Electric Bugaboo
Posted on April 7, 2009
Filed Under This Old House | Comments Off on Electric Bugaboo
Our assigned city electrical inspector has been…oh, what is the opposite of helpful and communicative? Whatever you come up with, add some bleeps for me. (My mom’s reading this.)
He won’t return our electrician’s calls, doesn’t speak to anyone on the site, and has been nitpicking every little thing. He made our electrician come back today to install a light in the basement because it was “too dark.” The men who were working in the basement thought that was rather funny, considering that there are seven windows around the room and a door-sized opening in the east wall.
Judge for yourself. This is around 6 p.m.
Help! I can't see!
Clean Slate
Posted on April 6, 2009
Filed Under This Old House | Comments Off on Clean Slate
I spoke too soon.
Today, demolition continued…
Whatever you do, save the shutters!
To its ultimate end:
Zero-story home with two-car garage
Which makes me:
Happy (and dorky looking)
Love That New-Wood Smell
Posted on April 3, 2009
Filed Under This Old House | Comments Off on Love That New-Wood Smell
The first floor deck for the north side of the house was completed today. So, now if it snows again, at least they won’t have to shovel out the basement.
First floor from north
Earlier in the day, Sam the Foreman was moving a large pile of decking material closer to the north side of the house. There was a minor mishap.
If only forklifts had thumbs
No harm done. They piled everything up again and successfully moved it to where it needed to go. A few hours later, the decking was in place.
Now we have a roof over our basement, which feels surprisingly spacious without all of the cobbled-together beams and lally columns.
New floor coming soon
For the sake of comparison, this is what the basement used to look like. It formerly served as lair of the dreadful octopus, the second-creepiest furnace I’ve ever seen. (Creepiest.)
It can't hurt you anymore
A Different Direction
Posted on April 2, 2009
Filed Under This Old House | Comments Off on A Different Direction
Today, we’re seeing construction rather than only destruction, which is really fun to see after days of chain-sawing and jackhammering.
Beams
Gene-gineering
Posted on April 1, 2009
Filed Under This Old House | Comments Off on Gene-gineering
Today marked the beginning of the construction phase of the project. There is still some targeted demo to be done, but the fast-and-furious major-demolition crew has left the scene and now Sawfish Bob’s crew is on the ground. One of their first projects was to get rid of the old powder room floor that was on the Burger King–addition side of the house.
Tackling the powder room floor
It took longer than anticipated due to the mind-boggling construction tactics employed by the home’s former owner, Gene. I’m not going to say that he’s crazy, but he tried to level the floor in the old house by pouring over a ton of Portland cement on the floor, then gluing plywood over that. Also, he used duct tape as drawer handles in the kitchen for over 20 years. (Someday, when I have a lot of spare time, I’ll fill you in on all of the various and absurd details.)
Anyway, we now use the term Gene-gineering to refer to any kludge-y form of construction. Here’s an example from the powder room floor:
Frustration parfait
Here you see Gene-ius at work: layers of plywood, terrazzo, cement, epoxy, wire mesh—fastened to the Spancrete with giant bolts. This section weighs about 400 pounds. While the crew was trying to remove a larger piece, the forklift nearly pitched forward.
It was like he was building a bomb shelter. With a window.
The Message Remains the Same
Posted on April 1, 2009
Filed Under Briar Break | Comments Off on The Message Remains the Same
Our friends, Robert and Ariana, gave us this amaryllis a couple of holidays ago because they didn’t want their cats to eat it when they weren’t looking. (They are sneaky, yet foolish cats who cannot be trusted.)
The plant grew rapidly (almost freakishly so) out of its little ceramic chimney planter. Briar was scared of it at first, but as you can see, the flowers drew him in…
"Meatloaf...Meatloaf...Meatloaf..."