Finding My Footing, er, Footer

Hello! I'm getting so excited to get to show you some of the finishes I'll be using! The pretty stuff! But, I have  to crawl before I can walk. So, before I can show you any of that, I'm showing you something important. Not pretty, but important. As in, the house needs to stand upright for another hundred years or so. We now have a foundation! When the excavator was here, they dug the footer at the same time in an interest to save time and money. They completed all the excavation within a two day span. Concrete from the old garage, driveway, and patio first, and the footer on the second day.

It's a good day when you wake up and there's one of these babies in your yard!

The first thing we (and by we, I mean not me, in any capacity)  needed to do was measure the dimensions of the addition.  We decided in the planning phase that the size will be 22x24. We couldn't really go any bigger than that because, in my area, you need to keep your permanent structures three feet from the property line. And towards the back of the property we run into the well. We also don't have municipal water in my little village. So, that's how we settled on the size. As I mentioned before, in this post, I had already called our utility providers to mark lines that could pose a problem. My contractor went ahead and dug for the lines where the gas company had marked them, just to be sure.

Yahtzee!

So, now we where ready to go. 

They are checking the depth here. It needs to be between 32 and 36 inches deep which is below the freeze line. The following day, they were ready to have the concrete guys come and get started. And then this little guy showed up in my yard!

We had originally planned for four inches of concrete, but the block guys said, "no dice" so we ended up with eight inches.

They let it set up over night, and came back the next day to set the block. 

We ended up with five rows of block on top of the eight inches of concrete.

And this is it after the block layers were finished. The block set up for a couple and then it was time to backfill.

This is seven tons of fill sand, and we might need some more. But, it's actually starting to take shape now! Next week they will start the framing, and I can't wait!

These guys are on a break. See you next time!

I Dig...Dirt?

Hey there! We have dirt. Everywhere. But we have the footer dug. And the concrete has been poured! The blocks will be set tomorrow. But first, before any of that happened, we rented an excavator to remove the old concrete floor from the garage and also remove the driveway. The rental company dropped it off about 7:45 a.m. on a Saturday morning so we had it all weekend. My contractor decided it was best to go ahead and do the removal and excavation at the same time. It saved a lot of time and money not having to bring back the heavy equipment more than once.

 Let 'er rip, tater chip! From my end, the old floor seemed to come up fairly easy. We did decide to leave a small section of patio, instead of taking it all up, so that we wouldn't be walking directly into the mud out the back door. And when we add the deck in the spring, we can deck right over it.

It took about five hours to remove ALL the concrete. And that's including the time it took to unload the dumptruck when it was full. And this is what we had at the end of the day.

In this picture, you can see the section of patio we chose to keep. I'm so glad I made the executive decision on that! And here's the view coming down the street.

Better, no? There's going to be bit more yard to mow!

Annndd this might have something to do with the dirt all over the house. ;)

Operation Garage Removal

Hey all! We've got some major progress going on over here! The first step in our long renovation process was to remove the old junk catcher garage. I initially thought that we would be tearing down the garage and the concrete driveway with a back hoe. My contractor decided it was a better use of money to use his crew to take down the garage by hand and save to the back hoe for taking up the concrete and digging the footer for the new garage. It took them about six hours to get 95% percent of it down and just a about three hours the second day to finish the rest and clean up. And when I say them, I mean three guys. That's it! On the second day, they also removed the fence where the addition will sit and cut down a large lilac bush that will eventually be in the way. I was feeling a little stressed the first day after seeing the complete mess that was created, but I know this is progress and this is what needs to happen. And now, needless to say, I have new, never before seen views from my kitchen table! With that; on to the pictures!

I had several things being stored in the garage that I was not able to put out with the trash. Most were metal items that could be taken to the scrap yard.  Well, ain't nobody got time for that! So I told the guys they could have whatever they wanted that I no longer needed.

Here's a lovely shot of some of the things I needed to keep. The rest is in the back yard, behind the garage. It seriously looks like the Clampetts are putting on a yard sale. I mean, these are the some of most random items you could put together, and most of it isn't worth ten cents combined. So I'm basically the prize of the neighborhood right about now.

Here's the inside of the garage with the plywood walls taken down. 

This is the back of the garage. I had forgotten to include a picture of this in the before pictures from this post.

That's right. That's a sawzall blade cutting through my garage roof. No big deal.

All you need is a rope, a truck, and a sawzall to get things done. 'Merica!

And this is after the first piece of the roof came down. The second half didn't come down quite so neatly. They employed the same method the second time, and this is what we got.

The crew had anticipated this and put thick sections of plywood against my neighbors house to protect it from falling debris. They also braced the sidewalls with 2x4's. And I made sure to give my neighbor living in the house next door a heads up a couple days beforehand.

This my view from inside the house. 

Understand my stress level a little better now? ;)

And this is the end of day one. That caution tape pretty much sums it up!

And this is the end of day two! It is so strange to have this view out my windows now. From speaking with my neighbor that lives in the gray house (pictured directly above), the garage had been there for over 25 years. And again, all this concrete is coming up and this will all be yard. We will also be adding a deck out the back door in the spring. 

One more time, before and after:

Next time, I'll be back to show you some dirt and a big hole in the ground!

*Linking to Thrifty Decor Chick Before and After party

Preparing for the Excavation

Hey, hey! So, one of the first things I did after I found out what our round about start date on this project would be, was call 811 or 1-800-362-2764. The is the Call Before You Dig number for Ohio. By law, you are required by the Ohio Utilities Protection Service (OUPS) to contact them before beginning ANY project. They will take some basic information about the project you are doing and will contact your utility providers so they can come and mark your utility lines. In my case, I only needed the gas company to come and put out their markers. The OUPS did a search and determined that I had no buried electrical lines or transformers. They also put all of that information in an email which is handy. 9 years ago, we installed a privacy fence in our backyard, there were no such follow up emails. ;) The rule for the OUPS is that you call at least 48 hours but no more than 10 days before you start your project.

  And here's what they did. Pretty simple. And they showed up a couple days after I made the phone call. You can also schedule online at oups.org. Now, since we are having our old garage/storage shed/keeper of old junk torn down, as well as all the concrete driveway and patio removed, I needed to contact our local Habitat for Humanity/Restore to donate the still usable items. They are only open a few days a week, so I was hoping they would make it over to my house before we tore everything down. They made it with a few days to spare and took everything they could get some use out of.

These guys were quick and courteous. In and out in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately,  I still have a large amount of junk things to throw away before the back hoe shows up. Wish me luck!

The Calm Before the Storm...Before Pictures

Hi there! Today I'm going to be sharing some exterior before pictures. As I mentioned before, we are adding an addition. That addition will be comprised of a two car garage. Above the garage will be a completely  finished living space that will include two bedrooms, a full bath and a play room. None of these rooms will be huge, but they will be a comfortable size and plenty big enough to do what we need them to do. This addition comes completely out of necessity. We've been living in just over 1300 sq feet. While this isn't a tiny house and a lot of people would be thrilled with the size rooms we have. But here's the rub, it's only two bedrooms. And we have boy/girl twins. And they have big things. So, it was either move to a larger home or find a solution that would allow us to stay and continue to enjoy all the things that this home already has going for it. Good location, good school district, quiet neighborhood. But the top reason boiled down to money.Yes, that's right, the almighty dollar. We purchased this home over 9 years ago and it was a foreclosure. It was VERY very inexpensive, as houses go. Actually it was cheaper than a lot of new cars. It was also a HOT hot mess. Like, crying to my fiancee, now husband, after scrubbing out gnarly kitchen cabinets that I didn't know if this house was ever going to feel like home. So fast forward nine years, and after a lot of blood, sweat, tears and cash we have built up a substantial amount of equity. And there you have it, money talks and bullsh...well you know the rest. So without further adieu, here are some before pictures of the exterior.

This is the front of the house that faces the street. I wish I had some BEFORE before pictures to show you. You couldn't see the front porch. It was covered from porch floor to ceiling in lattice and growing on that lattice were vines. Shudder. The tree limbs also completely reached the ground and bushes growing out control. There was also five randomly placed pine trees that were immediately removed.

You see that fence and grass in front of it? Yeah, that's going away. That's were the addition is going. We will enter our driveway from a different street now.You'll see where the old garage and driveway are in a minute. A good friend of mine suggested putting everything on this side of the house. I can't take credit for any of that idea. I wasn't sure if it would all fit in that location, but loved the idea because that part of the yard we don't use. Luckily we found someone to make happen for us and we couldn't be happier. And since we are removing the old garage, driveway, and patio we are gaining a ton more usable space in the backyard. 

We live on a corner lot and this is the side of the house that faces the intersecting street. To the left of the house you can see part of the old garage.

Lord have mercy. The garage. This storage heap has not had one ounce of love since we moved in 9 years ago. We've considered painting it. We considered replacing the door and fixing it up. We've even had a very nice offer from a friend a few summers ago to tear it down. And, man, that was tempting! The problem was, it was so full of junk and things we didn't need, I was kind of paralyzed as to how I would even begin to tackle a project of that magnitude. So, alas, this is how it has stayed. Ugly.Dirty.Leaning a little to left. Won't be sad to see it go. And again, this will all be yard...eventually. Hope you enjoyed the outside tour! You will be seeing it a lot in upcoming posts!