Piers poured today, met with Craig at night

Today the concrete crew poured the piers, and tonight we met with Craig (architect) about our plans for the kitchen cabinet situation. Stephanie came over to see the place for the first time, and weighed-in on some interior design ideas, as it is her profession. And she had some damn good ones! Thanks, Stephanie and Craig.

pouring the foundation

This morning we passed the engineering inspection for the foundation holes' depth and placement, so we were able to give the concrete crew the go ahead to pour. In a couple of days the pier footings will be dry, and it will be time to pour the actual piers on top of them. Then, framing will begin.

Foundation holes being dug, old wallpaper

Here are a couple pics of the holes which are being dug for the new addition's foundation, as well as some colorful old wallpaper we uncovered while removing drywall from the former kitchen/future guest bedroom.

tearing down drywall in former kitchen

Our friend Tristan came by today to help us remove the remainder of the drywall (and trim, ceiling fan, light fixtures, switchplates, outlet covers and AC vent) from our old kitchen today, and he was a BIG HELP. Having renovated his own place rather extensively, he is very knowledgeable about the myriad various home fix-up responsibilities, and even showed up with his own tool belt. Thanks, Tristan!

PS - if you look closely at the third photo, you start to get a sense of what a circus the old ceilng/wall wallpaper combination must have been. Very colorful!

More holes cut for doors, foundation planning

Today was full of stress, a lot of back and forth between different ideas about the new addition's foundation. Time was taken away from cool stuff like cutting new doorways, and absorbed by the question of what kind of piers we needed to be planning to pour. Until a large enough hole was dug around one of the house's original piers, we couldn't see it well enough to determine whether we'd need to spend 100% or 500% of our pier budget to match it for the addition. We finally determined that it was 100%, long story short. Whew.

Opening Walls!

On Friday Bill and Bob began cutting open the walls as per our architect Craig's design, and it really looks and feels fantastic in there. I've provided a closeup picture of the shiplap and the way it joins together, which is interesting. Also, in some old fiberglass insulation I saw what looked like a bunch of receipts or something - go figure - crazy old house.

Oh crap - more flagstones!

Today we discovered yet even MORE flagstone patio underneath backyard dirt, and had to commit time and effort to breaking it apart, so that it won't interfere with the new addition's new piers. Also, we can use all these limestone flagstones in the new patio, which is great!

Addition is now completely gone

We found a flagstone patio underneath the old addition! That means we have a bunch of free flagstones out of which to make our new patio! Bill and Bob and Amanda are doing a great job of carefully denailing, sorting and stacking any and all reusable materials, too.

Extreme Demolition!

Bill and Bob (and Amanda) got very busy yesterday and today on carefully demolishing our house's crappy rear addition. And Matt took down a whole gigantic dead oak, sawed it and stacked it meticulously behind the garage for firewood. Yeah! Progress!

Kitchen Removal

the other day we sold our entire kitchen on craigslist, and are very grateful to Bill and Bob for uninstalling the whole thing in a fraction of the time it would have taken me or Laurel to do it ("Before" kitchen picture included here for reference). Also they began to remove the doors and closets in the next room, and de-nail and stack the re-usable wood in a neat little pile.