Last weekend was very productive. Phil had torn off the north porch on his day off for President's Day during the week. This was in preparation for the house getting lifted. Going into the weekend, we knew we wanted to get as much done as possible, as we would likely be lifting the house in a couple of weeks. So...Saturday afternoon Phil and I spent a couple hours working after Blake's basketball tournament. I worked on the southwest bedroom walls on the main floor, while Phil began removing windows from the enclosed east porch. We made a little progress, but not a lot due to the lack of time we had. Sunday ended up being a big day for us. We went to church, followed by the kids' CCD. Phil decided to get started tearing out the ceiling in the southwest bedroom, while I waited at church for the kids. After lunch with my parents, Phil, the kids, and I got busy on the house. Phil tore out the chimney in the bedroom, while the kids and I started cleaning up the huge mess on the floor from the ceiling tear out. Not one of our favorite jobs. Connor and Blake hauled the chimney rocks to our pile, which was a big job for them. Samantha's job was to remove remaining nails from the studs on the main floor. Blake was a huge help, as my bucket dumper. The scooping, bending over, and carrying buckets was a workout! We knew the lifter was going to be stopping by late afternoon to look things over one more time, and Chris (builder) also stopped by to go over some final details with the floor plans. When Phil told me the lifter would be coming out, my response was, "Ok, but I hope he knows we aren't ready for him, and that he's not expecting to start on Monday or something crazy like that!" Well, that's exactly what happened! Before he left Sunday, he informed us that he and his crew would be back Monday to start the lifting process. We were in a scramble to get as much done now as we could! Luckily for us, both sets of our parents chose this day to come help us. We had not asked for help, but I think Someone knew we needed it! Our dads helped Phil get the east porch removed, and then helped him to remove the south porch as well. They carefully removed the decorative spindles before tearing the porch off. I would really like to use these, but they are in pretty tough shape, and the new porch will be a bit larger than the original porch. Even though the porch was falling apart, it was apparent that without it, the house looked even rougher! Before removing the floor of the porch, the toilet sitting on it really added quite a "touch" to the appearance of the house! Carolyn (Phil's mom) helped the kids and me tear up the carpet in the bedroom, and tear out part of the walls in the bathroom. The bathroom was sheet rock, which is not as easy to remove as plaster. When my mom showed up, she got busy with some cleaning up. Everyone's help was definitely appreciated. My dad helped to knock out the upper portion of plaster that was remaining in the hallway, that was out of my reach. Phil's dad ran the tractor to remove the south porch, and the east porch floor. Monday the lifters began preparation for lifting the house. They were there all day digging out so that they could get the beams in. Tuesday they began setting the beams, and we were told that they would lift the house up after lunch. We were all anxious to see this, and therefore allowed the kids to leave school early to go with Phil to see the house be lifted. They were going to get to push the button that lifted the house. However, upon getting there, they found out that this wasn't going to happen until the next morning. Bummer! Because all three kids were concerned with missing school, they did not go back the next day. This was disappointing, but Phil went down later and at least took some pictures for us of the house in the air. Tonight, Connor, Samantha, Phil, and I went to look at the house. Blake had basketball practice, followed by his middle school play practice. When we arrived, we saw that today the lifters rolled the house to the west. I couldn't believe how high in the air it was! Connor could stand straight up under the house! We are definitely making progress, and much faster than we had anticipated. It is exciting!
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As I have not been the best at updating, I will try to recap what has happened lately with work on the house. Phil worked about a month ago, and was able to finish the upstairs. He tore out the hallway ceiling, and the carpet that was in the southeast bedroom....Upstairs...done (well, you know what I mean!) Last weekend, February 6, 2016, we were able to get a little more work done on the main floor. Phil went down early and got started prepping the room. The boys, their friend Sam V., and I came a little later and got in on helping as well. Samantha had to stay back, as she had to leave early for her basketball game. I found myself grinning as the boys entered the house and I heard Blake say, "Sam, do you still think you need to take your shoes off before you enter?!" Sam was being very polite, and soon discovered that taking off his shoes would not be necessary! :) The boys were eager to do some destructing today, so with their help, we all got busy. As time was limited, we didn't get a ton of work done, but once again, we are closer to being done than we were before we started that day! I worked on the hallway, using a sledge hammer to get rid of as much of the wall as I could reach. The guys worked on the walls in the southwest bedroom. Blake and Connor enjoyed giving Sam a tour inside the house, and outside around the yard. They had lots to show him, but with all the snow on the ground, they weren't able to do as much as they wanted. As we are getting closer to raising the house up (in about a month), we are feeling the "crunch" of getting the house completely gutted and the three porches torn off. Phil is planning to work today on the porches. |
AuthorI'm just your ordinary small-town type of gal. My family is my world. Gardening, running, camping, and boating are my hobbies. Teaching youngsters is my career. Archives
July 2017
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