Strong Foundations!

I've learned a lot about having strong foundations. Apparently before they build the foundation walls - they build the footings. This is so that the foundation walls have a hard level surface to sit on. Our footings had to be poured 4 feet into the ground(below freezing level)

First they put up the forms for the Garage and the extended front entrance. Our water table is very high and it has been a really wet summer, so I had to keep apologizing for all the mud the workers had to trudge through. UGH! The mud and the dust still continues!

After the forms were up, then the pumper truck came(not sure what the proper name is for that. ) Because of the nature of our lot and the condition of the hole it was easier to use the long arm to spread the cement. a regular truck would have a hard time getting close enough and they felt we were too close to the fence to use wheelbarrows. It was exciting to have another HUGE machine in our yard. Micah had been in heaven!

After the cement is in then the go around and level and smooth it. They also layed lengths of re-bar in it for strength. I thought it looked really great when they were done with it. I think they were happy to get our job done...the ground was so muddy and soft that they had a hard time getting their forms to stay in place.

Then the cement dried overnight and they came back and took all the forms off. Voila! Footings! A few days later they came back and put up the forms for the foundation walls...to be continued...

The BIG Guns

The next step in our adventure was to use a special saw to cut the cement pad at the front of the house. We needed to make room for our foundation. I did not take any pictures of this either. I know! What was I thinking?!! Basically it is like a circular saw but it has a diamond blade on it for cutting through concrete and re-bar. It was very loud (earplugs required) and very messy. The dust was crazy, so I helped by running the hose on the area. It took a couple hours but we finally got our 3 cuts made. We had to take about 3 feet off the north end of the slab and then about 2 feet on either side of the front door. The slab was removed and then the BIG excavators came to dig everything up. The kids loved this part!

Here goes the foundation from the Chimney Chase. It's out of the way, finally!

A huge THANK YOU to Shane and the guys from Jenex for all their help. You guys are awesome!

These next pictures are taken from out the front window of him breaking up the cement pad and digging the trench in the front for the new entrance foundation and footings. You can see the line where we cut in the second picture.

That's all for now folks. I tried 50 times to upload some video clips...but I'll have to learn how to make that work. For now, you'll just have to use your imaginations! =)

Next - Footings and Foundations!

More Demo!

I have come to LOVE demolishing things. It is sooo fun, and very therapeutic. Next on the Demo list was taking the siding off the north side of the house and removing the fireplace and chimney. We were sad to see it go, really. My dad installed the fresh air fireplace and spent weeks designing and putting up the rock wall around it.

I spent hours, growing up, looking at this wall and imagining faces and pictures in the rocks. I still do it...I see faces everywhere it seems. I'm glad I had the foresight to take a picture of this before we started pounding away. It was a bitter-sweet experience for me. I actually didn't do any demo on this one. Steve was very careful about how he took the rocks off the wall and we stacked and packed them carefully. It was sad to see all of my dad's hard work ripped apart. We are going to use the rocks to make a fire-pit and some benches for the backyard....and I think we might have enough to do it for Mom and Dad's place too!

Right about now I'm sure some of you are saying to yourselves - 'what were they thinking ripping out that work of art?' or 'how heartless and cruel of them!' Well, there are quite a few reasons for the fireplace to go. Because this is a fresh air fireplace it was letting in quite a bit of cold air in the winter months and it also requires a lot of wood to burn a really hot fire. It is difficult for us to get wood now - we used to get it for free - and hauling the wood is hard for Steve to keep up with, with his busy work schedule. Also, we are building on a garage with a second floor addition on that side of the house, and we were not allowed to build around the chimney. We may replace this with a wood burning stove in the corner that vents a little differently in the future though. There will be a new 'family room' in the addition, so we're not really sure what this particular room in the basement will be used for, and it may not be practical to have a fireplace there.

Anyway, back to the demolition!! Here are some awesome pictures of the process of getting the siding off and the fireplace out. Thanks to the missionaries and Richard and his crew!!

Once the siding was off and the rock was off - then we had the job of trying to get the fireplace out and taking the chimney off - which I thought I had a video of...but I guess I don't. It was interesting to see our fireplace go out the front door. I still can't believe that only 2 guys carried it out!! it was HEAVY!!

First they took the top of the the chimney off and then the top panel of the chase. After that they they pulled the rest of the chimney chase off (which is what I thought I had a video of - and it was really cool) then they hauled it away.

Then they disassembled the rest of the chimney pieces and carried out the fireplace - with much maneuvering to get it out of the hole - and we were left with a gaping hole in the side of our wall - see below. ;)

The hole did get framed in and protected on the outside and this is what it looks like now - awaiting the rest of it's makeover.

This was also the day that we took all the brick off the front of the house so we could start framing the new front entrance. What a mess that was! Steve had fun using our new little trailer for our ride-on mower to move all the bricks around behind the shed. (which I'll post pics of later) We'll use all those for another project down the road.