Basement and Roof!

Today they started work on the roof.......and by the end of the day just about all the addition's roof was up and they began tearing down the roof on the existing house we are replacing.   Tomorrow the rest of the roof should be finished.  YAY! 

The mason was also here today with some of his workers.   Today's job was to prep the basement for an inspection (hopefully tomorrow) and get ready for the floor to be poured.   This is something I've been wondering about for a long time....HOW are these guys going to prep and pour the floor when it's totally closed in and with the exception of minimal light from the 2 windows....and HOW are they going to get the wheelbarrow OUT that was left down there since July?    My questions were answered......I missed the wheelbarrow removal, but it's no longer down there...and they had lights hanging to help them see.  Not very good light....I wouldn't be reading a novel down there, but I guess enough light to get the work done (I hope we pass inspection tomorrow).    So they laid some plastic down and some kind of metal (??) grid...oh and some more gravel...and VOILA'....ready for inspection! 

So as you can see...it's pretty dark down there, but looks nice..right (well aside from the Gatorade bottle that's been there since July)?  So I think tomorrow right after inspection the truck will come and the floor will get poured!

What's in store for this week?  
Inspection.
Finish basement floor. 
Finish Roof. 
Existing kitchen to be gutted. 
AC guy comes to start work in basement.
We have to finalize siding. 
And John mentioned something about the electrician and plumber coming for a "gang bang"....Yup, you read that right!   We don't remember reading anything about a "gang bang" in the contract, but apparently this is what they do! (Who knew????!!!??)  Stay tuned.......


~Gianna~

Sunday Funday GONE BAD....VERY BAD!

Oh what a night.......

Joe, Ava and I went to Home Depot to look around...on our way home a really big storm hit, hard rains like we haven't had in a long time....the whole way home Joe kept saying he was worried about our house, but I kept telling him it was fine!  Wellll..it wasn't fine.  When we got into our house we heard water coming from somewhere..we opened the bathroom door and water was pouring in from the windows and ceilings....like a waterfall..the floor was flooded.  I went into the playroom and water was pouring in there too.  Joe ran downstairs and the obscenities were coming out of his mouth just as fast as the water was coming into our house!   I went to our stairs that lead to the basement and saw water pouring in from our old backdoor and heading down the carpeted basement stairs!  When i got down the stairs I couldn't believe what I saw.....the wall on the addition side had water flowing out of it..and we already had about 1-2" on the ground..and it was coming under the walls and into the carpets!  I grabbed as many towels as I could find and headed back up.  Put them where I could and brought Ava up for a nap.  When I came back....the rain was still falling inside and out.  Joe called John (who was with his family for the weekend...far away) and he told him to try and use garbage bags or tarps to close the windows off.   As Joe headed outside the rain slowed down a little.....and one of our neighbors brought over a wet vac.  He got most of the windows tarped.....and headed inside when the rain really started to slow..and tried to vacuum it out!   I kept-up with the inside...especially my photo albums....which were hit with the rain...including my wedding pictures!  I had to try and dry them all and put them in new albums!   So as Joe took care of the basement and windows I took care of the bathroom, kitchen (which did have a small leak) and the playroom.    Just as things calmed down a little....another storm started up..and we got hit with round 2!   At this point Joe called John back and his wife answered (he was driving) and asked her to find out if there was ANYONE we could call to help us tarp better...since the garbage bags we had weren't working....they called back and told us Pete (the electrician) was coming to help!  He got here pretty quickly and so did my BIL (Joe) with another wet vac.  Pete went up on the roof and found out the problem.  Because the drains were removed from the 2nd floor...the water was pooling on the 2nd floor/floor..there was a slight pitch in the floor and it was throwing the water down between the addition and the existing house...basically pouring it down into our house!  He swept about 2-3 inches of water still on the floor, created a new drain leading OFF the roof and then with a drill...drilled a bunch of holes in the 2nd story floor and the 1st story floor, with the hopes that it would guide the water into our new basement which is only gravel and go back into the ground!    The whole thing was horrible......it didn't rain again like that...THANK GOD!   But Joe was in the basement all day and night..from 2pm-midnight cleaning the mess,wet vacuuming, and cutting up the carpet (and moving furniture) in the basement that got destroyed.   It was a lot of work downstairs...and I stayed up and took care of Ava and helped when I could.. ..but we hope this doesn't happen again..and the rain holds off for the rest of the summer! 

here are some pictures I got!
The floor is soaking wet, but it's hard to see....

Water is pouring into the windows..but you can't see it..all that water in on the inside of the window...

You can kinda see it coming in..here...

Basement floor....

Basement after round 1 of wet-vac....

Where the waterfall was......

~Gianna~

It's framing time......

The builders spent the 2nd half of the week doing the floor joists (the basement ceiling and first floor, floor).   It took about 2 days, so they did it Thursday and Friday and it's basically done.  Moving along........
John is away on vacation this coming week, so I won't have anything to report, unless we get a surprise visit from the mason and they pour the basement floor...but I don't think that's happening yet. 

Here are some pictures from Thursday and Friday so you can get a visual of what was happening!
The reason the floor looks so high against the existing house is b/c the way our stairs go down to the basement, they are set on a landing....so it actually does line up inside...just looks funny (right now) from the outside. 

~Gianna~

Day 8 -- Inspection Day!

John was here briefly today....he came to meet with the inspector and to get stuff ready for the concrete delivery.    The inspector came and was here for all of 5 minutes, but did what he needed to to.......APPROVED!!!

YIPPPPPPEEEEE!!!!

One down and at least 4 more to go!

After the inspector was gone, John packed up for the day and made room for the mason and his crew to arrive. 

Around 12:30 the mason came and dropped off his crew and some blocks!   Then he returned around 1and they waited....and waited....and waited for the concrete to arrive to fill the footings.   They did get a little entertainment when the tree men came (unexpectedly) and cut down a tree in our yard.  They seemed to enjoy it and we have one less tree in our yard.

FINALLY around 2:30/2:45 the concrete truck came.   The footings were filled, the mason did what he does best.....I have no  idea what that is.... and by 3:45 they were gone.

~Gianna~

Day 3 -- Septic Tanks, Footings and Dirt...OH MY!

Today started off with more siding removal and digging! When I woke up they had already started digging. One huge dump truck took (from what I saw) 5 truck loads of dirt, and I wasn't home a lot of the day sooo I am sure there were more trips!


I did go to a friend's house to check out her new kitchen and I LOVED it! It's exactly what I am looking for, same colors for cabinets and counters....walls and appliances. So that was fun! It was nice to see what I want all in one place!


Then I was off to the DMV to renew my license......I was so excited to get home and see the progress.....and then I got a text message from Joe. It said, "2 Surprises. No footings on current house and they found the septic tank" My response..."HOLY SHIT...what does that mean?" Let me see if I can explain in "stupid terms" as I asked John to explain it to me.


I'll start with the easy one: SEPTIC TANK! The excavator hit it when he was thisclose to being done with the digging. And it was in the worst spot ever...right smack in the middle of the addition, right smack in the middle of our new basement. And it's 15 feet down..below where the new basement will be! Nice..right? Soooooo.....now what? Not sure! Joe called Dan b/c it needs to be discussed with him before we do anything. We do know that the hole needs to be filled with something, we just aren't sure what. Sand? Gravel? Stones? Concrete? I guess we will know more tomorrow or Friday. In the meantime John has to get the building inspector to our house tomorrow to look at it and keep him in the loop. What does all of this mean??? We aren't moving as smoothly as we were yesterday and Monday, but it's a fairly easy fix..or so they say.....


Here it is! The dark black hole would be it..and that hole goes 15 feet under and *maybe* 30 cubic yards across!



OK....FOOTINGS: This one is a little tougher. This house apparently was built without footings. A footing is: The footing is the base of a structure and the first step in a foundation. It is a mass of concrete supporting the foundation of the house.
And our existing house DOES NOT have them! Not sure why, or how they forgot, or what they were thinking when they built it....but we have none! What does this mean? Again...I'm not sure. They might have to create a temporary structure to hold our existing house up while they dig under the ground and remove all the dirt....which will then allow someone (thank god it's not me) or something to get under the existing house to add footings and a new foundation. YIKES! If it's not that...then I'm not sure what else. All I know is people are telling me it will be OK and this happens! I haven't started freaking out yet....and I won't! If I start now on Day 3...I will be DOOMED!

So bottom line after Day 3....We know all of this, but honestly we don't have a clue what's in store! Hoping for a better day and some answers tomorrow!