Wow! Remodels are no joke and after many months of planning, crunching numbers and saving pennies we are finally seeing our vision in action. Today, I wanted to give you guys a look at what has been happening around here. I really don’t love showing these images, they are the ugly side of construction and of course not the pretty “AFTER” that we all love seeing. Now that we finally have the floorplan in place, exterior walls and a roof I am amazed that these guys have knocked it out on time! So I narrowed down my hundreds of images ( I know, I’m a dork and a little eager to get this going so I take lots of pics).
Adding on to the existing foundation was the first step in the process. We were expanding the existing first floor in a few places and that was pretty interesting to watch. The truck that drills the piers for the foundation was not able to squeeze down our skinny driveway to add the new piers in the back of the house. Resolution: Remove the back fence and access the alley.
It worked, but our tiny bit of grass was trashed and the puppy dogs were not happy about loosing a place to perch while squirrel stalking. Here is the truck that created the 21 16′ deep piers for the new foundation addition. It is a beast…and the drill operator rocked it out!
A fun pano shot of the back yard. You can see the little bit of grass that was left after the pier truck exited stage right….sit tight…more piles take over the grass in no time.
Foundation boards and concrete beams complete the foundation. I loved stopping by the house during lunch and at the end of the day to see the guys create all of this. The foundation process took a few weeks, but major demo was up next and I was excited to see them open that old lady up to see what 1949 jewels hid behind the walls!
DEMO: Wow, this really is the fun part. I imagined that I would come home at the end of the day and the guys would give me a hard had, goggles and a sledge hammer to rip things up…NOPE. No HGTV around here folks. These guys do not have time for silly ladies struggling to lift a sledge hammer to rip out a wall. I didn’t even see a sledge hammer on site, just a bunch of guys getting it done before lunch!
See ya leaky old roof, drafty doors and windows!
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How about this gem? The original attic fan was still hanging out up there and we thought long and hard about what to do with it…then we looked at each other and laughed. Seriously, we are not DIY people over here.
And because every penny counts…I am having the guys take a little more time to remove the existing brick. I want to use as many of the original parts and pieces from the house that we can. Not only will it save a bit of money, but I love the idea of keeping pieces from the home that someone selected back in 1949. I feel like we are giving this lady a little tummy tuck and maybe a bit of botox. We all know she wont’ look the same, but I’m hoping her good ole’ days still shoe through.
During the demo process, the form boards came off the new concrete foundation beams!! I thing the fireplace was the most exciting part to see!! We expanded the 6′ front porch to 8′ so being able to see the layout for real made my day! Now…those creepy glass blocks need to go.
Now for a little sneak peak of whats to come over the next few weeks! FRAMING!!! WHOO HOO!! I can not wait to walk through the new layout and I really CAN NOT wait to have the stairs in so that we don’t have to climb a makeshift ladder. Stay tuned…I’ll share all of the progress next week on The Blog! Lots of interior decisions have to be finalized over the next few weeks too, and I promise to share that too.
