Day 4 -- Surprise, Surprise!

So today was a bit stressful.......it started off with John and Greg (the excavator)coming to assess the situation more. They cleaned up the dirt around the septic and tried to see actually how big the hole was. What they found instead was a cover over the hole that was made out of steel, wood and concrete...8 inches thick! Apparently not all covers are made this way, usually a machine can lift them right up or break them apart....BUT not ours (surprise, surprise!). Ours is too heavy, too large, and in an awkward spot to move.....half in the new addition and half out of it (still underground). A call to the mason and a few more calls to Dan left many unanswered questions and everyone unsure of what will happen next. So we wait until tomorrow at 10am when Dan comes. In the meantime they got some more siding down and cleaned up the area around the hole, then called it a day (early).

The septic hole.....




And one more of what my yard looks like now.....after 4 days!

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!

Day 2 -- More Demo!!!

So I woke up this morning to sunshine and a bright blue porta-john in my driveway! There are only certain circumstances where a person should be happy about a porta-john in their driveway and I think this is one of them......it helps that I know it's clean(for now).

So they finished up the siding in the back of the house and then the excavator came! I'm not sure if I was happy about this or not b/c I got NOTHING done today! Ava was mesmorized by the whole thing and we sat (together) on the radiator in the playroom and watched him remove the back patio piece by piece.......for almost 2 hours! I couldn't get her to leave.....he has a Big Bird doll hanging on the window of the truck and every time he swung the machine arm to put the pieces in the truck (to throw away) Big Bird would come around to see Ava...over and over and over again. And every time this happened we had to yell "KABOOM" and cheer! It was cute and fun for the first 10 minutes, but by the 11th minute I was ready for him to leave! The excavator is also a smoker...and every time he put a cigarette in his mouth Ava would look at me and scream..."E-POP!!!!" Yup.....she thought he was eating lollipops the whole the time and thought she needed to have one too, whenever he did. I finally caved after about an hour, which also got her to come off the radiator for a little bit, so I could vacuum and throw some laundry in. Then back to our perch we went for another hour and another "E-Pop!"

The back siding is pretty much gone and the patio is gone too! He also moved to the driveway side of the house and removed some of that siding! We are moving right along and making progress! Tomorrow "E-Pop!" comes back and starts digging. ;o)

Day 2 -- Back

Side and our newest lawn ornament!

Day 1 of Construction -- DEMO!

So with permit in window we started this week with Day 1 of construction. YAY..FINALLY!!!!  John showed up at 8am and got right to work on our awning. We've had a love/hate relationship with this awning! Love b/c it's brought us shade and kept us dry in the snow and rain, but I can't forget to mention the little friends (birds) we get every spring and summer who have made it their home.....Hate b/c it's loud when the rain hits it or when the black walnuts come barreling down from the trees above and most hated b/c it's sooo ugly.
And so it began......the demolition part of the job. The awning slowly came down, piece by piece...and it took about 2 hours to get the whole thing removed. Once fully removed, the siding on the back of the house was up next. They removed 2 layers of siding, the aluminum we've had for the past 7 years (and has been on the house for a long time) and then yellow wood that was many, many years old. They were only able to get down a section of it b/c right around 2pm dark clouds rolled in and a storm was brewing. John was also able to outline the addition and where the fence would go in preparation for digging! After cleaning up the day's work.......they were gone and in perfect time....the storm rolled in!

Oh and don't worry........Olivia and I had John remove the bird's nest and he carefully put it in another tree in the yard. What a guy, not only is he a carpenter/contractor, but also an animal rescuer..who knew??

Day 1 ends...as the storm rolls in....

HELLO.....ELLO....ELLO....Anyone home???

Wow....so I haven't posted on here in over a year...and guess what (?), up until April of this year not much changed....aside from lots of meetings with our architect and many changes, drawings and decisions (on the larger scale). So here I am.....about a year later with lots to say! We are starting our addition on Monday or Tuesday! FINALLY......it's here! After a LOOOOOONG (almost)year and a half....YIPPEEEEE!!!!

Let me take you back to April 12th, 2010. We got our final plans from Dan. They were perfect, exactly what we wanted..and we were so ready to begin the bidding process. The second they were in hand we began calling contractors. We originally had 13 contractors, but we narrowed it down to 4, b/c from what people told us...you don't want to bid it out to more than that. What a hard decision that was! We were happy with the 4 we chose, but there was ONE contractor who Joe and I both had a "feeling" about. ONE contractor that we went back and forth with b/c he was a little "too close for comfort", he was Olivia's teacher's husband...and my in-law's neighbor. ONE contractor that we decided (to go against what everyone told us) to bid it out to in addition to the other 4! On May 25th we made our decision on the contractor and that ONE contractor.....was the ONE FOR US! I was so happy we went with our gut and bid it to him. His price was comparable to the rest, but out of all 5, he was the one who stood out among the rest! He followed thru with his time-frame (which none of the other contractors did), he never left us hanging during the bidding process (which every other contractor did) and not only was he professional, he was personable..and a perfect match for us!

Since May 25th there has been a lot to discuss, and while some of it's been exhausting, he's made it so easy! We've talked kitchens and bathrooms, HVAC and siding, windows and floors......and permits.....Oh, sweet little pale yellow card stock rectangle.....I love you. You sure do cost a lot (I know I picked you up and carried you proudly back home), but you were worth every penny. When I put you in my window this weekend I will look back to February 2009 (when we first began) and say.........WE DID IT!!!!!