Day 25- Approaching One Month

This is a big week for the house. The first of the tradesmen- the plumber- came by this morning to start doing the groundwork in the basement. All of the concrete forms are done in the basement and we are ready to pour a new concrete floor. The plumber came in today to install a sump pump and an ejector pit with a pump. We needed the ejector pump because the new bathroom is below the level of the sewage lines, so the pump is needed to force the waste out. He's also putting in the plumbing for the full bathroom.

The concrete guys finished repouring the concrete parking pad behind the house. We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome- there is a large new parking spot that will easily fit a mid-sized car or SUV. In this picture, you can see the area right before they poured the concrete. We had to fend off a few neighborhood kids who wanted to carve their initials in the wet surface.



The welder came by and installed these new "floating" riser-less stairs. They look really smooth and will look even better after the custom rails are fabricated. We painted them with a special paint to keep them from rusting until the house is properly sealed, but they will eventually be painted black.



Here is a picture of the second bathroom on the second floor. You can see the bench in the custom shower. This will look really classy after we install the natural stone tile.




Also today, we ordered all of the windows for the house. We decided to go with almond-colored frames with energy star low-E glass. The windows have grids on the top pane and are clear on the bottom. We'll put up new pictures after they are installed.

Day 11- Progress

Things are coming along really well. The masons did a great job removing the old formstone on the front of the house, cleaning and repointing the brick. We decided to use an "almond" color mortar, and it ended up going great with the original brick. A mason was there today building new brick sills and fixing a few of the original bricks that had been damaged. Another big feat today was removing the old roof. It took five guys about 30 minutes to remove the entire structure. Good thing it didn't rain today. Here's the way the house looks from the front:



The first floor framing is almost entirely done. The back wall should be framed up tomorrow. The framers had to take out some unstable brick underneath the wall. Sounds simple, right? Well, in order to take out the brick, the concrete on top has to be removed. This couldn't be done because now the entire old roof is piled on top of this concrete. Tomorrow, the debris will be hauled away, the concrete removed, the old bricks replaced with cinderblock, and finally- a new rear wall built. All in one day.



Here are the holes that are being dug in the basement for the concrete curb that will support the foundation. The guys went down over three feet in order to ensure that the finished ceiling height will be over eight feet tall.