The Good, the Bad, and the Crapper

Evidence of the plumber's work on Friday

A trip to the house on Friday revealed water in the toilets. Pretty exciting, I know. However, Friday night also revealed water coming through the kitchen ceiling (bathtub above). Not so joyous. We marked the spot and it doesn't seem to be spreading, so we hope it's not anything serious. I did stop packing things in the nearby cabinets in case they have to come down to fix the issue.

Stairs to basement- shelf along back wall finished

Other evidence of work showed that Rob and co. also worked on the stairs, balusters, railings, and the trim around the stairs, and John sealed part of the floor during the day. John was also over Saturday morning setting the footings for the side entryway. Plenty of happenings, but I kept feeling like it was all things that should've been happening last week, or perhaps Thursday at the very least.

No more worries about falling off the upstairs landing

side entry footings

I have to say, my master carpenter, Anthony, has been doing stellar work in the middle of the night. He cut a beautiful hole for our new sink and secured all the counter tops. I think he likes the fact that the new sink has such right angles- easier to cut the top for it!

Kitchen sink in and ready for the plumber

We've also started moving things over as much as possible. As I previously mentioned, we have to move out of our rental by the end of the month. We may not be ready, but at least our stuff can live in the new house in the rooms that are done (like the upstairs bedrooms).

Anthony and Kevin moving our stuff.

Kevin is a major trooper to help us move out in December and then back in again now.

He even brought his own beer this time.

After moving the washer/dryer out in December, Anthony and Kevin decided it was pretty heavy and called in a third helper, Dave.

It's a little extra work on both ends with this move because we have to be careful to keep our stuff at the new house out of the way of any workers, we have to restore the rental house to its exact previous glory, and we have to keep out a set of items for us to live off of wherever we end up until we can really move in. Fortunately this will be our final move!

Kevin has his own dolly.

I think that pretty much pegs you to help people move.

We're very grateful for this.

-J

A Job for a Kindergartener

Back in December we lamented the fact that we were going to miss our house demolition (See posting "Just Like That"). We hoped that our neighbors or friends might capture it for us. As we watched the footage for the first time we realized that our awesome neighbors, the Lovell family, not only captured the teardown, but the kids also got to help!

Here is the highlight reel from the day:

Funny that the LONG version of our demolition still comes out to just 12 minutes 36 seconds. Here's a link to it for any enthusiasts with some more time on their hands: Teardown Full Version.

-J

Just Like That

It's gone.

Sadly, after all this planning, we had to miss the actual demo yesterday. We had really been looking forward to seeing this part, but the timing didn't work with the holidays.

We heard from our builder this morning that it took all of half an hour to completely demolish the main floor of the house. By 11 am, there was just a slope where there the tiny shack once stood. We're hoping that someone made some pictures of the event.

Merry Christmas,

J and A

Dig This!

Zippy and Natalie- a final visit

The water is off. The power is off. Temporary power is on site and now heavy equipment is parked in our yard, towering ominously over our tiny house.

It was septic tank moving day yesterday and fittingly we had a front row seat from the, ahem, bathroom of our temporary abode next door.

The viewing gallery

The excavators were really nice, even "waving" their digger at Natalie and offering me coffee. (I felt guilty- it should be the other way around... if I knew how to make coffee). It was awesome to watch them rip up things and dig their big holes. Bundle-of-nerves Zippy was a bit unsure about the whole thing.

- J

It's All Starting to Happen

We cleared out our house in preparation for the big re-do. It took a lot longer than anticipated. Maybe having a four month old had something to do with that? Only one of us (read: Anthony) could really do much at one time. We had some help with the big stuff (help that doesn't mind too much being squashed by our washer/dryer- thanks Kevin!), and we ended up selling off our stove.

We worked through the night on Tuesday, and the house is pretty much ready- we just need to salvage a few more things from the inside.

We took one final picture of the little shack as we knew it.

Asbestos removal day was Wednesday.

So the siding is now gone, and if the house didn't look bad enough before, now it's just plain pathetic. But hopefully pathetic in a people-are-trying-to-do-something-here kind of way. You know, something with a little promise.

Wow- this is really happening. Here we go!

- J