Nov. 3rd, 2005 Thursday

The foundation is done. Still some painting etc. to go, of course.

The shed happens next, (or maybe getting the furnace hooked back up?) And then we'll proceed with the upstairs. Lots of work ahead in the backroom, too. But, at least the interior doors are beginning to close a tad easier. This (the doors) is a continuing adjustment program. The whole house got shifted and lifted, and set back down. Lifted here and set down there. Small wonder things aren't quite the same? It could have been worse - only two or three back bath tiles cracked, along with some paint and woodwork. And, doors not closing right. The good news? The floors aren't quite so 'bouncy'. The house feels more solid.

Here's the new 'mudroom' sink. That's the new plumbing, behind it. We seem to need some floor work, first.

Oct. 25th, 2005 Tuesday

Whoa! Good plumbing. They tied into the existing sanitary line, under the back bath. Added in and out for a mud room tub, and washer/dryer combo on the other (THIS, in the picture) side of the wall. Vented the whole thing through the roof. I liked these guys! Fast, thorough, and helpful. They also hid the previously exposed copper lines, in the wall. Sometimes, it pays to spend the bucks. A smaller (but equally efficient) outfit that Paul liked, was booked ahead for weeks. Because they're good, and reasonable. Needing this work NOW, probably cost us a few bucks. Worth every penny. We are hoping the same axiom proves to be true tomorrow, when the next set of furnace guys show up.

Oct. 22nd, 2005 Saturday

Oct. 20th, 2005 Thursday

These guys are back - Faulkner and Co. They wanted their beams - and they took them.

The house is finally on the new foundation. Now we can get the ductwork fixed, and have heat on those cool fall mornings!

End of day 33

Oct. 19th, 2005 Wednesday

This wee thing can lift 7 to 10 tons! There have been several of them, at times, scattered under the house. The 'house lifter' guys use jacks that are controlled from a central location. See earlier in the month.

Jim, the main foundation guy - well - his wife, Karen, has an earth moving business! She helped do some of the landscaping/earth moving around the property, this day.

This will be our ramp to the new shed.

The "plate" - wood that goes between the house and the foundation blocks, is being installed. They lifted one corner of the house yesterday and we couldn't open the front door for several hours - it was jammed, locked into the frame, until they set it back down.

Oct. 16th, 2005 Sunday

We hope that enough of the wall has been exposed to affect a 'fix'. With virtually no studs still touching the ground in this corner - we wonder - what exactly is holding up this part of the back room? Apparently - the siding. Note the vents under the window? They've been covered up, inside and out - but we are wondering - what were they for, when they were still in service?

The cat's wirehouse has been moved away from its usual location, temporarily. This is the corner of the building that was sunk in the dirt, (and therefore rotted away) underneath the house.

Oct. 15th, 2005 Saturday

Making the porch match the house. Prop up the slab, and bash out the old bricks. Poor a footing and add blocks. Voila!

This has turned into a more serious problem than we'd feared. There is a lot of rotted wood to be replaced in and under the back room, which was at some point a back porch. We're trying to make it part of the house, now, instead of an added on and sloping, slightly rotted porch. Going to try and find a sawsall today, to speed this stuff up a tad.

Oct. 6th, 2005 Thursday

Starting to see the big pile of blocks go down, and a foundation appear under the house.

Many, many yards of dirt have been shoveled out from under this house. I'd guess nearly 25. That's a LOT of dirt. Still more to come, too. The joists at the rear of the house were in the dirt, and rotting. A solid foundation is a must, and having ALL the house out of the dirt is, too. That's the only way we'll be able to replace/add joists to our lumpy back room area.

All the removed dirt has to come out a shovel at a time through that hole in the back room floor, where they poured the concrete under the house. ( below, a bit) 

Oct. 4th, 2005 Tuesday

The cement is no longer 'green', the forms are off, and the block work commences.

Day 16

Oct. 01, 2005 Saturday

Here is the actual pouring, done later yesterday ~

Where the 'real' work is: under the house -

Randy and Jim

The muscle - Slav, Vitale and Mark

The cement truck blew out a brake system airline, and was immobile for a spell, until this repair truck arrived. The fellows continued working, moving the concrete by a wheelbarrow 'bucket brigade'. They got 'er done!

However, day light was fading, near the end.

This was the first corner exposed (nearly two weeks ago), and the last poured - by hand, at that.

This is the before, above is the after -

The fellows put the back room floor back together, too, at least so the cats can get to their wire house.

The Boss, Himself - Jim

End of day thirteen

Sept. 30th, 2005 Friday

With good weather once again, things are picking up. Soon cement will flow down this chute for the new support footing in the center of the house.

Yes. How observant of you - that is a new hole in the laundry room floor. S'ok, that floor needs a lot of help - and will now be getting some. Help, that is - in the form of new joists. One might notice that the existing joists are over thirty inches apart - and darn few of them at all?

The cement truck will pull into the alley, and hook to this supply chute, we hope. . .

And then loads of cement will flow under the house - going in right here.

Say - has someone taken away great chunks of our alley fence? Hmmmm. The answer seems to be, YES.

The cement truck will deliver from this area, for the pouring in the front.

Sept. 29th, 2005 Thursday

Yes, it's doing the rain thing, here in the Great Pacific N'west - Anacortes, in particular. And may for some time, they tell me. The cement (cinder) blocks were delivered yesterday. They sit in the rain, today.


That's (below) rain pouring out of our disconnected gutter pipe. It's going right in the recently completed cement form. Rest assured, it won't hurt anything - once it lets up.

Sept. 28, 2005 Wednesday

These guys have/are earning their money. This is an old house, and a lot of stuff has remained undiscovered, underneath - (mostly huge rocks) until now. Plus we live on a hill. All the forms must be 'stepped'. It is almost time to begin pouring the concrete base to the footing.

I, for one, am glad not to be crawling around under there. . . It certainly reminds me of many railroad tunnels, that went under water - various rivers and such - that also scared me half to death.

End of day 10

Sept. 26, 2005 Monday

Actually, what one sees here, is the actual formed up footings for the new foundation. As in most types of projects, the preliminary work takes up most of the time and effort. The guys are almost ready to pour. That is, cement into the footings.

You are following this, are you not?

End of day 8

Working on saturday! Starting to form up the foundation.

We are beginning to understand why the phone, cable, etc keeps going out. What we have here, is nothing like Chicago City Electric code, where all wires must be in conduit.

End of day six.

Sept. 23, 2005 Friday

Most of the ongoing travails are still occuring under the house. So much earth to move. This is hard to document.
However, it's easy to see the remains of Ann's wheelbarrow, which has been converted into everyday use as a dirt hauling sled. It will go back together, eventually. Note that the 'shed addition' area has been taken over for use as tool/junk storage. Oh, dang. One might also note that as fall is on us, the grass is starting to grow, once again. This begs the question: Will we be able to retrieve the lawn mower from the well inundated shed?

We were trying to capture a picture of how deep the trenches must go to accommodate the new footings. Alas, all we got is a picture that shows how our various cables/phone lines keep coming undone. It's pretty amazing that we're online at this moment - and may not be, tomorrow at this time. There is a deep trench at the center left of this picture.

Here is some of the dirt that has come out from under the house. It 'fluffs' upon removal, that is; increases in size by a factor of three when it's dragged out. We might add that this stuff gets hauled off on a daily basis.

Here is a good example of why I'm glad not to be digging under the house - mainly, spiders, etc. to include - low clearance. These guys are digging out a trench 18 inches deep, where ever a new footing goes. In some places, (i.e. the new support in the center of the house) that equates to almost a tunnel. As the fellow explained to me this afternoon - "I'm almost three feet wide, so - to dig this trench, it has to be 18 inches deep, and over three feet wide!"

End of day five.

Sept. 22, 2005 Thursday

The foundation guys're going into high gear. Whoa!

There are more choices these days for cement blocks that we'd ever dreamed about. A pleasant surprise. No more plain grey blocks! These remind me of really good salami. Ann favors the darker piece -

So far, this under the house work has put the cable out a couple times, and today one of the phone lines is gone. After they leave each day, we try to cobble the wires back together. The disconnected ductwork is another story, however. No heat for us.

The large timber you see here is going (along with some assorted phone lines, apparently) - it was the old 'beam' part of post and beam construction. Cement block (looking like salami) will now take its place.

This area is almost ready for the new foundation. Well, except the old concrete 'pads' upon which sat the old posts, must still come out. I'd say they are about 15 percent along, overall, in this regard. I'm sure that when this house was built, no one ever dreamed it would still be here, in 2005 - let alone having an upstairs added.

These guys kept at it until dark. So, the only other picture we got - was this fellow - so proud of his 'wheels'. I asked him if they came locally - No. "I bought them on E-bay!"

We notice that the contractor has a network of helpers to which he might reach out? This makes me like him better, all the time. For the purely grunt level haul and carry stuff, he brings in teenagers. They are still tearing away the old post and beam stuff - some of it pretty substantial. After all, it did hold this house in one place for over eighty years.

End of day four.

Starting to get the estimates for the actual upstairs part of things. As Ann reminds us, the season is growing short. All that happened today was dirt removal. A neighbor fellow needing extra money was willing to crawl under the house and start digging away some foot and a half of dirt. We had to dismantle the wheelbarrow (not my wheelbarrow - Ann!) to use as a 'sled' for hauling the excavated dirt out from under. As you might imagine, this is not the most spacious of work areas.
The foundation guy has a bad cold. I told him to stay in bed a day. Oh, well. He's older than I am, but can breathe somewhat better. I hope he isn't going to do any crawling under the house?

Since our house is on a hill, the back of it is almost at ground level. This is a problem, in terms of adding new support. We are talking many yards of dirt that must come out. Dang. Below we see where the digging went this day. Lots more dirt to still be removed.

End of day three

Sept. 20th, 2005

The house is 'lifted'. Which is to say, the strain is off the old posts that held it up. Once everything was in place, the actual lift part took only a few moments. The guy at the hydraulic manifold control pumped the jacks slowly in a clockwise pattern, while the boss watched from under the house. He would tap on the old posts, and note when they were no longer doing any support work. Brave fellow, I thought. He yelled instructions to the guy working the levers. They noted later, for my benefit, that on larger jobs they use radios. Once around, did it. These guys are good! Very little structural damage inside the house, at this point. I gather that will come when it's set back down.

As we understand it - the house has taken over 80 years to get into the shape it is today. Lifting it slowly off the old footings, which have held it from the outside walls for the last 80 years, hasn't put any pressure on anything. Relieved years of stress, most likely. The iron beams now supporting the house are in maybe 6 or 8 feet from the outside walls, where all the support used to come from, as it were.

The real excitement will come when the house is set back down again. What was a low corner, (the tiled kitchen and back bath, durn) will now try to become level. So, that corner will touch first. Even then, the eighty year old wood may not simply conform to the new configuration. Ever try to drive a nail into an old two by four? The house will take some time to 'adjust' itself to the new version of level. Even then, the addition of an upstairs, or second floor, will add additional weight on those old timbers - and THEN we might know the final effect of having a level foundation. So. We won't worry about fixing any damage, until ALL the new construction is completed.

Here we see the first iron beam being inserted under the house. These guys were so slick, that once the beam was in place (ok, it slid on rollers) they merely shoved it by hand until it ended up where it ought to be. Basically, all the prep was done by 'eyeball'.

Nearly in place

Now both side are almost in place.

The hydraulic pumping station - it only took four jacks to do this job.

Once the house was where it ought to be, it was braced there, and the jacks were removed.

Here, the house looks (and feels) pretty much the same, but is no longer sitting on the old posts. It's sitting on those two iron beams. Using this method has the added advantage of allowing us to keep the same front porch. Lifting the house any higher (as to pour a foundation, rather than build one from concrete block) would have cost us a new porch. Plus, the aggravation (and cost) of getting this one carted away. The wee bit that the house has been raised to take the weight off the old support posts, isn't even visible in the photo. This is good, in that the house plumbing is also unaware of any changes.
End of day two -

The fellows -

It starts today, Sept. 19th 2005. In six hours two guys totally tore up the underside of our house. They ripped off the old skirting and began preparations for lifting the whole dang thing. No more than an inch or so, we hope - but an inch is a good as two feet in terms of the set up. They arrived in two trucks, and went at it like they knew what they were doing. Out came anything in the way - ductwork, dirt, junk. Tomorrow they hope to finish setting up the supports for the two forty foot long beams that will support the house while a new foundation is built.

This is the beams, supports and timber truck.

This is the jack manifold truck. Lines will run to each hydraulic jack, and all will be controlled from here. I think this truck will also help place the iron support beams.

The bricks seen here are just part of a decorative planter, outside the foundation. They are going.

This is what we are changing - the house now sits on posts and beams. The city frowns on this, you see.

Setting the supports

End of day one.

This is the area we're forming up to pour a pad for the shed addition. Since the city is involved, we will have to pull a permit for this job, too. We had hoped to avoid that, but. . .