Another Inspection Successfully Completed!

Yesterday the county building inspector came to inspect the footings and forms for the foundation. This was a pretty critical inspection. So many little things as potential problem areas: are the footings wide enough, are the footings clean enough, are the forms level and plumb, is there the required 30 feet distance from the property line from all areas of the addition? YES! First, let me tell you that my husband is pretty "type A" when it comes to construction and he tends to "over build" so I had no doubt that the inspector would give us the OK to pour cement. My husband, on the other hand, had several sleepless nights worrying about every little detail and whether or not he'd forgotten something.

The inspector arrived in the early afternoon and headed straight for the 8 x 15 foot form that is the critical part of the foundation. This is the part of the forms that had my husband tied up in knots building and will be the true test of his skills when wet cement is poured into it. One look into the form and the inspector smiled, turned to my husband and said "Good Job!". Suddenly everyone knew things were going to be OK. The forms were signed off on the permit and cement will arrive early the morning of June 19th and the next step in this adventure will begin.

The forms going in:

The finished forms:

We've Been Busy

It's been a busy time since we obtained our permit. So busy I have forgotten to post. Now I'm stuck trying to catch everything up and hoping I don't forget anything or get anything out of sequence.

We started by digging footing and forms for the foundation that will support the portion of the house which will remain and get a "major" remodel. During this process the house had to be elevated off of the old Pier and Post construction and supported to allow us to dig the footings. Digging these footings presented a challenge because the house sits on rock.

We purchased a rotary hammer to assist in the process as a jack hammer was just too large for the space. After more than several days of hammering away we had footings and built forms. The forms were inspected within 24 hours of their completion and the mixing and pouring of the cement began. We chose to mix the cement ourselves for this part because the total amount of cement was relatively small and we all ready own a small mixer. Here are a few pictures of this stage:

This is just the front of the house but you can see the cramped work area. I'm glad to say this part went well. Removing the forms was a bit tricky in the back part of the house because that area is extremely cramped.

Then the deconstruction began in earnest! Those folks who know me know that I am a fairly organized person and mess and chaos don't set well with me. Don't ask me why I was thinking that the sheer mess and chaos of deconstruction would not bother me on some level but I really had a difficult time with it. I realized we weren't going to take the place apart one screw, nail, or piece of wood at a time but I must admit I was totally unprepared for the deconstruction mess! Here are just a few pictures.


The part that darn near pushed me over the edge was when my dear husband and the Son-in-law hooked the end of the house up to the Ford F250 and pulled it over! Check this out!


After seeing how well I dealt with the deconstruction and inability to rest until the clean up was done my dear husband decided to send me away to visit a friend for a week while the dirt work was done. Yep! That's why I love him so.....he's just one smart man! Here is what I missed while I was gone:



The cat left after three days of hard work and will return at a later date to finish the rest of the dirt work that will need to be done.

Now to build forms for the new foundation! That sounds easy but one wall will be 6-8 feet tall and 15 feet long so building the form strong enough to hold back the weight of that much wet cement is an engineering challenge in it's own right. Here is what everything currently looks like.



So now we're hanging steel and then we'll begin building the inside forms. Once that is done it will be inspected and then we'll schedule the cement and pumper! We're hoping that within a week we'll actually start framing! I'll do my best to keep up with the posting.