Tearing down and digging holes

The new house is to be built in front of our old one, within a few feet to make it fit. This meant the old porch had to come off the old house in prepartion of the new build. We used the sabre saw and skill saw to cut through the soffits and then the headers. We tied a rope to the porch and then my son Peter climbed up on the roof with the skillsaw.

I jumped on the tractor ahd kept the rope tight.

As Peter finished the cuts, the porch wobbled and then fell forward, missing the house and landed in a heap on the ground.

While I moved on to other things Peter patched the gaping hole to keep the rain and squirrels at bay. Then it was on to digging the giant hole for the new house. Phoebe got her turn at the controls - which she thought was pretty cool!

My friend Len did a great job and moved a whole lot of dirt from the excavation. We managed to locate the gas line without incident. The water line didn't fare quite as well, but a quick trip to the store netted the parts we needed for the repair. I moved it well out of the way so we won't have to mess with it again.

It was a fun day in Yarrow!

-grampa dan

Another item scratched off the list

Today we applied for the building permit at long last. The plans are drawn, the engineering is done, the septic field permit is in hand and all the necessary steps have been fulfilled. We are told the permit will be issued in about a week and then we can begin actually pouring concrete.

In the meantime the work will continue. The excavator will dig a big hole in the front yard tomorrow. We'll also pull the porch off the old house and move all of the organic dirt around the side as well. We'll put it to good use later as we shape the yard when construction is done.

Two of the signs for the contractors are now done, ready to put in place when the construction begins.

The excitement builds as the countdown to construction continues...

-grampa dan

Check, check, check

Yesterday we visited a house under construction and saw first hand the type of windows we are seriously considering. We opened and closed each type of window, measured and imagined how our windows would work and look in our house. We liked what we saw, but it also became clear we needed to make some fairly big changes to our design. A phone call from the engineer in the early afternon mandated a few more changes based on structural reqirements. This house is no ordinary space and typical rules do not apply.

Much of my working time today was spent changing, reviewing, and checking the window and door schedule thre times over. Changes at a later point will be very exensive and are to be avoided if possible. 

Tomorrow we'll review the list one last time, then go to the window place and go over things one last time. Then it is time to pull the trigger and go on to the next item on the list.

Tomorrow the engineer will stamp the completed drawings and we head down to city hall to see about the building permit at long last.

Then we can build for real.

-grampa dan