Day 78 - Windows and Scaffolding

Most of the windows were installed. Didn't install upstairs French door because waiting for drywall to be loaded in first. Roof decking mostly completed.

Stucco crew has put up their scaffolding. Plumbing drains are mostly installed and started working on water supply lines.

Day 74: Making Flooring

The house is coming along. Most the windows have been installed now and the roof should be sheathed now. Sorry I do not have any pictures of the windows installed right now. We left the construction for a week and are in Wisconsin/Michigan now. This is a tad scary leaving a construction site... In Wisconsin John's dad is making the rest of the oak flooring for the upstairs and kitchen. Here are some pictures of the work in progress at the mill. The pictures on the right is the oak planks that came out of the kiln and are ready for planing! We decided on 4" planks for the kitchen and the upstairs is 2 1/4" width. LL

Day 69: Dormer & Decking

The dormer started to get framed up this week. Also, the roof is getting decked. The drain lines for the plumbing are going in too. The electrician came this week and moved the panel and re-mounted it temporarily in a different spot, so the wall could be sheared up under the panel. Oh and the basement was stucco'd over a week ago. Looks great! John is working on installing the window in the basement. The house windows will be installed this week too, John is holding one up in the photo.

The air quality has been horrible in Sacramento from all the fires. My temporary wall is doing little to keep it out! But we are still surviving in our little living space :)) Have a great 4th of July! LL

Day 60.5 - Designer's Concept

Designer Ted stopped by to look at the situation. Here is Lisa's idea and his sketch of workaround solution for the window on the left side of upstairs. Some work to do on the design with the engineer but I think this is what we will be doing. JM

Day 60: Roof lines!

The front half of the roof structure is going up! The last picture is the upstairs master bedroom looking up at the coffered ceiling. We ran into one major issue so far. The upstairs window on the left is too tall for the space once sheathing and roofing is added. So we have a few options: 1) new window; 2) move the window to the left; 3) raise the window and pop it into the roofline. Number 1 costs money, 2 is not feasible as this is a shear wall & it costs money (damn CA, crazy laws), and 3 also costs money. In any event the designer came by today and we will attempt option 3 and 1. I have a schetch of option 1 and it looks pretty cool. LL

Day 54!

Check it out! We have roof rafters going up. It is nice to see how the outside of the house is going to look. Hopefully OK.... The designer stopped by yesterday to figure out the stair design. Also, tomorrow the inside walls of the basement will be stucco'd. Lots of decision making going on. It all is going quite well. John and I haven't disagreed too much (of course he is out of town, so that makes it easier) :)) Over and out. LL

Day 51

Framing for all the walls is done and the house is being sheathed. Of course there was more demolition involved though. The middle bedroom walls and ceiling were all completely gutted. I hate that part. The stairs to the 2nd story are in! The second story is framed and next they will start framing the roof and all. So exciting. And the subfloor is all done on the 1st floor now too!

Days 45 & 46

Day 45 & 46: The second story walls started to get framed up these days. Pretty cool to walk around up there. On the left is a picture of what the back of the house looks like and the one on the right is the 2nd story sub-floor already in. Also on the picture on the left you can see our one of our newer windows from the downstairs bedroom had to be takend out (leaning against the fence). We need to reuse that window, but it cracked upon removal. Will have to get new glass in there! LL

Day 44 - 2nd Floor Framing

On Monday Day 41 the 3 framers started laying out 2nd floor beams and joists. They started off by tearing open celing of dining room and our middle bedroom (shown) to remove existing 2x4 ceiling joists to make way for new 2"x14" LVL beams.

On Tuesday Day 44 they completed framing out the floorplan for the 2nd story, including the cantilever on south side. 2nd story walls should start popping up next. -JM

Day 42 - Decking and Walls

The framers started work on Friday Day 40 and made a lot of progress in a few days. On Friday they installed sill plate on the basement wall and silent floor girders for the 1st floor addtion.

2 guys worked on Sunday and got the 1st floor walls up, including fitting some of the support beams in existing walls to support 2nd floor.

On Sunday one of the framers accidentally nailed his foot to the floor. He was wearing steel toe boots, but he accidentally bumped the nailer just past where the steel toe ends. His buddy pulled the nail out with a pair of pliers. Once we got his shoe off we were amazed that the nail missed bone and tendons, and only went through meat next to ball/knuckle for the big toe. Lisa came home at that time and cleaned him up and bandaged him and I gave him a fresh pair of socks. He insisted on continuing work for a couple more hours. Tough dude.

Anyway, can now start to see the outline for the new kitchen and family room - JM.

Day 39.75

Just when you thought demo was over....it continues. I am in awe at how much of the house is really gone. You are looking at the picture which used to be the kitchen & laundry room, left side and part of dining room... or the future kitchen & new basement wall! I heard framing is starting tomorrow (Friday) & on Sunday! We get to listen to more Euro Trash Disco ! We are living behind the temporary walls on the right. It is not very airtight but I put up some plastic to keep the dust out. Also, not sound proof either. I hear all the construction guys' jokes when they think I am not around. So hilarious! Much talk about vibrators, caulk, etc. LL

Day 39 - Final Demo

Final concrete poured yesterday, incl. filling basement walls, basement floor, and all the retrofitted footings and piers to hold up the 2nd story (about 8 of seperate locations). Will add pix later.

Today the demo crew is finishing up what they started last week. Neighbors just sent over this picture. If you look through the back door and windows you can see there is nothing behind them, just a facade at this point.

Also since we dont have enough destruction going one, I have also asked the demo crew to tear off the garage roofing. It has shake roof that is probably 40 years old or more, so I will replace this with shake torn off the house, which was only 4 years old and in good condition.

Day 34 & 36-37

Day 34 I arrived back from Singapore to a completely demolished house. Kitchen, roof, etc. I still can't believe we are actually doing this. Actually I think the driver who dropped me off was more in awe than me!

Day 36-37: On Memorial Day we listened to "Euro Trash Disco" all day. We somewhat helped out by BBQ'ing for the guys. Nearby the back steps were being demo'd right next to the gas meter, it only got hit once from what I saw... (as I nervously flipped burgers next to an open flame). Meanwhile John was waiting to come out of the hole for lunch. I finally got him in there!

The forms for all the footings were completed, giant holes under the entire existing foundation. Today the forms passed inspection. Pouring tomorrow!

Day 33 - Roofless

Roof was removed Friday. Although Sacramento is experiencing the driest spring since records have been kept, Murphy Law of course dictates that we would receive some unforecasted rain within hours of the demo crew fisishing.

Had to add more tarps Saturday when we had about 1.5 hours of light rain. Great unsolicited help - Jorge the roofer came by at 630am to help me tarp part of the roof I didnt cover Friday night. At 700am Sasha and Chuck the framers came by redo our work. And by 730am Rueben the demo king and several of his guys came by and laughed at us. No significatnt water in the good part of the house so that was good news.

Day 32 - Demo Continues

Basement is progressing well. Drain tile around the perimeter is installed and surrounded by gravel and soil cloth. Dirt is being backfilled on top of this and its about 2/3 done. We can now see our backyard again with piles of dirt gone. The basement floor has been filled with gravel, drain pipes connected to sump, and covered with plastic and then sand and wire mesh. But basement will not be poured until later next week after subfloor is installed over the top.

Demo crew arrived today and gutted the kitchen. Not much left of the walls as seen above. With 30mph gust today, combined with the guys clearing celluouse insulation with a leaf blower, their is a lot of dust in the neighborhood today. I stopped in for lunch and they had already thrown away the glass panel laundry door, since I had forgot to mark "save" on windows and doors that I want to keep. Luckily one of the guys Antonio was able to rummage throw the huge pile in the truck and find the door. Amazingly the glass wasn't broken but the door was pretty beat up, but salvageable. My temporary walls are not quite airtight, so our living area is covered in a pretty thick layer of plaster dust. By end of day tomorrow the entire roof structure should be gone, down to the sill plate, and they will finish gutting the laundry room also.

Day 30 - Moving Inside

I spent the weekend finishing up gutting the kitchen, in preparation for demolition later in the week. Ripped out the enormously heavy 1930's porcelain sink (Thanks Jeff Brown) and the equally heavy concrete laundry sink. Found out yesterday that contractor wanted to start digging out footing under the house immediately, since they had some downtime outside while basement is being hot mopped. So I was up late getting the last of the cabinets, appliances and fixtures out of the kitchen. The guys came in today, cut open the kitchen floor in 2 spots, and hand dug holes for piers and a 10 ft long footing. We are trying to concentrate all the destruction in the kitchen and laundry and salvage the hardwood floors in other rooms.

Also put up 2nd temporary wall in the dining area. Now 1/2 of dining room & living room are walled off, and this along with 1 bedroom and bathroom will be living space for a couple months. Below is our cozy living room / temp kitchen!

Day 30 -Hot Mop Basement

Crew applied 6 layers of membrane to the exterior of the basement wall. Guys had to spend a lot of time in the narrow slot (less than 2 feet) between basement wall and dirt. 20 yards of gravel arriving tomorrow for the perimeter drain tile. Then backfill will start in the next day or two.

Day 26 - Basement Block

Concrete Blocking was completed late Friday night.

Day 29 for me

I am in Singapore trying to monitor the progress of the project but hubby is not posting..... What is going on in Wally World John???? It is day 29 for me here but day 28 in the states. Hope all is well there in Sac-o-tomato. John is so busy I am doing the update from Singapore (love technology). He worked on moving the rest of the kitchen and laundry room items out for demo. Also, is working on building the temporary wall for the Dining room. Demo on the roof starts Thurs/Fri of this week. Basement walls are nearly done, 1 batch of concrete poured down them that I know of. Signing off from Singapore. I do not remember it being this HOT here! LL :)))

Day 25: Wally world

Today the walls for the basement started going up. Next they will pour concrete down the holes in the block. We are shooting for a Saturday last pour of the walls.