1 - The foundation was completed (I must have lost track of the days), but not before Caleb made his mark in it! We couldn't have asked for a better crew!
2 - We removed the chimney from Charlotte's future room. It only took up a little bit of the wall, but removing it improved the flow of the room so much. It was choppy with the chimney, and limited our options for furniture placement. With the chimney removed, there is nothing holding back my design plans.
Day 30 - The carrying beam between the old part of the house and the new part of the house was installed. I moved all the furniture from the porch into the shed (future mudroom) to get it out of the way for the electrician. Finally, I carried the brick from the chimney outside and piled them neatly.
Day 31 - Dad and I spent a Saturday getting soaked in our own sweat removing the 2nd chimney. This was a much trickier job because we had to transport all the bricks from one end of the attic to the other, down the hold, down the stairs, and outside. What a job!
Luckily, I'm a genius and rigged up a pretty sweet brick transporter using Caleb's little wagon.
That same day, we also finished moving furniture and totes out of the porch and pulled nails from the bedroom floors to prep them for sanding. I can't wait until all the fixing up (instead of tearing apart) starts. I think I'll really start to get excited then!
Another VERY dirty job.
Don't worry! Dad wouldn't let me try my other rig for getting the bricks down the stairs. (We also wouldn't want to harm that special wagon!)
The remainder of the bricks piled out side. These are the ones that weren't broken. I was thinking about making border for flower beds with them or something. What do you think?
Ruined my favourite jeans and hoodie doing this job...an excuse to buy a new Roots hoodie :)
Caleb and Charlotte were very cooperative and let Mama get lots of work done.
The after-shot of one of the rooms with the chimney removed.
Day 32 - We spent the entire day cooped up in the truck with both kids running necessary errands. It always hurts to lose a day doing this, but I keep reminding myself, it's better than paying a contractor whatever crazy rate to do all that running around when they could be building your house. That night we borrowed an awesome dump trailer from one of Dad's awesome friends (saved us about $1000) and cleaned up our big mess.
That pleasant feeling when the trailer dumps and a gust of wind blows all the debris and smell up in your face ...GAG!
Day 33 - Cleaned up the rest of the materials to go to the dump.
Day 34 - The boys laid the first floor of the addition and completed one wall.
Dad working through the pain of his knee injury...they seem to run in our family! He popped the knee right out of the socket. He's been icing it and taking lots of pain killers, but he refuses to stop working.
LOVE all the time I get to spend with my little worker man!
After we get home from a long day's work at the little cape cod on the ridge, I make supper, clean up from supper, get both kids to sleep, and work into the wee hours of the night on Caleb's Gruffalo costume. I'm SO tired!
Day 35 - First floor is complete! I didn't get to see it until the end of the day because I was teaching. I had so much fun, but missed my babies desperately (first day leaving them without Nana)! Dad took Caleb to the little cape cod on the ridge and Keith kept Charlotte home. After work, I headed out to take some pictures of the progress.
And, yes! Those are three huge windows on one side and three sets of garden doors on the other. This is going to be one light-filled, breezy living/dining room. I love actually seeing my design come to life!
Day 36 - I taught again today. Dad worked away at ripping up the flooring in the kitchen and figured out how to jack the floor up more.
Day 37 - Spent the day helping Dad install one of the beam for the basement and ripping up some more hardwood. It sounds crazy to be ripping up hardwood after finding it under the old kitchen floor but it didn't cover the whole floor and it was too damaged by the glue :(
Day 38 - Used this day of rest to work on the costume. Here's my little helper.
Day 39 - We arrived at the house late today because we had a lot of errands to run (shopping for woodstoves). When we got to the house, we continued to work on the beams in the basement and tear up the old hardwood. It's not a fun job being bent over in a cellar for long periods of time, but level floors are worth the back pain as well as every cent put into it! The boys also finished installing the carrying beam that opens the kitchen up to the addition. It's going to be wonderful having such an open concept home!
