Day 33: Oct. 30, 2009

After a several day rain hiatus, the blog is back. Construction has continued these past seven days. During the one day of sunshine (Wednesday) the roof shingles were installed. Then it started raining again.

As you can see, the windows have been installed. They have almost completed the lower "apron" of the addition -- enclosing the crawlspace. The french door should arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. The window/door supplier brought the wrong door.

The electrician and the alarm company were both here today. Everything is progressing smoothly.

Day 26: Oct. 23, 2009

The rain shut things down for a day but this morning I woke up to the bricklayer cutting out the old mortar to retuckpoint parts of the brick and fill in the upstairs window.

The carpenters installed some of the vapor/radiant barrier before all the rain began yesterday to help keep the room dry during the deluge.

Day 24: Oct. 21, 2009

Most of today consisted of some minor things like putting the decking on the roof and getting the felt installed. Lots of rain called for tomorrow so they want to try and keep the room as dry as possible.

Day 23: Oct. 20, 2009

Today the forms for the garage foundation were removed, rock was spread and the floor was poured. It was interesting to watch this process and how they go about smoothing everything out using several different tools, and some what they refer to as "skis" to actually walk out on the freshly poured cement.

The carpenters got the main I-beam installed and began work on the trusses for the roof. They are hoping to get the decking and felt on the roof before the 1-2" of rain we're supposed to recieve on Thursday.

I've only posted a few pictures on this blog, but there's a ton more on the Picasa site.

Day 22: Oct. 19, 2009

Today the foundation forms were inspected by the city and all was well. Around 12:30, the concrete arrived to poor the forms. I'm amazed at how quick these guys are. The concrete will set overnight and because of the weather, they can remove the forms tomorrow. They anticipate pouring the garage floor tomorrow. Hope I can sneak home before class tomorrow to write my initials in the floor. Heh heh.

The carpenters got the piece of steel shaped like an "L" mounted under the joists on the sunroom and attached to the house. It looked rather heavy but lighter than the I-beam they are installing tomorrow on the middle piers. The trusses also arrived today, but they didn't install them because they don't want to add any more weight to the structure before the I-beam is in place.

Day 20: Oct. 17, 2009

Yes, they worked on a Saturday. Kopp Concrete was here today to setup their forms for the garage foundation. The elected to do it today so they could be sure to pour on Monday around noon. I figured they would be here for a couple hours, but it ended up being a whole day's work. I had no idea it took that long.

Day 19: Oct. 16, 2009

Today was the first day for new concrete. It was interesting to watch Tim (in the red) use hand signals to the truck driver exactly what he wanted him to do. It was like a baseball coach sending commands to players on the field. It was quite funny. Anyway, they got all the garage footings poured.


Additionally, they also poured all the piers under the sun room. They poured the piers in the middle short so they can attach a permanent jack and steel i-beam to support the floor.

The third wall of the sun room was also raised. Unfortunately the trusses didn't arrive today, but they will be here first thing on Monday.

Day 18: Oct. 15, 2009

Today the got the east and west walls up. They are planning on getting the north wall and the roof trusses up tomorrow. Hopefully the decking as well incase it rains this weekend. The piers will also be poured tomorrow.

I hadn't realized until today just how big the windows I'm putting in are going to be. It's gonna look pretty sweet. The garage is also going to be rather large -- which is awesome.

The area for the garage is dug out for the footings which will be poured tomorrow afternoon. Wish I could be here to watch, but that whole work thing gets in the way. Heh.

Day 17: Oct. 14, 2009

They continued to remove the concrete around the back yard. As you can see, it's mostly gone now. They also hauled off several truck loads of dirt to some church nearby that was looking for some clean fill. Just doin' my part, I guess.

While removing the sidewalk next to the vegetable garden, they noticed that underneath the concrete, there was, wait for it...wait for it... another sidewalk. [rolling eyes].

They also removed the upstairs window in preparation for it to be bricked in as the new roof line will cover a majority of it. The brick layer has said he found some matching bricks at a used brickyard here in town. He'll also be able to match the mortar.

Work on the floor continued to day as well. One pier has been removed and the other (on the left side of the photo, is still in the ground (they cut the top off). They will attempt to extract it from the mud tomorrow.

The goal for tomorrow is to start building the walls on the addition.

Day 16: Oct. 13, 2009

The driveway they tore up around noon was mostly removed. All that is remaining is the area you would actually park on, the sidewalks and the old garage floor. Those should be gone tomorrow barring bad weather. They are also going to attempt to repour piers tomorrow.

You can see we have elected to move the east wall in about 1.5' to the west. This however, made us miss one of the piers (which is getting repoured tomorrow). This will allow the exterior wall to miss the kitchen window by about 1 foot. It also make the edge of the floor fall on a joist that is actually run into the house foundation, not "attached" with an assortment of nails and screw that previous owner thought was a good idea.

Day 16: Oct. 13, 2009 - Mid Day

I stopped by at lunch today and was witness to them breaking up the driveway. It was rather interesting and they made fast work of it. They hope to have all of the concrete (except the old garage pad) removed by end of the day. That is, if the rain holds out.









They have continued to shore up the floor on the east side. Two piers will be repoured in this location.

Day 15: Oct. 12, 2009

Work started back up today, now that the rain has subsided. We were able to figure out how to save the floor, and thus around $13,000. Phew. We're going to have a couple of these piers repoured, install some iron gurders and shore up some shoddy construction work by the previous owner.

If the weather holds out, they plan on removing the concrete from the old garage and sidewalks tomorrow -- late morning. I'm going to try and sneak home during lunch and take some photos.

We hope to have the room under roof by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

Day 9: Oct. 6, 2009

I came home at lunch today, just to see what was happening. They are continuing to remove the walls on the addition. It also appears that some lumber has arrived. Progress!

Tim, one of the construction workers, was telling me that the old bay window pretty much just fell off. There was hardly any structural support for it. Nice! Glad it survived this long I guess. Now the debate begins again: keep the floor or not?

By the time I got home after work, the remaining walls had been removed leaving just the floor -- which is now tarped. We're going to make the decision tomorrow morning on keeping the existing floor or not. If it's removed, there's the potential that the city will require a ton more work since it would technically be considered "new construction."

More photos are on the Picasa site.

Day 8: Oct. 5, 2009

Today they started removing the roof on the addition. They hope to have the rest of the walls down in the next couple days, but the weatherman is calling for rain. Grr!

Nothing was done on the house today either. However, we did get building permits approved for the new garage and addition!!! Work starts Monday!

Construction plans are being submitted today

Madden Construction sent me the plans they are submitting to the city today for the permit on the addition. If the weather holds out, the current addition should be removed on Monday.

Day 4: Oct. 1, 2009

Nothing happened today.

Right now, I'm thinking about on the house using the Musket Brown for the fascia, soffits and gutters. On the addition, I'm thinking the Natural Clay with Herringbone for the trim.