A Year Ago Today....

A year ago today we were checking out this little house with our realtor for the very first time!!  If I remember correctly, I didn't even want to go look at the house in the first place!!  We had been looking at another house in the neighborhood, which so happened to have just been sold.

This is the first picture I saw of the house from our real estate agent, of which I promptly said "no way"!

Despite the fact I have been super busy with school lately, I had a bit of time this holiday weekend to share what has been going on with our little house project.

Starting where we left off last month, the utility closet window was going in on the west wall.  On October 17th, our contractors worked on removing the porch decking and posts:

No more porch!

See, there are green leaves on the trees....what a long time ago :)

After demo, they worked on digging 3 foot deep holes to secure the posts that will go down for the new porch.  The new porch roof will extend the whole length of the front side, but the decking will go most of the way across, minus about 5 feet on the road side to accommodate a stairs to remain underneath...  and to expose some of the 1890's stone foundation.  

We arrived for our normal Friday/Saturday workdays to find the plumbing mostly complete.  Very exciting!!  Ok, ok, maybe roughed-in plumbing isn't that exciting to most of you, but when you watch it all unfold before your eyes, it can be pretty momentous!!

Exhibit A

The contractors working on the siding were further along than what we had seen them complete last time.  I went a little crazy taking pictures of the backside of the house, with its siding complete, since it looked so good!!  Here is a picture I took from a ladder near the northern property line (any other way and you can't see the original roofline):

Lookin' good, ay??

Here are the post holes ready with concrete poured and curing for the posts to be set tomorrow.

Look at all the ladybugs swarming on the house!!  The siding contractor actually left early today because of them....

Gabe and Dad were working to prepare the ledger board (ledger board: a narrow horizontal board attached to a row of studs to support the ends of floor or ceiling joists) for the porch:

It was rotten in some areas, like right under the existing doorframe.  We will be moving the door location about 5 feet to the right, so we took out the threshold:

We had to remove the rotten areas, and inject fillers and hardeners to the existing wood where it met with the rubble foundation.  It was a big job to cut and shape a new piece of 2 X 4 to fit the space!  But Gabe was the man for the job, as usual:

The next day I had a lot of homework to work on, so I came later on in the day after most of the work had been done.

Posts had been set: 

They also had added flashing in-between the porch and the house to prevent water from getting in at that location.

Shown next are some of the joists hung:

On the picture previous, the board they are holding to place is the front piece of the stairs.  There will be two stairs coming down to a large platform filling the 5' X 5' area and then 3 stairs coming out from the front to the future driveway.

The next weekend after that, we got to see the east side of the building almost entirely sided!

They left the last section (in the upper left hand portion of the picture above) of the siding on the front face un-done until a later date, after the porch deck roof was finalized, since the footprint will be different, extended all the way to the corner in view here.

Dad and Gabe built and assembled the utility room wall, dividing it from the dining room space.  This way we get to see the full extents of the open plan living space we have to work with.

While they were accomplishing this, I was busy grading the dirt that had been uprooted under the porch decking.  Once it was all leveled out, sloping away from the house and down the hill, I laid weed shield cloth and gravel, leveling it out as we went.  

Dad and Gabe worked towards setting the stair post.  It can be seen here to the right of the photo, in a moment of jest:

Nearing the end of our day of work, the guys finish up by hanging one last hard to get to joist that will brace the top stair tread.

And we have a utility room!!  Complete with electrical box and HVAC system.

The next day was a big day.  Gabe started us off by cutting down the 6" X 6" posts flush with the deck.  

While they were doing that, I was busy nailing all the joist hangers into place.  That was quite a job!!  My arm was sore after that.

Next the mitered edge pieces:

Gabe makes sure all the brackets to hold the posts are in the right place:

Time to secure deck boards down!!  We worked together to do them as fast as we could, Gabe cutting pieces and me screwing them down.

We got a little less than half of the deck secured down that day.

Dark is sure coming faster and faster!

Dad was at a meeting for most of the day, but came back before we left so he and I could quickly confirm and discuss the placement of electrical.

We also were mindful to batten down the hatches for the impending storm called "Sandy" coming down the pike.

Bora-Bora Care

This past weekend was about tying up some loose ends before we start on FRAMING!!!  Yay!!  As per the plans, we will be taking out 3 of the downstairs walls and the kitchen/dining room ceiling (it leaks really bad).  We will be expanding up from the kitchen and dining area and framing a master bedroom and bath bigger than the two existing bedroom spaces---they were something like 8' X 12' each.  The footprint of the existing building will not change.

We have had a few weddings to attend since we worked last, (9th & 16th), so this weekend, we were raring to go.  Ok, Gabe was raring to go.  I was dragging my feet.  Gabe had opted to save the $150 delivery charge and pick up our 14' metal I-beam.  And instead of inviting any of his husky male friends to help him unload the beam, he chose.....me.  He ended up having a good system and it wasn't straining at all, it was probably just the intimidation of the thing.  We slid it off the truck and onto the porch, easy peasy.  And there it sits.

After spending some time cleaning the debris out of the kitchen/dining room side of the house, and making sure the ground was covered sufficiently with gravel, I vacuumed the perimeter, where debris always falls, especially from the ceiling.  I wish I could say my job was a bit more glamorous, but alas, it was not.  The next job is to spray Bora-Care, a solution of boric acid (and other not super toxic ingredients) intended to kill mold, mildew, termites and the like.  This was the alternative Dad came up with to buying treated wood, which would have been a whole lot more expensive.  The surfaces that require this treatment are the floor and walls that will remain that are not already pressure treated, as well as the plywood that is going down.  So, in other words, a lot.  The surfaces needed to be relatively clean in order for the solution to stick--hence my insistence the space be vacuumed.

While Gabe was brewing up the concoction, 5 gallons of water for every 1/2 gallon of solution, something else was brewing.  I had yet to experience a thunder/lighting show at the house, so it sure was nice!  The beginning part of the day was steamy hot, so when the winds blew, it felt glorious.

Here is a shot of the drama outdoors:

Such a lovely soaking rain.  It toned our next day of work into one quite beautiful.

We dyed the solution blue so we could tell which areas still needed to be covered:

Even with the air outside getting cooler and the fan blowing right on Gabe, look how sweaty he is!

And what a great choice of facial expressions! :)

Closing in on the end of days work:

Dad was in Minnesota for a conference that weekend.  So we went out to dinner and a movie with Mom to celebrate Gabe's birthday the next day!  

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The next day, Saturday, we brought in the 2' X 8' polystyrene sheets from the RV because we were going to install them on the side of the house where Gabe had sprayed the solution.  Little did I know that installation involved lying on our backs in the crawl space!  Also, the solution had dried on the joists as a powdery substance that came off on our hands.  Not too excited about that.  But, we got right down to it, and made sure the first row was straight, staggering the joints so there would be no weak spots.  We were nailing special nails to the underside of the floor joists.  Oh joy.


Here he is, installing the first sheet:

Once we get the polystyrene all hung, we will then put regular insulation on top of it, and then finally plywood. 

We only did about half of the room since there was a brace holding up the ceiling that Gabe didn't want to take out yet.  Next task was to cover up the areas we already did with plywood and transfer all the tools resting in the main space over so that we could start spraying it too.

This involved me cleaning the perimeter with the wet dry vac again as well as sorting the chaos that was in the crawl space.

I also finished securing down a couple of joist hangers that were remaining:

(Gabe thinks this should be my profile picture)

Mom stopped by too, to bring us lunch and to help out.  She moved the heart pine hardwood flooring that we brought down from the 2nd floor a couple weeks ago so Gabe could cover and spray the joists above with out them getting damaged.  We are waiting to re-plane them until we have a safe place to store them out of the elements (or until right before we install it).  She is wearing Gabe's construction hat---how cute is she?!??!

While I was vacuuming out the main crawl space, Gabe was spraying Bora-Bora Care in the other areas, where the bathroom and porch used to be, respectively:

Gotta love the red gloves and the blue spray:

Then Gabe spent a little bit of time mixing mortar and closing up a few holes in the foundation:

And I just took pictures and caused mischief, like usual.

Notice the pile of plywood and insulation in the above picture.  We must have moved the pile at least 2 times---it felt like plywood musical chairs, ei yei yei yei yei!

And that's a wrap!  We have a lot more work to do, but have made a lot of progress in the past few months.

We plan on leaving tomorrow for yet another wedding in Ohio, and then to Michigan to visit Gabe's family.

Have a Happy 4th of July!

Future Stairwell Floor Joists are Finally Hung!

Before I get to far behind....

We are on day 33 of our House Flip project!  Hard to believe we have worked on this for 6 months already.  The goal for the month of June was to have the foundation ready to hire out the framing to be done in July.

The first weekend in June, Gabe's dad came for a visit.  We even got a day's work out of him!  This is my favorite shot of them working together:

No, they aren't posing for this

First they removed the sheathing (shown above).  Then the decision was made to remove the cement block pier since it is in the way of building up the wall on that side (the suspended wall is being supported in other places now).

All gone!!

They need to get everything lined up:

Then they started building up the foundation wall to go under the walls seen precariously suspended here.  They have to secure them onto the pins that are sticking up (shown above).

Meanwhile, I am finishing up securing joists in other locations.  I did a lot of hammering that day!

Talk about awkward

They had to cut the pieces and nail them from the bottom, so they had to create the whole section first, and then install it.

Sadly enough, with all the lumber in the crawl space where they were working, Gabe sprained his ankle.  As you can see above there is a piece of black duct tape covering a substantial cut also from the fall on his right arm.  But that didn't stop him!!!

Look, they are working so nicely together!

That, is a stud.

Next the install:

And done!

Below is a shot of the new crawl space entrance.  It will be a heated/cooled space.  Finally we have a legitimate supporting agent!

Gabe and Dad C. are attaching a ledger board to to the ends of the joists under what will be the kitchen space:

Poor Gabey got a nasty scrape!

Later at home, after Gabe to his boot off, his ankle swelled right up!  

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The next day we worked was Friday the 8th of June.  A lot was happening this day!!  We weren't alone---when we got out to the house around 2 pm we found one of Dad's church friends working on some blocking.

Blocking is an important step because it helps secure floor joists.  Notice above the differences in the two spaces--the width between joists.  We had to completely remove all the rotten joists from the kitchen/dining room side (far side) so we replaced them with the standard width: 16 inches.  The main space, in the foreground, which is the oldest part built in the 1890's, is surprisingly in tact.  We didn't replace them but reinforced them with side-by-side joists.  So, they ended up being wider spaced, which entails more blocking: placed at the end of each horizontal plywood joint.

We received a truckload of 4 X 8 sheets of treated and untreated plywood for the flooring, which we weren't exactly ready for, but it will be nice for when we are:

Gabe is prepping the space for the new floor joists:

I measured and spaced out the joist hangers:

The joist soldiers are all cut and ready to be hung:

All these joists were first attached to a ledger board so they could be lowered into the joist hangers at the same time.

Here they are now, getting the finally boards in place:

And voila!

Done and done.

I went back in and secured all the joists by hammering them down:

Action shot!

The last thing we had to do was move all the plywood from the yard to under the roof to keep it from rotting.  There must have been more than 20 sheets!  Hats off to Gabe, who did most of it, like usual :)