad, don’t you think?

So anyway, in the middle of the construction (well really the beginning, we’re hardly in the middle yet), I couldn’t face packing for camping. And Catie had a bday party we’d RSVPed to before realizing it was Mem Day Wknd. Our solution was to drive up Sunday morning, spend the day, have campfire with everyone, then drive home after campfire. It was a long day, but SO worth it to see everyone again. I wished I’d mustered the energy to pack because I’d have liked to have spent (how passive can I get?) much more time with this wonderful group.

Pics on Flickr.

Ch.t whacked off a bunch more of the septic tank wall gettting it low enough to incorporate it into the ramp. We decided to put all the chunks of concrete we’d broken off the septic tank back inside to fill up the remaining depth of the hole. So now it isn’t really a hole anymore and if the bobcat runs over it, it’ll have traction to move over it.

Okay, we’ll calm down soon, but this is real progress. Today Ch.t got all the way UNDER the house, turned around, got a scoop, and came up the ramp FORWARD. All without knocking the house down!

Look! I can show you!

Here is the first time the bobcat got under the girder…

Here is a video from the end of the day…

See! It’s really happening. The big progress here is that we’re safely under the girder. We don’t want to hit the girder. That would be bad. The other big progress is turning around under the house. This is necessary to move about. The last big progress is coming up the ramp face first instead of butt first. This means the ramp is the right slope and Ch.t won’t roll over backwards IN the bobcat. That would be bad too.

Meanwhile, the chicks are growing. As is the pile of dirt in the backyard. And need I mention the dust.

Ch.t started the ramp in earnest this morning and got it to about two feet deep fairly quickly, exposing the foundation wall.

The next step was to widen the hole in the cripple wall and start removing the foundation wall. All the contractors we spoke with would ask us in serious tones, “So who is doing the demo of the old foundation?” It seemed like a big deal, but we weren’t sure why.

After starting the Demo Of The Foundation work today, we still don’t know why they were so concerned about this step. And we’re even more glad that we’re replacing this crazy old foundation. We’ve kicked the foundation wall before and seen some river rock in it, but today, we approached it to remove this first section and it literally FELL APART in our hands! Ch&t took a movie of me pulling it down with my hands. And it is FULL of river rock! FULL! Almost all rock. Brittle as hell. Crazy. Now, we’ll probably end up running into really solid sections and having to rent a jack hammer to get it out. But for now, we’ve got the chickens tearing it apart for us. Har. Not really.

By the end of the day, Ch.t was nudging the bobcat nose under the house. We haven’t yet dropped low enough to clear the girders and plumbing. Maybe by tomorrow.

Here’s the big stud Mr. Diggy on his new favorite toy. He’s getting very smooth backing up the ramp.

Near the end of the day, we finally encountered the old septic tank. We knew it was there and expected it to complicate matters. After the ease of destroying the foundation, we were surprised to come up hard against a very solid tank. After much shovel work, we exposed some of it’s outline and Mr. Diggy Stud Boy had at it with a big sledge hammer and took off the top. It is a big danger as we don’t want the bobcat to fall into the pit, so we have to deal with it before continuing the dig tomorrow.

The house moving guys had a long day today – fixing the shoring under the addition, leveling the girders and taking over half the slope out of the house, shoring the front porch, and shoring the bay window. They got it all done with many fewer cracks to the house than expected. All the doors still work – not so sure about windows. By the end of the day, most of the posts and beams from the (now) “old” support system were lying in the dirt. The guys kindly helped us remove and lower them.

The sewer, water main, and electrical line to the carriage house are all in the way of the soon to be ramp needed for the bobcat to access the basement. So it all needs to be moved.

We moved the sewer on Monday, so while the guys worked, we rerouted the water main. You’d think it would be a two hour job, but it took us about four. We plumbed in a couple of hose bibs as well and made a tight connection to the old plumbing. We must have done something else as well because I did some plumbing alone while Ch.t did something else. I forgot to take photos of this.

Then we tried to find the electrical suppy for the carriage house. We came across a pvc pipe early in our search, but discounted it because who runs direct burial cable in PVC pipe! After a few scoops with the bobcat (not MY idea) and some serious shovel digging (by me), we happened to trace that little PVC pipe a little further and guess what we found coming out of it? A direct burial electrical line! We decided to put an electrical junction box on the outside of the carriage house to connect the existing electrical line going into the house to the new supply line. Our new supply line is a 12/3 extension cord coming from the guest house. Funky, but it works. And quick, once we found the stupid line going into the carriage house!

Once the electrical issue was solved, Mr. Diggy couldn’t wait to start on his ramp. I’m SO glad he’s excited about using the bobcat to excavate because I still scares me. But I have total confidence that he’ll be safe and keep the house up and himself alive. As he built the ramp, he ran into all the utilities we’d moved this week and we had to tear them out bit by bit. But the ramp is started.

Ch.t and I took a break from construction today to celebrate a big achievement. Ch.t’s niece, Priscilla, just graduated from nursing school.

We’re so proud of her! After dropping off the girls at school and making sure Don had what he needed, we drove up to Sacramento and watched the graduation. We were able to join the group for lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack (!) in Old Sac before zooming home to pick up the girls at 4:15pm. It was an all day gig.

While we were gone, Don and the crew put beams under the addition. It’s a complicated little setup. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to remind him that the addition needed blocking to enable our new 2×10 joists to be slid under before the shoring is removed. I called him that night & he’ll bring the blocking tomorrow to fix it.

We also ordered a “skid steer loader” – I guess the generic name for a Bobcat. Don will pick it up for us tomorrow and we’ll have it for 28 days or 160 hrs, which ever comes first!