Ahh, home crap home.

We thank Barbie Byrd for reminding us of this quote from the 1986 movie The Money Pit. But don't worry, this project wil be nothing like that movie!

The crew finished the siding removal. Larisa commented that the house looks completely different. . . well, aside from the appearance of a recent bomb. We should have removed the shingle siding a long time ago.
So now the crew is working on adding some sheathing to parts that will be more difficult (read as $$) to do when the house is 15 ft in the air. They also worked on supporting the ceiling and roof over what will be our master bedroom. Third picture below shows the new LVL and partial walls that will outline the entry (right, extension of the main upstairs hallway) and bathroom (left). These walls and LVL are in the place of the division between the former diningroom/kitchen and the sitting area and back door, and will replace the need for a column in the supporting wall between the original and new addition. Several folks that have come by have commented that the future bedroom looks a lot smaller without the kitchen, island and dining table in it. But compared to our current 10x12 bedroom, we will welcome the added space!

But the view of the house from the rear is a bit scary. . . it is a part that really looks like a shell of it's former self. They had to remove several posts and beams that were rotten (again, no surprise to us). The final tasks will be to add a new rim joist to the former location of the office/laundry wall, and add some more temporary walls to protect existing drywall and other finished work. The moving crew arrives Tuesday (at least that's what the schedule says). We're pretty sure the house will be up by next weekend.

Second Stripe

So, at least now we have two more weapons to guard our house (in addition to Molly and Cedar, of course). Two second strip white belts. Just one more test and some korean words away from their orange belt.



This picture captures something, though we're not quite sure what that is. We thought pride? accomplishment? I guess that comes with the next picture. We think that "practice" is beginning to be appreciated. Oh, and several comments from the Sa beom nim (Mr. Lewis) that "Ya? Well, daddy does know how to do the forms right, so I'd pay attention to what he says when you practice."

Okay, back to it.

The guys took most of yesterday off due to weather. (Hmmm)
But were back to it today. Today = removing the "fiber cement" siding. And they made quick work of it!  We were surprised that the lap siding was in such good shape.  All the way around!  Which is great, since they won't have to remove the siding to resheath and apply the new siding on the whole house (Hardi or Nichiha?).  But the day was not without surprises.  Well, surprises to the contractors.  As "we" already knew, the office/laundry addition was not actually attached to the house. (Good thing they removed it, then.)  But the sill/perimeter beam was a complete mess (last picture).  There were several pieces, some supported by wood, some by footings, but none of it really held together.  And it will definitely not support the wall when the I-beams are inserted to raise the house.  SO they will have to remove the lower layer of siding, replace the beam and make sure that wall (now load bearing) is tied to it.  But those who have helped with the kitchen knew this already.  And fortunately, many 2x4s were added to that wall during the kitchen remodel, so hopefully this will be a rather minor "surprise".
A less than desirable surprise was the report from the roof rafters in the kitchen addition.  We knew about the chimney fire (probably back in teh 50s).  One of the subcontractors reported "shoving my hand through the rafters".  I doubt it, as Peter, Dad and I have checked out those rafters since we bought the place.  but regardless, the rafters will probably be sistered.

A bit of a break. . .

We took a break. Well, sort of. Chris went over to the house and helped Greg Bolton harvest some of the fine cedar and elm trunks from the yard. He claims to have already prepared much of it for bowls and other turned goods. Can't wait to see the craftmanship.

But how could we miss Kite Fest over on Atlantic Beach. And it is funny how fast a beach can become empty when a storm cloud is looming offshore. So we took advantage of it. And there was some unbelievable stunt flying that we'll try to upload in a bit. I have a new appreciation for kites after seeing the 4-line stunt kites. . . flying straight to the ground and stopping on a dime, 12 inches from the sand. We had a great time with Bob and Allison (and August and Slate), and Elliot stopped by with his mom and dad (Shay and Ryan) and showed off some of his own tricks (a foil kite attached under his arms, thanks to Ryan). Just a few more square inches of kite could have been a lot more exciting.

The "office" and laundry/pantry

The front porch is still amazing us.  Well, I think it's the 2ft diameter cedar trunk in front.

Check in in a couple of weeks and we'll have a flip book of these pictures.  The original plan was to keep the original porch roof and build under it.  But the porch room tied in to the house low, and the roof was very shallow, collecting seeds and growing plants (we know, green roofs are all the rage now!).  And the exterior supports would all have to be replaced anyways from 2x6 to 4x??.  The crew figured it was easier to remove the cedar without a roof in the way anyways!  But it was a good call to remove and start from scratch.  The fascia that was used to hold the porch to the house was nearly gone. . . rotten, due to the shallow room and years of poor roofing and flashing.  Fortunately, only the fascia board is damages and the rafters will likely hold a new support for the new porch.
Today (Friday), was the "office" and pantry/laundry addition.  Getting rid of this will give us more space with the neighbors, and we just couldn't figure out a good way to use the space anyways.  In a small way, we were "simplifying".  Ya, right.

Porch (that we never used, is gone.  As is the hot water tank, tankless heater, oh, and the back wall.  As with other parts of the house, the original lap siding is in surprisingly good shape (where it hasn't been sawsalled to install/remove electrical wiring or plumbing.  So this bodes well for not having to completely gut the existing structure, install new studs, headers, etc, before we add new sheathing to receive the hardiplank or nichiha siding.
The backyard looks like a bomb went off. . .

Tomorrow, Chris needs to get in to the kitchen/dining room and remove some leftover tools, a wine cooler and hardware.  We kinda forgot that that part of the house would be inaccessible once the additions are off the the holes are sealed up for raising.
Raising should start on Tuesday. . . stay tuned for videos!

The porch

Larisa called ~ noon, having left work early with the crud we moved from our house to the Avens.  "Well, the porch is down."

You might also notice the missing cedar tree.  Or, you may notice the trunk of that tree on the foundation of the front porch.  Losing the trees was a really big deal for all of us.  But the trunk or roots were way too close to the current foundation (and as we've found already in the house, have likely served as major supports in the foundation) and would have likely suffered during the construction of the new foundation..  The front cedar was the last choice to make. . . We thought we could save one of the trunks, but no such luck.  So I talked to Greg Bolton.   He's acquired some tools and skills.  Much of the wood may become a bowl or trolling plug.  And he's given some leads on mills to break down the logs to lumber.

So if anyone has advice on a variety of tree to put on the west front of the property, we're taking suggestions. We've got ~6 months to decide.

Whoever invented the sawsall was a g-e-n-i--u-s

(This is actually Wednesday).
So, Chris arrives at the place at 8am to drop off a key.  No significant changes since last night.

Then, during a meeting with a subcontractor, he arrives at the house around 11:30. . .

Yes.  The guy on the roof is sitting on a hanging section that is precariously supported by a single 4x4.  The guy is directly under him trying to loosen framing around the 4x4.

5 guys, 5 sledge hammer, 5 crow bars and a sawsall

(This is actually Tuesday.  It's taking some time to catch up with all the activity).

Yowsers, talk about quick.  9AM the crew shows up.  By noon , the deck is out, chimney's half down the attic and lumber has arrived for temporary walls after removing the shed additions.

After they dropped the chimneys past the roof rafters, they reported the chimney "swayin like a sapplin tree".  Bricks were removed by hand, without the need for any chisels or hammers.  They broke through the odd angled walls in the extra bedroom and the "livingroom".  Slick work.

Remainder of the undoing

For those who have been to 505 Fisher, you will remember the adventures 4 years ago.  Remodeling the kitchen, refinishing the wide plank pine floors.  Well, all that is out the door now.  Well, out the door and into a storage container behind the garage.














Fummy (defn: funny, just without any laughter) discovery.  Greg Bolton and I were taking apart the island.  The backsplash behind the range was a nicely chosen, though amateurish install tile mosaic over a backer board.  In hindsight, nail guards may have been appropriate.  The screw holding the backer board happen to part the negative an positive wire feeding an power outlet.

Good stuff!  
The long run of counters came out just fine, and Kai and Lukas provided some help weighting down the appliance dolly.

As we moved the rest of the cabinets and appliances out.

The wide plank floors in the entry room came up with surprising ease. . . well, after the first plank that was top nailed. . . that came out in a dozen pieces.

The wrecking crew shows up in the morning (Tuesday).

Undoing some stuff

Okay!  We have to catch up a bit.  We spent a good deal of time hurrying up to wait.  We boxed some books, and then we had to find another bank.  We found another bank, and started moving out of the guest bedroom.  Then the bank changed the application.  So we organized the attic and transplanted some landscaping.  Then the bank came through and it. . . was. . . on!

First, the kitchen.  Yes, we had (just) remodeled the kitchen back in '05.  And since we did it, we knew how to take it apart.  The kitchen will be reassembled in nearly the same state in the new space. This included the cork floors. Chris has had some opinions on floating versus glue tile cork.  If you plan to undo a remodel - floating floors is very nice!

The Move

Where are we moving to?  Larisa's folks moved to Morehead City about a year before Kai and Lukas were born.  We lived with them on Azalea during th 2+ months it took to remodel our kitchen (ya, more on that later).   The boys new all about their new digs. . . and the guest bedroom is plenty of space. . . along with the 10x10 climate controlled storage and the 8x16 onsite stuff-it container behind the garage.  Oh, and the various piles of stuff in the garage, attic and two bedrooms.  Admittedly, it will be tight, but I'm sure we'll settle into a groove.  We all helped with the move.  And thanks to John Hackney and Brett Harrison for the help with the piano move and Christine Addison for moving all the real heavy stuff.  It took a good bit of Tetris skills to get all the stuff int he 10x10 unit!

And we found some fun stuff while diggin into the closets.  Some also served as good packing material.

The beginning

It has been a good while since we started talking about this project.  We enjoy living downtown, especially with all the new places to walk to, the kayak entry on Conch Point and the <5 minute commute to work (NOAA).   Oh, and there's the beach.  Which brings us to the problem.  Instead of visiting Michigan and Minnesota, we find that most of our family would rather come down here.  It's hard to sleep with Thomas the Train tracks, and all the Legos.
This blog will keep track of it all.  We'll try to show some old pics (for those who helped us with the numerous previous projects). . . the before and the after.

So we began by consolidating and downsizing.  We were expecting several weeks.  I think we knocked it out in record time (Larisa may step in here!).