More of the Same

Week 11: Another week, more storms. Here is a link to what we have gone through this past month. It has been the rainiest July on record. This past week we had two storms at night that brought torrential downpours, thunder, and lots of lightning. We had highways that were impassable and more people losing power. Due to the torrential rain, we had rain come through the window wells and fill up the basement. The sump pump was going when we had power and ran for a few days. Now we have a bit of a cave in with the dirt so that will have to be cleaned out. Our external drainage system also came lose so we had water going in the system and then dumping out right by the window well. Need to get that adjusted. On the days it wasn;t rinaing, it was hot as an oven. We did have a couple nice evenings with temperatures in the high 70's or low 80's. The past few days have seen no rain and things are starting to dry up just before more rain is forecast. Anyway, this week we received both the kids bathtub and the master bath soaking tub. Both had been scheduled for the previous week, but one was not delivered and the other was damaged by the carrier. This round everything looks good. Also, we had the roof re-shingled with some nice black architectural shingles. We also decided after conferring with Ferd and Mike to remove the bulk of the cinder blocks and replace with standard framing. This was done mainly to ease the connection of the new addition to the old. It is a little tougher when you are trying to tie in cinder block with wood. We also decided after receiving a proposal from the mason to re-do the cinder blocks around the windows and to clock in the chimneys that were removed. It is more affordable to demolish and do it in wood. The house now looks like it is on stilts because of the framing and a few rows of cinder blocks. Next week is the rest of the interior framing, the windows (yeah) and sheathing on the sides.


Here is where we had a little cave in. Underneath the dirt is where the drainage system came undone. It will be repaired next week.







Here is more progress on the stairwell to the second floor.










Here the stairwell is sheathed and next there will be windows.






A close up view of the new skylight.









Here is the framing for the new closet in the foyer.








Here are the architectural shingles that will be going on next.







Here John and his concrete crew are starting the removal of the cinder blocks. We left a few rows that were filled in with concrete and will hold a framed wall on top.







Here the cinder blocks are gone from the front of the house.








Here they are gone from the back.








The house of stilts. The framing was done to solidify the structure while they removed the cinder blocks. There will be another framed wall as well.







More house on stilts.







This is a closer view of the concrete they poured over a few rows of the cinder blocks and then create a flat bed to frame the new walls on.






Here is a shot of the shingles post install. Hard to see how good they look.







Here is the new addition with the new shingles. They also painted the exhaust pipe black to match the shingles.







This is the deck and is getting ready for the floor.

Wild Weather - Redux

Week 10: Well it was another wild weather week. The week was mostly in the high 90's with high humidity. It felt like the low 100's for the most part. Night was just as hot. I went over to the old house to grab some of the window ACs we had in the garage. We got them to fit the rental windows so it is a little more comfortable here. The heat made for a tough week for Joe our carpenter. Had to have frequent breaks and try and keep hydrated. Have to move much slower so we did not get a lot accomplished this week. Then just to make things interesting, it decided to have another heavy rainfall. The airport had nearly 8.5" in one day. It looks like La Grange had about 3.25". Then to top it off, it decided to rain another couple of days. So the basement decided to flood since the window wells are not covered and we do not have windows yet. Luckily, the electrician had hooked up an outlet and the plumbers hooked up the sump pump which was working for a few days to pump out the water. It looks like the water got about 3-4 feet high. Now we are back to a few days of sun to dry it out and then more calls for rainstorms this weekend. Can't we just have a few weeks of normal weather??? We decided after confering with Mike and Ferd our Architect, that we will be reframing the structure downstairs and removing the cinder blocks. This will help tie it in with the new structure. There would have been too much work to do for the mason since the headers over all the windows needed redoing and we still would be framing the walls. This will allow us also to have a little more insulation downstairs. Joe also started the bump out for the new stairway leading upstairs. He also installed the new skylights.










Here is a shot of where the cinder block wall was and the new framing to replace it.







This is the closet of the foyer at the top. Underneath will be the hidden duct work for the HVAC.







This is a shot of the framing around one of the windows. The cinder block will be demolished.







Hear is the proper way to frame around the window with the proper header , Jack, and King studs with the cripples for proper structure and support.






Here is a shot of the complete wall. The cinder block will be removed next.







Here is the Skylight over the new laundry room.








Interior view looking out of the bathroom Skylight.








Here is the new staircase leading up to the second floor. It will be cantilevered with metal bars holding it in place.







Here is another view of the staircase.








Her Joe is starting to create the structure upstairs for the new staircase.







Here is the new sump pump that Mike had installed, just in case it should rain. He must be psychic since the rain came soon thereafter.






Here is the first floor after the first wave of rains came. Not too bad until..







Here is a shot of the basement. Since the window wells are not covered, the rain just came on in..and in and in...until...







it got to this level, which is about 3-4 feet. I was afraid that the electricity was going to go out and the sump pump would die. The power did go out soon after the first rainfall so it took awhile for the rain to be pumped out. There is some cleanup that needs to be done and hopefully we will get the windows soon.

As Hard as Concrete

Week 9: This week we saw the passing of our inspection for the pouring of the floors on Thursday. Now we have new floors with the proper insulation, vapor barrier, and drainage. It looks beautiful. Joe and his crew have made good progress in getting the roof rafters and sheathing built on the master suite and over the mudroom. They have framed out the walls in the master suite and bathroom. They have framed the holes for the new skylights that will be in the master bathroom and the new laundry room. The new addition is now attached to the old house at the roof, and is ready to be shingled. The first floor wall that used to be the south side of the old house was removed to accommodate the stairs and the new closet in the foyer.

Here is the ridge board on top and the common rafters being installed along the ridge.








Here are all the common rafters after installation.









Here they are installing the soffit and facia boards that will allow the house to breathe.






Here is one of the crew installing the sheathing on the roof. We are installing 5/8" plywood for extra strength.







Here is the tie in with the old and new making one structure.








Here is the cutout of the new skylight over the laundry room.








Here is a shot of the skylight in the master bathroom.








Here is a close up of the skylight in the bathroom.








This is the ridge vent at the top of the new addition. Instead of a few vents, this allows for maximum venting at the top most peak of the house. It allows the house to breathe.






Here is the master bedroom lofted ceiling rafters.








Her is another shot of the lofted ceiling and the flat ceiling over the bathroom and closet.







Here is Joe framing up the mudroom roof. It has a lot of angles and different pitches. It looks fantastic.







Here are the mudroom rafters after Joe was completed.








Here is an underside look after it was sheathed.








Here is the mudroom with the roof sheathed.


















Here is a before picture of the south side wall before demolition.







Here is the after shot of part of the wall.








Here is John using a jackhammer to break up the cinder blocks from the wall.







Here is the final prep work that J2 did before inspection. There is the rigid foam over the 6mil plastic and crushed gravel. On top is the wire mesh to help with strength and stability of the concrete. They put a mesh product over the bathroom since the rigid foam could not be applied over the pipes. All seams were taped and ready to go.



Here is a close up shot of the mesh in the bathroom








Here is a view of the basement prepped and ready to go. We did not put insulation on the floor since we are not going to have a finished basement.






Here is the first of several trucks loaded with our concrete.








The start of the pour of the new slab. They did the basement first and after the new slab they finished up the crawlspace.







It was interesting to watch the pour and how the concrete spreads out.







Here they used the trowel to smooth out the side nearest a wall. They used a laser level in different spots to make sure they were making the thickness consistent.






Here they are spreading the concrete.








This machine was like a huge aerator. It vibrated and smoothed out the concrete as well as got some of the air out.







This machine did the final smooth coat.








Here the floor is is in progress of being smoothed out.








Here is an after shot of the sump pump pit in the basement.








Here is the new slab and the guest bathroom.








a closer view of the guest bathroom.








Here is the concrete pad we poured for the new furnace. We were contemplating putting it up in the closet in the laundry room, but was not able to due to the duct runs. So, we will raise it a bit in case of any water penetration on the floor.





I will post some videos of the concrete pour later this week. I tried tonight and gave up after an hours of it uploading and not finishing.