They poured the concrete for the garage floors today. They also poured the floor for the area between the garages. This is the larger garage.
This is the smaller garage.
They also poured part of the foundation for the back porch and the back sidewalk. They put a plastic cover over it to protect it from the rain.
Our cats like the new concrete.
They are ready to pour the concrete for the two garages and area in between tomorrow. If it isn't raining they also plan to haul the concrete around our house to pour part of the foundation for the back porch. They have the boards so they won't get bogged down in the mud if they pour the back porch foundation.
When we were up on the Jenga stacks a lot of the downspouts fell off. They reattached this downspout so they can dry out the siding before they paint it.
They put the re-bar in the floor of the small garage. They plan to pour the floor of the garages on Friday.
When they pour the garage floor they plan to haul concrete to the back of the house for part of the foundation for the back porch and for the sidewalk to the lower back door. Some of the footings they need for our back porch are next to our current septic tank. We may need to get the new septic system installed soon so they can finish our back porch.
All the siding is installed now. They will paint the new siding soon, maybe as soon as next week.
They put re-bar in the large garage. They also put up boards where the foundation did not rise to the level the concrete floor.
In the back of the house they started digging for the foundation for the back porch.
They did a lot of work on the house today. They broke up our old parking slab and hauled it away. They also removed the rhododendron that was next to it. Another thing that is missing from this picture is one of our cars. It was stolen from the parking lot where I work today.
If you look closely you can see a light in this garage. The electrician has been busy putting in lights and outlets in the garages and "walk" space.
The new water inlet to the house and the new sewer (septic system) outlet were installed today. They disconnected the water and sewer for awhile today. This is a picture of the new water inlet. Part way up the wall is a shutoff valve. I decided not to include a picture of the sewer outlet.
They started marking out the area to build our new back porch.
Sometime recently they finished the support under the chimney. I'm not sure when it was done.
They patched more of the cracks today. Our house is looking and feeling more like our home again.
The also dug a ditch for the pipe from our water meter to the house. It looks like they are going to go under the footing rather than through the foundation.
They also compacted the crushed rock in the garage. This is the compactor they used. They are getting ready to pour our garage floor.
The electrician is starting to wire the garage and "walk" space.
Today they finished the duct work and hooked the natural gas up to our furnace. We no longer need to use space heaters. A person could get spoiled by central heating. Whenever they used flexible ducting in the garage area, they added framing to cover it.
They changed the natural gas connection at the meter when they connected our furnace. With this new connection they can complete the wall next to the gas meter.
They are cutting a hole through our new foundation for our water. They need to get the water and sewer out of our walls so they can finish closing in the house.
They filled the other garage with crushed rock. The next step for the garage is to put in the re-bar for the concrete floor.
They added more duct work today. We are closer to being able to use our furnace.
There are a few gaps. We also need to hook the natural gas back up to the furnace. They had to cut the natural gas line to the furnace to get the beams under our house to raise it.
They also finished some more walls in the garage section.
They added a board to help support an end of a beam.
They delivered a lot of gravel today. They filled in the garage on the right with gravel. I was hoping one of our cars would be the first one to be parked in our new garage. Maybe the Bobcat doesn't count as a car.
They put blue chalk lines in the garages and area in between the garages to show the new floor level. The garage on the right was filled with gravel almost to that level.
The also started putting our heating ducts back in. We had flexible heating ducts hanging below the floor joists before. We need to have some solid heating ducts because of the garage doors. They are removing some of the floor insulation and putting some heating ducts between the floor joists.
We are still using flexible ducts. And they are putting the flexible ducts between the floor joist in some places. I thing running the heating next to the floor will be a good thing.
Today they worked on things like putting plywood on the tops of the walls. Most of the walls are too tall for eight foot plywood. These walls need an extra piece at the top. They used ten foot plywood for the exterior walls.
Our contractor came over Saturday and adjusted our back door so it will open and close. We also had back stairs for a little while.
He also trimmed the plywood around some doors and windows. The house is looking more like the architect's drawings every day.
The original portion of our house had knob and tube wiring. You can still see the old knobs. It has modern wiring now. The house was originally built across the river around 1917. It was moved to its current location in the late 1950's. There has been two or three additions since then. It has now been lifted. I don't think the original owners would recognize it now.
Today they worked on filling in the gaps where the the house movers beams were. Our house is looking more like a house again. This is the front of the house.
This is the back of the house. We have windows in our "walk" space.
This is the area under the family room in the back of the house. In the front of this picture, you can see the hole where the Jenga stack was.
When we were up on the Jenga stacks some of the doors didn't close right. Now that we are down on the walls most of the doors close correctly. The back door is an exception. It opened without problems when we were on Jenga stacks even though we couldn't use it. Now it won't close.
The beams and Jenga stacks were removed on Thursday. The house movers helped replace this beam on Thursday. The old beam was cut up when the steel beams were put under the house to raise it. After the house movers left, the plumbers reinstalled the the water and sewer. More plywood was also put up. I think they need to make the doorway bigger and more rectangular.
Lowering the house did some damage in the house.
The house movers were down the street raising another house. On Wednesday they came and lowered our house onto the walls.
After they lowered the house onto the wall, the house movers used their jacks to help install the new beam supports over the garages, headers and a replacement beam. This picture shows one of the new glue laminate beams over one of our garages.
This is our new chimney support after the house was lowered.
This is the front of the house after the house was lowered.
This is a view of the back of the house.
They came early today and worked all day building the support under our fireplace. That is another step toward getting off the Jenga piles and onto walls.
They have put up all the plywood they are going to before we are lowered to the walls. The current plan is to have the concrete blocks delivered on Friday. The bricklayers will install them on Saturday. The house will be lowered on Wednesday. The plumbing will need to be redone because a lot of it is between the wall and the house. Some of the plumbing needs to be removed to get the beams out after they lower the house.
They also put up the support columns.
Because the concrete blocks need to go up about ten feet to support the fireplace, they installed scaffolding for the bricklayers to use.
