Foundation Work #2

It's been another week of rain. During one of the dry periods the contractor was able to remove the foundation forms and start framing the addition.

Foundation Work

After a week of on again off again rain the weather was finally good enough to allow the contractor to get the foundation formed and poured. If the weather stays dry the contractor will start framing the addition later this week.

Support

This past week the weather in Kentucky was cold and wet. The contractor spent the end of last week inside working in the cellar. He added support to several areas and leveled the floors in several other areas.


The weather was nicer today and the contractor was able to work outside. He was able to get the concrete poured for the porch addition footer.

The Big Dig

Here are some pictures taken on Tuesday afternoon after the old brick foundation was removed and the ground dug up in preperation for the new addition footer and foundation.

April 9th Update

This past weekend we continued to work on the plaster walls in the two front bedrooms. We're getting close to being done with the plaster wall/crack repairs. All we have to do now is sand, prime, and paint them.

On Sunday I spent several hours crawling around on the kitchen floor hammering in all of the nails and tacks that were sticking up from the wood floor. There were hundreds of them left in the floor after all of the old linoleum and carpet was removed last year.


Today the contractor replaced a small part of the kitchen floor that was water damaged with new wood sub flooring. He also put down a Durock cement board sub floor on top of the old wood floor to make it smooth and level for a ceramic tile floor.

The big dig begins on Tuesday.

April 5th Update

This week the builder has been working inside on various things.

On Monday he framed in the stud walls for the outside walls in the kitchen. If you remember, all of the plaster was removed from the walls in the kitchen. The new framed outside walls will have new insulation and drywall.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the builder worked on the kitchen/pantry/hallway floor and the kitchen/pantry walls. The area under the second floor guest bathroom wasn't in very good shape. The combination of water damage and poor add-on construction made it necessary to replace parts of the flooring, structural supports, and walls.

Porch Demolition - Day 3

The rain stopped and the porch removal project started back up. The remaining floor and joist sections were cut apart and removed. All that remains is the brick foundation which will be removed sometime during the next week or so.

On Thursday the contractor finished firring the remaining ceilings that will be drywalled.

Rainy Day

It rained all day today which put the porch removal project on hold. Moving inside for the day, the contractor attached fir strips to the ceilings in three rooms. All of the rooms except the front foyer and the upstairs hallway will have new drywall ceilings.

Porch Demolition - Day 2

Today was day two of the porch removal. The only things remaining are the first floor decking and brick foundation.

Porch Demolition - Day 1

The contractor started on the demolition of the back sleeping porch. The roof and second floor walls were all taken down during day one. Here are some pictures of the days progress.

March 25th Update

We continue to work on the plaster walls and foyer ceiling. We spent most of the time at the house this weekend working on the front two bedrooms. As we've said in the last several posts, we're making progress but there's still a lot to do.

The HVAC subs were back this week to finish hooking up the heat pumps. We now have heat and AC on both the first and second floors. They're done for now but will be back when the porch section is framed in.

Slow News Week

You'll be disappointed to hear that there isn't a lot to report this week. We pretty much did the same things that we've been doing for the past several weeks...plaster repair. At least the finish line is in sight for the wall repairs. With the exception of the the two upstairs front bedrooms, we're more or less done with joint compounding for now. We'll probably have more touch up work after we start sanding.

Although there is little news in the land of renovations, we'd like you to know that there is peace in our animal kingdom.

Dumpster Vol. 2

We had a second dumpster dropped off for all of the plaster and other demolition junk that's piled up since we had the first dumpster. We'll also need it for the upcoming removal of the back porch section that's being replaced.

March 12th Update

During the past week a lot of work has been done at the house. The contractor framed in the two new closets in the front two bedrooms. The electricians have done the rough in wiring for about 85% of the existing house. We now have temporary lights in all of the rooms except the kitchen and several working electrical outlets.


We plan to use reproduction push button switches for all of the downstairs switches and the upstairs hallway switch.


All of the outside walls are plaster on brick which makes it hard to install wall outlets. Because of this a lot of the electrical and cable outlets will have to be in the floor.


We continue to work on fixing the plaster walls and front foyer ceiling. We've made a lot of progress but there's still a lot more to do.