Get in Gear

Aren't you glad this is not what you see looking into your kitchen. Maranda and I spent Friday evening cleaning out the last bit of kitchen floor, concrete forms, and a trip to Lowe's for some lumber. This is the first trip to buy building material since beginning the interior. Framing the Kitchen is business as usual...three floors to match up, three different heights, and I am out of PBR. LEVEL is not an option so I am attempting FLAT. It is a dream come true to get the last bit of rot out of the house, plastic down, and insulation in the floor. I will have some fun transitioning between floors but a small task considering what we just accomplished. Pete stopped by to evaluate progress.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We came back up the mountain from Christmas early to take Charley to the Vet. We ended up tearing out the rest of the floor so we could maximize the use of our help. Mom, Wade and I dug out the kitchen floor down to an acceptable depth. LAST FOUNDATION DIG!!! Dad and Maranda de-nailed the rest of the hardwood flooring. I discovered some pretty bad plumbing leaks from a conglomeration of terrible patch jobs spanning back 40 years maybe. I finally discovered where the puddles under the house originated. We got all the rotted floor and trash hauled to various dump and burn piles. I got the footer formed and poured on Monday. 14 bags of quickcrete. We have a snow storm on the way...Charley is 17 pounds. Pretty productive year for us.

Kitchen Destruction

Got all the stove moved into the bedroom, the fridge slid out of the way, and a utility sink plumbed in so I could begin the demo. I had to start with the kitchen sink and cabinets because they were built in place. The hardwoods came up next followed by yes another section of rotted floor.

Finally a Surface and a Smile

I got my bedroom girder bolted together and Brian stopped by to help me move some wires that were in bad shape. I don't do wiring. We picked up our latest addition Charley from Jarvis burg on the 9th. The temp was a record high of 64 degrees. ASU plays for the National Championship on Friday. I finished the rough in plumbing that passes under the bedroom to the future bathroom, insulated the floor, and was finally able to sheet the sub floor. It is so nice to have a room back.

.......diggin......

Wade and I dug out the rest of the bedroom floor so I would have a crawlspace. I busted a waterline in the process...whoops. Wade also planted four Black Walnut saplings before we headed out to the ASU / Western Game. I got the 6 mil plastic put down as a moisture barrier and some left over insulation in one wall. At least that should stop a little wind. I was able to use all the treated lumber I have been saving as floor joists in the bvedroom. I have been saving them for almost 1 1/2 years so it feels good to do my part in recycling. Thanks to Larry Norris I was able to cabbage a lot of various scraps. I even got to recycle the joist hangars for this room.

Stop the Breeze

Finished the form work under the front of the house and poured the concrete completing the run. I used treated 6x6 4' on center to shore up the original 8x10 wormy chestnut beam. I used treated 2x6 studs between the posts, insulated with R 19 batts and covered it with 3/4" treated plywood. I build a 3' x 3' access door and then sealed all the remaining cracks between the block and the framing with great stuff. This should hopefully seal off the wind seeing as how we have had a giant hole under the front of the house for a few weeks now. Temps are down in the 20's at night lately.

Solid

I got a new perimeter band on the footer and a new sill plate installed. I cut out the last remaining rot from the bedroom cleaned out the rest of the trash. I bolted two treated 2x10's together and got it jacked up under the center wall of the house. I used metal hangars to secure it to the new band on one end and the locust beam on the other. Now it is time to move back to the front of the house.