Week 2: What Goes Up Must Come Down and Two Feet to Stand On

Week 2: This week included a downpour on the day they were going to pour the footings for the new addition. Had to wait a day and then they finished the footings. Alex's demo crew was hard at work and by Friday they had the entire house picked clean. The only things left are structurally related. We did find out that the main structural beam is in two parts and that neither are adequate. They have been notched out in several places. We will have to replace them with either a steel beam or a I-beam. The only hard part is that there is little wiggle room to get all the ceiling joists to lay on top of the one beam. Our Architect, Ferd of Box Studios, is going to come up with some options. In the end, it is a little sad to see our home that we have spent the last ten years in looking so empty and cold. I know in a few weeks it will be taking on a new look and we will get excited. And at the end of the week, we had another severe downpour and that now makes the pit look like a pool. The footings are entirely covered, but they are calling for weather in the 90's with high humidity tomorrow so we will see if the water evaporates. This week we hope to start getting the foundation walls erected and Mike, our contractor, is going to be able to go over the complete plan with me to talk about any issues now that everything is exposed. Then onward and forward.


Here is earlier in the week with most everything cleaned out on the first floor. The furnace and structural beams are all that are left.






Here is Alex taking down the chimney.








Here is the excavation for the new addition.








Here are the guys from the concrete company finishing up the excavation and making sure it is the correct depth.






Here is the finished forms for the footings.









Here is the gutted kitchen with the furnace removed. The green beam above is one of the main structural beams that is compromised.







Here is some of the walls upstairs. This is looking towards the office from the master bedroom.








This is one of the bathrooms and the back chimney that was about to fall over due to lack of mortar between the bricks.







Upstairs bathrooms now removed. Many holes in the floors.







Here is the rain we had on Tuesday that delayed the footings. We had a hard rain that continued throughout the day. I was surprised that there was not more standing water. It was a different storyon Sunday. We had severe rain where in some areas it has rained almost 3" in short time. We looked at the footings and they are completely covered in water now. We will have to see after tomorrows high temps if it evaporates.



This is a shot of Kathleen's room gutted.








On Wednesday after school we stopped by to take a few shots and heard the cement trucks were coming. We waited and low and behold we got to see the pour. It was a very cold day in the low 50's.







Here John the concrete supervisor is directing the cement truck into position. It came extremely close to the edge of the pit.






Here the footing on the bottom has been poured and they put in rebar to help with strength. They are starting the upper footing that will connect to the old house.









Here the windows have been removed. They will be donated.







Here is Wednesday which was a nice sunny day and the footings completed.









Here is a shot from the first floor up to the roof. The stairs were removed on Friday and the demo work is complete.







Here is a view from the kitchen into the family room.







Here is the rest of the chimney coming down. The firebox was all rusted through in the back so it is a good thing we removed the chimney. A fire waiting to happen.






Here is a shot looking up to the second floor where the stairs had been.








Another shot of the family room and the structural beam.








Here is the house as it stands with the windows removed and the demo completed.





Below is a video of the pouring of the footings. Sorry it is a bit choppy. I will have to make sure and bring my flip video camera everyday for videos. The camera is OK but the Flip is better. Will also have to make sure it is not as cold as it was too.

The Time Has Finally Arrived

WEEK 1: It is time. The contracts are signed and the work has begun. Bright and early on May 16th, the demo workers began the dismantling of our house. The first week called for the removal of the back room that was previously the garage, the south side overhang, the excavation for the new addition and the removal of the exterior siding and finally the interior work. The crew was there Monday through Saturday and have made great progress. Here is the before shot of the house.


The first "surprise" was the removal of the aluminum siding revealed cedar shingles that were painted green. I think all of our house was green at one time or another.

The entire upper portion of the house was covered in them. It made for a tougher removal.







Here is the sheathing on the side without the cedar shingles. This is a good shot of the back room and overhang that will be removed for the new addition.







Here is another shot of the back room before removal. It is completely made of cinder blocks. When they brought down the back we noticed some of the cinder blocks had newspapers stuffed in as insulation. Not uncommon back in the day. We found one dating back to the 50's when the home was built.




Here is the claw grabbing the overhand and bringing it down. Our neighbor took a great video of some of the demo and will post when I get it. Her little boy loved seeing the destruction as any young lad would.



Here is what I shot quickly of the demo.



Here is a shot of the front of the house around Wednesday. They made very good time.








Here the back room is finally gone. The back filled up the first dumpster and a few truckloads of concrete. Our contractor has many of his vendors recycle as much as they can. The concrete and cinder blocks are recycled as is the aluminum siding. The windows, doors, and cabinets will be donated.







Here is another shot of them finishing up the front of the house.







We were going to keep the chimney to vent the new gas fireplace, but there was some insect damage as well as most of the bricks disintegrating, so we are taking it down as well.






Here is what is left of the kitchen. The last of the floor should be gone on Monday. The kitchen is probably the worst off regarding structure. There was a structural beam that was removed and several beams were notched for the HVAC system. They attempted to attache other beams on the side but they were not running the entire span of the beam so they lend no structural integrity to the beam.



Here they have removed the upper windows and put Tyvek house wrap around it to protect the sheathing.







Here is the family room facing west.









Here are the kitchen beams that are squashed in between the new beams but do not help with the structure since they are not laminated nor do they extend the entire length of the beams.






I found this in the dining room area. I don't think it was hooked up while we lived there but was once. We figure the original owner had built the house himself and the HVAC system is crap at best. This is a portion of duct tube that was cutout with some tin snips and has a can of cold cream stuck to the end.





Close up of the cold cream can. I should of thought of saving this, but alas it is in the pile of junk in the dumpster.







Here is a shot of our bedroom. They have removed the windows and all the lower paneling. They did this in all the rooms upstairs. They also got all the ceiling fans removed.






This is the dinning room facing South.








We think it might have once been a kitchen or bathroom since there is a drainage pipe with an opening against the wall. You can see it in this shot in the middle. This is also a shot of the main structural beam in the house (green). It has been notched out as well and more than likely will have to be replaced ($$).




Here the excavation has started for the new addition and mudroom. Watching all the good dirt being hauled away caused me some heartache knowing later on we probably will want it for the final grading.





Before they could haul any dirt away, we had to get the clearance from the Illinois EPA. I had to sign a document stating that the property was not used for commercial purposes. Had to wait a few days for them to clear it so we had a big mound of dirt waiting to be hauled.





Well that is week 1 in a nutshell. Great progress. Can't wait to see what next week brings. We should have the interior demo done this week and the excavation should be completed. Need to have it inspected and then the forms will be setup for the new concrete walls. Will post back soon.