Foundation is done

We finished pouring and leveling by 8:45 am (truck arrived at 7:30 am) Steve came back over a couple hours later to erase any creases. We could stand on this by 2:00pm.

So, we could stop here. In it for only $1,000. Plop down a couple Adirondack Chairs and be good? Or we could build a room back onto the home....this time a 4 season room.

Now That's Just Perty

Steve is using a float to smooth out the concrete.

More Pictures

The chute never stopped so we needed to ensure a wheel barrel was there to catch it. This is a shot of Brad scooting away with a full load.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Steve handled a wheel barrel every three minutes for 45 minutes to fill in the basin of the foundation.

Cement Truck Arrives

Johnny pops the last morsel of a Frosty's donut (a sinful mix of sugar fried in grease and topped with a little bit of the Lord's blessing) into his mouth before he, Kyle, Jen and Brad wheel in 16,000 lbs of concrete from this truck.

Insulation Layed

Insulation is cut and laid before the concrete comes tomorrow.

Shit

Better to learn this lesson with stone than with concrete! Perhaps time to invest in a two wheeler?

Hauling Stone

The next step was to order and move 4 yards of 3/4 inch crushed stone to the outside of the forms on both sides. Only one mishap.

Flattening out the Surface/Adding Forms

I know it doesn't look like a big job, but the step that we threw into the hole bottom side up needed to be chiseled flat. So over two days I sledge hammered and chiseled off the rocks on the under-bottom of the step. Then we raked and raked until the surface was flat.

Brad and Steve added the forms of plywood and 2x4's to the outside to get ready for the foundation.

'Even My Sweat Smells Clean'

This could be the theme song of the project, providing the sun stays out. Borrowed from the Indigo Girls, it is a tribute to today and yesterday's task as the sweat really poured off the head as we built this cinder block wall. 

Something about the sun, the constant movement of your body, the lifting of the 60lb mortar bags, the 25lb cinder blocks, and the nagging knowledge that while your single brick is level is isn't really level with its neighbor nor is it straight. Double click on the picture and you can tell. 

Since I trust all of you, I am showing you the dirty secrets. But we have a Plan B. Always have a Plan B. Plan B will involve forms to help level everything off. Deep breathing exercises are key. And a great song!

How Do You Build A Wall? (Hummed to the tune: "How Do You Build A Barn"

Slap a little on the right hand side of the cinder block after you have slapped some on the right and left sides of the base block angling towards the center. Put the block down, start tapping it with the other end of the trowel, then get out the level. It is hardly ever level. Then you start tapping and praying and praying and tapping. 

We got into a routine where I would do the base, Brad preps the brick and then he lays the brick down, taps and levels. Since I went through more years of Sunday school, I owned the praying part. 

Making Mortar

So many new things to learn. You've all seen this on those home improvement shows. Now it is time to do it yourself. Just like cake batter! Right?!!! 

Making mortar is kind of temper-mental. Not every batch wanted the same amount of water. Sun affected it too (Mom - effected or affected?). Sometimes it loved to stick to the blocks, sometimes it just slid right off. 

This one stage alone took 3 stops to Home Depot and one hit and run on Steve's house when he wasn't home to steal some cinder blocks. 

Cat Box Just Got Bigger

This is our best bud, Louie! He loves this porch addition work because we have uncovered an area of sand/clay/stuff that is far more exciting than his 18"x 24" cat box. And he doesn't even have to come inside to use it!! Joy.

Lou is sitting on the 'post-steps' part of the project. We need to clean off the cinder blocks so there is no dirt and no former mortar so we can add two more layers of blocks..some areas...three layers. 

Water came in handy again as the hose can clean out trenches on the sides and clean off dirt from above. A new nasty looking chisel hammer came in handy in some places. The activity reminded me of building sand castles on York Harbor Beach. Army Corp of Engineers here we come. 

Last Step to the Steps

The row of cinderblocks holding the steps up were removed this morning. More water was used to wash away any soil holding them up. And then a little elbow grease and crow bar action and steps are now part of the new foundation. 

One Step at a Time

Last night we let water assist in the demo of the steps. I used the hose to remove the dirt so it would just fall in! Didn't just fall in. It fell on the wall of cinderblocks because it really just sank. 

Next Steps

Ok- sorry. 

Been 11 days since we have worked on the porch. We needed to reach our consultant. So after a real healthy martini last night we considered next steps with Steve. 

And the next step was what to do with the concrete steps leading to the old porch. 

We could take a hammer drill and break them apart, and my arms would feel like jello. OR I could dig a hole and dump the steps into the hole. I settled for the second option. The benefit

 of the second option, besides losing a couple pounds, was that all the dirt I dug out could be used to fill the rest of the

 space. Steve felt we were looking at a lot of cement to pour to get up to the house level unless we had some more fill. Digging a grave for the steps will give us the fill. 

Today, after a couple aspirin, I started digging. I used my favorite gardening tool which is a mini pick ax to loosen the dirt and then the shovel to move it down the length of the space. It took about 5 hours, 6 bottles of water and a little Brian Setzer Orchastra ("Ain't gonna heat this house no longer, ain't gonna need this house no more")

Here is a before and after picture. Time to lock the kitchen door. If Brad uses this door 

to get to the grill to flip the chicken, he'll won't have far to go to his grave. I dug 1.5 feet to the top of the cinder blocks and then another 2 feet down. When I stand in the pit, my chin is

 level with the kitchen floor. 

I feared I would hit ledge. The problem would be that after all that digging, I'd still have to hammer jack the steps. I thought I'd hit ledge because the cinderblocks in the front (facing Sarah's) hold water and we assumed it was ledge that was underneath the cinderblocks holding water. Well, good news was I did not hit ledge. But I did hit clay.

 Fascinating. It really acted like slightly moist clay. At the bottom of the hole I was more carving than digging. 

One freaky part was when I was widening the wall of 

the hole, I discovered a 8" hole/cavity under 18" of earth. Not sure who or what made it but I didn't want to stick around too long to find out. 

Before and After: Side View

Destruction is done. Time for construction. Now the hard part begins. 

Demo doesn't cost much except for a dumpster and a couple bandaids.......but construction.....cha-ching!

Before and After: Front View

So from June 24th to July 6th we spent 8 days in that period taking down the porch. 

Here is a before and after shot of the front. 

7/6/09 Stopping At Cinder Blocks

Well, the sun came out and breaking down the brick wall took its toll on the chain gang. So it didn't take much to agree that we should stop after removing 7 layers of brick and keep the cinder blocks in place. 

We now wait for our consultant to get off the beach because we have no idea what to do next!

7/6/09 So what is underneath the porch?

What looked like 4 layers of brick wound up being 7 layers of brick on top 2 layers of concrete blocks. And lots and lots of mortar. Grandpa Ernie on the chain gang again! 

Most of the bricks crumbled when we hit them, but we did manage to salvage about 150 for other projects. The bricks on the long wall were stronger than those behind the cement steps indicating perhaps different time periods for brick and/or water damage to the bricks behind the cement steps. 

7/6/09 Porch Deck Comes Up.

This time Brad did left and I did right side. We pulled up the porch boards to expose three long beams. The outside beam was rotten and not worth saving but the inside two beams were worth keeping. Ernie pulls out nails of those boards worth keeping. Some vacation to Maine! 'O Brother' chain gang music plays in the background. Really!

7/3/09 Time to Weatherize

With the roof and walls down and the clapboards off, we need to cover the walls with plastic to ensure we keep the insides dry. Given that it continually rains here as we switch our weather for Seattle's, the is a no brainer!

Time for the beach!

7/3/09 Structure Down

OK.......we did it. Before we hit the beach for the little sun in Maine this summer, we took off the shingles, tar paper, roof boards, beam boards and wall. The only thing left is the the original porch floor and whatever we find underneath. 

7/3/09 WWHD

What would Hooper do? 

Sawzall this last remaining wall. 

7/3/09 Roof Beams Precariously Supported

These roof beams, which supported quite a lot of snow weight over the decades, are supported by one board at the house which was starting to seperate. 

7/3/09 Roof Comes Off

The roof boards need to come off while we ensure we do not! Brad gets the right side of the roof, I get the left. 

7/1/09 Windows Out are Next

Time for the broken windows to come out. 

7/1/09 Taking Shingles Off the Roof

Shingles are next. Shingles, tar paper, and nails. Lots of nails are coming off. 

Outside of Porch Clapboard Layer One

Well, as with the floor, there were more layers to uncover than we suspected. Underneath the white clapboard level and the tar paper there was another set of cream colored clapboards. If we remove the next layer, there is nothing in between the outside and inside except for support beams. With rain in the forecast for the next 40 days, we are going to wait for right now.

Old Clapboards Come Off Inside Walls

The porch was housed around the original walls of the home. The clapboards were still in intact but for several reasons we decided to take them off. For a 200 year old home, we wanted to know the quality of the wall. We wanted to insulate the walls if none existed. And finally, we wanted a new clean surface to decorate. This is now going to be more of a room that is part of the inside of the home instead of the porch. 

Tuesday Was a Big Day

A lot came out of the porch on Tuesday. While, yes it is still standing, there are a lot of layers that need to come out before we can remove the structure. So, linoleum layer one, floor board, linoleum layer two, couple layers of tar paper all followed Monday's carpet to the dumpster.