Missed Deadline - again!

Well as you can see by the web-cams, we are no where near ready to start the big dig.  So today's' deadline will come and go like many previous.

The deconstruction is now going pretty much to schedule, but we just did not start soon enough due to all the lost time re-engineering the structure to meet the new District policies. May was meant to be tear down month but both April and May were generally spent on re-engineering and drawing and getting the house fully empty.  This is one downside to doing ALL the work myself -  There is no overlap.  In general, I did not start this project prepared.  I had intended to purge and empty the house over the winter, but was generally fully occupied with drawing, redesign, and variance approvals.

I have pretty much given up on a schedule at this point and am just working as hard as I can each day to move forward. The actual deconstruction did not start until May 12 with the removal of the Kitchen followed shortly after by the laundry room.  We then had to prepare for the asbestos remediation. Since the remediation of the asbestos laden drywall completed June 4, I have been able to lift up aprox 650 sq. ft. of beech hardwood flooring (including grinding off nails), removed wood panelling from hallways,  removed all of the wood planking that was installed behind the panelling, and as of yesterday remove all of the non-bearing internal walls.

Front entrance at back left.   White wall used to be bathroom and back right was spare bedroom.  Wall in foreground is the central bearing wall holding up the ceiling joists.

Foreground was dinning room and stack of salvage 2x4.  Room behind brick chimney was laundry utilities and room to right was kitchen.  The few renaming posts are holding up some splicing in the ceiling joists near a roof valley above. Just visible behind chimney is a remaining bearing wall holding up ceiling joists at the south half of the house.

 Over the next week I hope to stack the salvaged wood outside (need to figure out where as really tight on space!), take a garbage and green waste run to the transfer station, pull up the sub-floors (this is plywood screwed to ship-lap, nailed to 2x4 sleepers. When we had the hardwood put in, I installed about 18 pounds of screws in the sub-floor to reduce the creaking that was present.  There is no way I will have the time to remove all of these screws to salvage any of the sub-flooring, so I will just be cutting it into 4ft x 4ft panels and taking to dump unfortunately), and then start taking off the exterior siding.  This should be much easier using the offset for the reciprocating saw I talked about on an earlier posting.

Lets see how well I do meeting this goal.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking Ahead Saves Money!

I was notified about 6 months ago, that the District would be replacing the water line along our street.  As I was building next year, I saw an opportunity to both relocate the curb-stop so that it would not be under the new location where I intend to run our driveway, and increase the size of line in case I decide to put in a fire suppression system.

When I first approached the District, I was quoted the standard cost of $4500 to put in a new service at the start of new construction (I suspect they make everybody replace the service right back to the main, as a service from a torn down dwelling is most likely past its designed service life).  Fortunately, reasonable heads prevailed once I pushed back a little, and the price dropped to $350, representing the material cost difference between the ¾” they planned on installing and the size I needed.  I jumped at this and went down to the hall and paid my bill.

Well over the last couple of weeks, the project has been completed. Thanks to the District crew who did a great job!

Replacing the main – work went quickly as there were very few interference's.  The next length to add will be ‘mine’.

Bringing over the main that includes my service connection.

Now that is going to move some water!  I believe this is a 1.5” line, but have to admit, I did not check the size.  It will be a surprise next spring when I dig up the curb-stop to connect my new line to.

Main installed and waiting for the second pass when they do the service hook-ups.

New Service connected and run to curb-stop. If you look closely, you will see Alfie in the background, who helped me dig the trench to tie from the new curb-spot location to the existing one.

Getting ready to back-fill the trench.

Connecting the Curb-Stop while back filling the trench is continuing just behind.  The team ran like a well choreographed ballet.  No wasted time here!

These fittings were big and needed some extra hands to tighten.  I used Alfie to pre-dig the tie-in trench and around the curb-stop so the crew did not have to worry about my water and electrical conduit.

Ready for the next day, when the crew kindly agreed to tie over to my existing service (something I originally was responsible for).

Now tied into my old service to the house (will be abandoned when the new house is built).  You can see the cut-off pipe from the old curb-stop at the top right quadrant of the photo.

New curb-stop reduced to ¾” in order to temporarily tie over to my existing service.

3/4" Tie in to old service complete and ready for back-fill.

Project generally complete after Alfie helps fill in the trench on my side of the curb stop.

Sure is nice to have your own excavator!