The demolition of the old house on our lot, which we had been living in for 3 1/2 years, was waiting on us finding a suitable rental. From living in the old house, to the demolition, was a whirlwind. It went something like this: Monday: look at a rental Tuesday: signed a lease Thursday: movedRead more about The demolition[…]
Our old sewer line runs right through our future basement. Obviously we need to dig that ridge of dirt out as well, so we have to put in a temporary line while we are living in the old house during construction. Because our old line under the street showed some root intrusion, we are requiredRead more about Moving the old sewer line[…]
Our garage, built in 1942, was close to falling over on its own. It is in the way of the new driveway cut, so it is one of the first things that has to be done before we can start grading the lot and digging the basement. The excavation contractor noticed that the boards onRead more about Tearing down the old garage[…]
We removed part of our house (part 1 and part 2) to make way for the new construction, leaving a large exposed wall and some chopped up roof area. Of course, we are going to live in the house still, so we needed to waterproof that section before the next rain storm. A small crewRead more about Waterproofing after demolition[…]
A word about salvaging old materials for re-use. Charlie has a keen eye for what might be worthwhile to keep. Here is the pile of stuff we pulled out of the part of the house we pulled down: It’s all redwood, con-heart and some very very nice clear. Look at this piece: This is clearRead more about Re-using materials[…]
Our property came with quite a few trees that are less than desirable. Chief among them are Pittosporum. This is a very typical hedge plant, that, if you let it grow, will become a tree. The problem with them is that they are incredibly messy. It pretty much drops stuff like that year-round. Another treeRead more about Tree removal[…]
Part of what I was curious to see during the demolition is whether we could uncover any further clues as to the history of the house. What we found seems to just add more uncertainty. We believed that the part of the house being demolished was likely built in 1922 (whereas the original single-story partRead more about Clues in the demolition[…]
The crew continued on the demolition today, taking the part of the house being demolished all the way down to the foundation, which the guys doing the excavation of our basement will remove in a few weeks. Here is where we started this morning: And here it is at the end of the day:
Today is the day! We had a little ceremony with the girls to thank the part of the house that is being torn off for 3 years of shelter and good times. We are sad to see the sun room in particular go, but we are going to build a similar feature into our newRead more about Partial house demolition[…]
(As an aside, we designed the house so that the minute you step in the front door, you have a clear view all the way to that beautiful fireplace above, which will be perfectly lined up with the front door. The fireplace was once part of the original house.) So here we are, at longRead more about Starting deconstruction[…]