A Week of Breakneck Progress and Gnawed Fingernails

Last Monday, RJ had a construction friend, Ben, come and help with the building of the addition in trade for our crappy 20 year old black Audi. 50 hours of work and the car was his. And this guy...was AWESOME. The difference between having one and two skilled laborers on a project like this is MASSIVE. By the end of the week, we had almost all of the addition framed in. And after a much deserved day off yesterday (it's pretty dreary and drizzly anyway) RJ and I spent some time today framing the roof so we can close in the entire structure. Well, I held some large boards in place while he did everything else...

I've documented the addition process in pictures on facebook but I thought I'd go through it in a bit more detail. I have done minimal work like holding things, cleaning and sanding, so my energy mostly goes into wasting time on Pinterest fantasizing about design elements I can't start actualizing for another couple of months. But by god I FEEL like I'm doing something.

By the time they started Monday, RJ had spent the last week or so pouring foundation and completing the "deck" which was covered in OSB, which is like plywood, but made by smashing together wood chips. It's pretty hefty stuff.  We also ripped off the last remnants of the old house.

The "deck".

Buh Byeeeee!

I had a fairly busy week, though things are slowing down in Creede and at the theatre somewhat. I did manage to check in daily at midday and again close to quitting time, and every day there was something exciting happening. Midday on Monday, RJ called me down to help them lift up the first wall. I was happy to and it was pretty symbolic:

The first wall!

This shit is heavy

I came back at the end of the day and there was THIS: Almost two walls out of the total three!

Tuesday, there was more...all three walls were up, the rooms divided and OSB on the outside. The hole to the right is the access to under the house, which will be in the second bedroom closet.

Walls!

RJ also made the decision a few days ago to move the stairs out of what is to be the kitchen and put them in the addition--the laundry/sun room. Also on Tuesday, they added the closet/utility room.

Weds, they moved the stairs and replaced a wall that was not even remotely straight, something we realized after tearing the old siding off. Like most of this old house.

More room for da cookings

Thursday, I sanded the support beams and they installed them as well as the thick tongue and groove which will be the floor and ceiling. Everywhere else in the house will be insulated so this ends up being way cheaper as well as looking nice. It will be stained eventually.

The upstairs floor...

Downstairs ceiling...

Proud, as they should be, of the work.

Same stuff!!!!

I helped sand those beams. Me. I did it.



















Das boot and the view from the ladder. You can see how thick the wood is for the floor/ceiling.














Friday, they put up the supports for the roof.

And took down the blasted and decaying bowling pins. This has been hard for some people to take. It's classic B, the previous tenant. A tribute perhaps to his creativity. Alas, they were falling apart.

But wonderful stories don't always have happy endings and on Friday afternoon, tragedy struck. I want to say first off that no one was hurt or killed. Luckily. But the black Audi, that had been traded to Ben for all is hard work, came back from the shop Friday afternoon. It ended up being an easy fix that only cost RJ about $60. It hadn't been running and had been sitting in front of our cabin for most of the year. Upon its return, the guys decided to take it out on a test run. Now, having driven it for three weeks last year, I know that the Audi is a finicky little bitch. Once the gas gauge hits a quarter tank, you have to refill because it doesn't read after that point, so you don't know when the car is getting close to empty. On their way out of town, the car started to feel like it was running out of gas. They pulled off on the side of the road right after a curve in the highway. Distracted with the gas gauge, and because the car has a pretty bad blind spot, when they pulled back on the road, a truck was barreling down the highway and clipped the front of the car, spinning them across the road. Thankfully, again, no one was hurt, but another couple of feet and they would have both been toast. And alas, the Audi is completely totaled. Ben took it in stride, chalking it up to a nice vacation in Creede, and went home without his Audi. Poor. Friggin'. Guy.

But...life goes on. The build goes on and we end today with this:

I held some stuff. And took pictures. I was also there for morale!

Not too much more to go!

RJ will continue to work on the roof and should have it closed in by Tuesday or Weds. And then, on our next episode: THE PLUMBING!

Foundation For You? Foundation For Me.

As I contemplate this blog post, pick the latex from today's zombie makeup out of my hair and travel back in time with some recently downloaded music from my youth (Genesis' Land of Confusion happens to be playing right now--can you say Ronny Reagan puppet?!), the subject of foundations weighs heavily on my mind. HA! Foundation...heavy...anyway...

One interesting thing about Creede is that a substantial number of older homes here lack a foundation. They simply do not have one. You see, Creede was originally a mining camp for silver in the late 19th century. People built one room shacks and log cabins to serve their temporary needs. But most of those structures still exist today. The 100 year old cabin we currently stay in, which RJ also renovated, had no foundation when he started working on it in 2008. I remember him having to deal with the structure's extreme fragility and a particularly tense moment when he and his crew thought the cabin miiiiight actually fall over before they even poured the foundation because it was so unstable. The addition still doesn't have one and is literally sinking into the ground. There are some squishy spots on the floor and the north end of the room sinks down about an inch or so each year.

Fortunately, the house we bought had a foundation added to it in the late 1990s. Since we'd like to keep our house indefinitely, it's obvious we would create a foundation for the addition. And, in modern times, a foundation is actually required when building any new structure. Little did I know how much goes into this. It seems simple, but requires many steps.

First, RJ built a wooden frame around the edge of the huge hole he dug.

RJ using his special tool. (no, not THAT special tool)

Then, he added these steel poles called rebar. They stick straight up and when you pour the concrete they keep the foundation from cracking. Genius!

Rebarrrrrrrr!

We did the first "pour" last Friday. You then wait for it to dry (about 24 hours), remove the wood frame and build another level. Once the additional levels are poured and dry, which we did yesterday, you can start to build the "deck", which seems to be a fancy word for floor. Maybe because it's not yet closed in...anyway, not my area. In fact, none of this is my area, but is endlessly fascinating to me. Because it's MINE.

Also in boring-for-you-exciting-for-me news, the concrete is officially the first thing we have used our construction loan for. Since it has to be paid in cash on delivery, a reimbursement check should show up early next week. Word.

First pour complete.

Second pour. I'm told this is a bit messy, but it's functional and no one will see it, so...meh

The beginnings of the FLOOR.

Deck building starts tomorrow. Oh happy joy. To be continued...

Phase Two...Start Your Engines

On Thursday, August 1st, we were able to put an end to the more than three month ordeal of paperwork, insurance, bullshit insurance, proving our intent and more paperwork. We closed on the refinance/construction loan for our house on 6th Street. We finally met Pam, the wonderful and patient loan officer at San Luis Valley Federal Bank, who put up with my multitude of questions and concerns and always responded positively and quickly. Seriously, anyone in Creede needing to do something similar with their property, Pam knows all and is familiar with the area, etc. She rules. Anyway, she sat us down and took us through everything and about 20 minutes later, we had a house. Again! But this time with funds to finish it.  (I am aware that I am married to a contractor/builder so when we say "finished" that is a loose term. Is a builder's house ever really done? Anyway, for our purposes, let's just say: liveable.)

With this in mind a few days before our closing, 99.9% sure we were good to move forward, the back of the house fell off.

Weeeeeeeee!

I had one friend initially think that this was a bad thing. I admit that the way I phrased it on facebook DID sort of make it look like this was an act of god. But after many congratulations from others, said friend realized his error. With all of my parents and step-parents in town last week, my step-father Gerry and a neighbor's backhoe helped RJ pull down the old addition. God it was ugly. It made me sad to look upon it. I did take a photo and even though it's gone it still makes me cry a little.

This isn't even in all its true shitty glory. It was bad. BAD.

Buh bye, ugly.

Eight loads of busted up house to the dump later and more digging by RJ, he will now begin preparing the dug out hole for the concrete foundation. This requires building a framework that is leveled and carefully measured so that all the concrete goes to its proper place. Then, you can start to put in floor joists, which are the foundation for your actual floor.

Oooooooh

Ahhhhhhh!

 

Once we put up the frame of the addition and close it in, we can do plumbing and electrical for the entire house and RJ can then focus on the front. We don't have to have the addition completely finished to move in, and we want to move in as fast as we can so we're not paying full mortgage plus rent on top of it. But...I'm getting ahead of myself. Much, much more to come, friends. And thanks for reading.

I am back to feeling a bit useless again. Or at least back to simply cleaning for a while. Although I do have my eyes on some fabric for curtains...too soon?