We got to do our first serious demolition over the weekend–tearing down the back porch!
Check out the porch tear-off photoset on Flickr for more pictures and notes. We took a video of the actual demolition, but that’s about 40 minutes long and it’ll take some time to edit that down to a reasonable size. We’ll post that when we get it finished.
Effusive thanks to (in order of appearance) Barbara & Reggie, Dad, and Andy! We couldn’t possibly have done this without their help. A couple of people are missing from the picture below: Dad had to leave as soon as the roof came down; Barb and I took pictures of each other with the crew, and the picture she took came out much better than mine, in spite of the fact that I appeared in her picture. 
I got tired of telling people the lengthy URL for the remodel project:
http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/tags/remodel
I’ve added the following shortcut to my config:
http://sonicchicken.net/remodel
That’s just the domain name followed by “remodel” — short and sweet!
Our foundation was poured today–woo hoo! Check out our foundation pour photoset on Flickr.
(Also see our foundation photoset on flickr.)
We passed our foundation inspection(s) on the first try. Woot! We’re getting three truckloads of concrete tomorrow morning, and the forms will be removed the following day. Our utility trench will also get backfilled that day. Next week we should be building the floor for the addition and framing Barb’s quilt studio. (It’s on a slab, so the floor will already be done.)
Even though we’re only installing a 225 Amp panel at this time, we had a large conduit installed that will accommodate the beefy cables required for 400 A service in case we choose to upgrade later. This caught the inspector’s eye, and he noted that our Ufer ground won’t be acceptable for 400 Amp service. This isn’t a problem now because we won’t need 400 A service at least until my shop is finished, so I’ll install a 20′ #0 copper ground wire when we pour that slab.
It’s been a while since I posted anything about our remodeling project, not for lack of progress; rather, it’s been due to a lack of time! So here’s a quick update, text only. (I’ve got lots of photos, but I haven’t had a chance to Photoshop them, or even transfer them from the camera!)
Continue reading ‘Another remodel update’
We interviewed a general contractor (GC) a few days ago. He came with excellent references from some people we trust, and he was willing to work with us to keep the project within budget. (For example, they are okay with us doing part of the work or having somebody else do parts of the job.) After nailing down the financing, we gave them the green light yesterday. They had a crew out to start work on our place today, although I couldn’t find either of the cameras so no pictures (yet).
