Showing posts with label Demolition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Demolition. Show all posts

Sunday, August 24

More Demolition?

Well, this is the progress we have made on the framing. We have 4 additional walls built that we haven't stood yet because we have to do some demolition first. Yes, I thought we were past that, too. But, I seem to have forgotten that the back wall of my existing home, the one I am living in , sleeping in, cooking in and half-heartedly cleaning, needs to be removed and replaced. So, rather than building this week, we have been installing bracing posts in preparation for the walls to come crashing down around me. (And I don't mean that figuratively.)Before Troy could install the posts in the kitchen, (Yes, they will be permanent fixtures until we move into the new house.) I had to empty the cabinets and drawers. He is being really nice and postponing the installation of the post that will be located behind the kitchen sink until it is absolutely necessary. My friend Tonya gave/loaned me a truckful of plastic storage crates, (you can see some on the counters) to temporarily store my cleaners, medicines, dishes, pots & pans, utensils, spices, Tupperware, cookbooks, baking ingredients, essentially EVERYTHING I normally keep in my kitchen. This is the main cause for the disarray.
To make our house more energy-efficient, we blew insulation into the space between the roof and the ceiling about 4 years ago. When he broke holes in the ceiling to support the roof with the beams, the insulation started falling out. The black garbage bags are for collecting it, and putting it back up in the small cavity around the post. They add such a nice touch to the decor, don't they?
Here is our bedroom. That door used to lead to our walk-in-closet, which has since been torn out. Yes, that is our bed. A saws-all and a shop vac are also present. Notice the nice plastic storage container. That one contains everything that used to fit under my bathroom cabinets before we shrunk the bathroom by 25 square feet.
Here is our first post. Notice the insulation-filled garbage bag? Like I said earlier: Permanent Fixture. *Sigh*
Here is the bedroom on Saturday morning. All 3 posts are installed and the warm, cheery sunshine in shining in through the hole in the wall! Troy spend most of Saturday on the roof, pounding out concrete, and in the bedroom battling with the walls. You can see some of the smaller holes. They grew.
As you can see, he won the battle, but it took a lot of effort. He broke the "Virtually Indestructible" handle of his 16 pound sledgehammer. He enjoyed a brief break while I went to Home Depot to return it. I was pleased that they exchanged it, no questions asked. It is only 5 years old. But, the label said it was indestructible. If you look closely into the gaping hole, you can see the bed we slept in Saturday night. It was so romantic to lie in bed and look up at the stars through the hole in the wall! We are not sure how many of the neighbors can see in. Hmmm...
We all climbed up on the roof yesterday, and although it was nerve-racking for me to have the boys up there, they had a blast. Timmy climbed up the chimney and looked down, and asked me if Santa lived down there. He doesn't.
This is what the back of the house looks like when you are standing in the new part. Every inch of white you see, and some that you can't see, needs to be torn out. We think this will be a fairly lengthy phase. See the two windows? When we build the wall to replace the cinder block one, those windows will not be re-installed. I am so sad about that. I love to look out the window while standing at the sink and admire our accomplishments. The boys love to climb onto the counter, sit next to the microwave and watch Daddy work. It is nice when Troy and I are out working on the house after Spencer is asleep and Timmy is watching a movie to peek in the window to check on him. I will really miss those windows. This was the first thing I saw when I awoke this morning. Did I mention that there are live electrical wires behind those posts that are now exposed?
No, I'm not stressed out. But thanks for asking.

Wednesday, May 28

Back Porch: Before and After

Here is a before and after shot of our back porch. I hope I don't have to label which is which!

Tuesday, May 27

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

In addition to breaking out all the concrete this weekend, we tore out some shrubs and a planter box from the front porch. I am not sure what type of plant it was. Some sort of evergreen whose scent reminded me of pine trees when I walked by.
We tore them out by wrapping a chain around the base of the trunks and pulling them with the Cat. They came out roots and all, like puling weeds.
Troy was as happy as a kid on Christmas. He just loves driving Mechanical things. So do the boys- just like their dad.
I don't know why I am posting this ridiculous picture, but this is a shot Troy took from the drivers seat of the Cat while I was chaining up the trunks. You can see the scoop in the top of the picture.
I always liked those shrubs, but wasn't as sad to see them gone as the fruit trees. In fact, I think I like the house better than when the planter box was there.
Here's what the front of the house looks like today. See the small patch of green grass? My whole lawn looked like that yesterday morning. It is amazing how much havoc a tractor can wreck on a lawn in only a few hours. Oh, well, I guess Troy won't have to worry about mowing the lawn this summer. Lucky guy.

Men and Tractors

What is is about tractors and machines that men and boys just can't help but love? My uncle Dan let us borrow his big Cat on Saturday, so we could finish the concrete project. Here are some pictures of all the fun.
Mom and the boys hanging out in the cab.
Troy's first shot at breaking out the cement. There was even rebar in the sidewalk. Amazing. Whoever built this house wanted it to last. (It didn't.) Notice that there is still grass on the lawn. By the end of the day, you'd never guess there had been grass that morning. Troy and the boys. He had to stop every so often to let Timmy ride with him. But, Timmy only lasted a short time before he needed a break and wanted to climb out again.Thanks again, Uncle Dan! We not only had fun, but got a lot done, too.
Not only is the cement gone, so is the grass!A close-up shot of me and my little boys. You should have seen how excited they were.The Cat did a good job of ripping out more than concrete.
Brett, our brother in-law wanted in on the fun, too.

Smashing up the back porch

The biggest project we undertook was to demolish our back porch ourselves. The bids we got from contractors ranged from $2,000 to almost $5,000 to do the work shown below. We decided to save the money and do it ourselves. (I'll admit, Troy did a huge majority of the work.) After this job, Troy said he was sure glad he didn't work building railroad tracks. He was sore and exhausted at the end of every day. To give a rough estimate, he broke out over 30,000 pounds of concrete on this job. Troy, you are awesome. I love you!Troy started breaking out the concrete after work one Monday. It took us nearly 2 weeks to get it completely taken out. It was a huge job.Troy thought it might save time to rent a jackhammer, but it wasn't any faster, so he returned it and went back to the sledgehammerSee! I really do help. Here I am shoveling tar paper off the concrete roof.A tired, proud Troy surveys his accomplishment. All that is left is the rebar skeleton. We recycled all the steel and made a whopping $22.50. Woo hooOur friend Parker offered to help bash out some cement, and we took him up on it. Warning to other friends: Don't offer to help unless you mean it. Ha ha :)Troy climbing up the rebar to attach the chain to the posts so he can knock them overUsing the Cat to pull down the cement pillars. Troy said they came down like toothpicks. Those tractors are strong!Troy used the Cat Tractor to pull up the porch, too. Now all we have is a lot of dirt. The windows of the house really aren't boarded up -- that was just to protect the glass from all the debris.

Monday, May 26

A rainy, muddy, wonderful Memorial day

Although it looks like we played all day, we really spent most of Memorial Day tearing down the rest of the shed. This was just the highlight of the day. It is nice to spend 4 days home with Daddy. We had a very productive weekend. Check back to see pictures of everything we accomplished.

Peek-A-Boo
Timmy loves to be outside, so we got on his rain gear: Umbrella, hood, and galoshes and he stood on the roof and watched Troy. (Don't worry- the roof was on the ground.)
He is such a Daddy's Boy!
After lunch, he abandoned the rain gear, and decided to play in the mud puddles barefoot. He was enthralled. He spent nearly an hour splashing and playing.
His pants were wet with muddy water above the knees when he finally came in the house.
Aren't life simple pleasures a joy to watch kids discover?
The texture of oozing, gooey mud is one even pictures can't adwquately describe.
I love this picture because I actually captured the "splash" as he jumped in. Click on the picture if you want to marvel at my Amazing photography skills.
I thought this was so cute I wanted to get it on video, so I took a video of both boys in the mud. We'll see if I am able to upload it. Videos are so difficult for me to figure out. *sigh*
The bath water after this episode was about the same color as the mud puddle in the pictures; even with the pre-bath hose down.

Sunday, May 25

Timber!

Last weekend, we cut down our trees. It was a sad, sad, day for me. I lost 2 mature, fruit-bearing apple trees, a delicious peach, and a year-old apple tree I received as a graduation present last year. Troy wasn't as sad, though. He just loves "playing" with his chainsaw. We filled up 3 big truckloads and dumped them at the city cleanup site. There was a free dump day. Lucky us! Here are some of the pictures.
Spencer wanting to push the dolly like his big brother
Timmy taking the firewood to the trucks

Loading up the truck
Two loads of tree branches getting unloaded. We also dumped the piles of firewood you saw earlier on this post
One of the apple trees we cut down
Troy getting his chainsaw going after it sat all fall and winter. Not an easy task!

Monday, May 12

Taking a "Dump" for Family Home Evening

The "Before" picture of the lawnThe Big delivery truck and the Big delivery man
The cool truck- too bad the boys were both asleep- they missed it!
Timmy taking wood to the dumpster
Grandma, Timmy and Spencer loading the dumpster
Emily, Grandma, Timmy and Spencer inside the dumpster
Troy on the roof swinging his big sledgehammer. Also, notice the "After" shot of the lawn. Nice work, everyone, and Thank You!!!
Where the rebar is, the Concrete was. It was 8 inches thick, too
The boys both in the single stroller

We had an exciting day today. Around 4:00PM, Waste Managment arrived with a huge dumpster and deposited it on our driveway. I think the delivery guy was a little surprised when I asked him to pose for a picture, and maybe a little flattered. We made a lot of progress on filling that monstrosity, too. Troy's mom, Melissa, and baby sister, Emily came over and helped us load all the demolition debris into it for our Family Home Evening. Timmy and Spencer helped, and did, too. (Even though I found a second to snap a few pictures.)

Our good friends and neighbors, Alan and Anna, let us store our big jetted tub in their garage. (They don't park in it)

After Melissa and Emily left, Troy thought it would be fun to climb up on the roof and start smashing it with a sledgehammer. I don't think I will ever fully understand men. But, I took some pictures of our smashed up roof with my triumphant husband standing atop it.

The boys were all "jammied" up and ready for bed, so I put them both in the stroller (not the double) and puched them out to check on Daddy.