License # 20351142
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License # 20351142 |
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Monday, May 21, 2007
 This Carver house came on the market almost a year before we bought it. The house was originally listed at $176,000.00, which happened to be the same amount as the last sale price. Just over two years ago the house was sold for that amount and then a short time later was lost through foreclosure. We knew it was overpriced at the time but kept an eye on it. After a few months, it dropped to $154,000, then again down to $134,000. At that price we felt it warranted a trip out to see it. It’s only about seven miles from Randy’s house and fifteen from mine, which made the house that much more attractive. The first thing we noticed when we got there was the lot. The snow on the ground detracted from some of the beauty, but we knew the river valley in the background would be a huge selling point. The house butts up to the Minnesota River Valley floodplain. In fact, the levee that runs all the way into Chaska starts right there. This particular spring the river was high enough to come right up to the levee giving the property a lakefront feel. Of course we checked the records for flooding and were assured by the County that the chances were negligible. The house was not considered in the floodplain and wouldn't require flood insurance. Once inside, it didn’t take long to know the house needed to be gutted, and the foundation was in need of serious repair—the house was still over priced. About a month after our visit to the house, the price dropped again, this time down to $113,000, and another trip was in order.
 We took more time and did more investigating on our second visit. We
discovered some interesting things, like the bricks in the wall cavities, yes
brick. Instead of using the most common insulators of the time like: newspaper,
tar paper, vermiculite or nothing at all, they used brick and mortar. We had
never heard of using bricks for insulation, but upon closer consideration, it
did make some sense. Carver is a river town and used to have its own brick
foundry, so did neighboring Chaska. Brick
was practically free, especially if one could use damaged ones or seconds. I’m
certain that it worked as a great sound barrier, and the way they installed it,
with a one inch of air space on the inside and one on the outside, it probably
worked as a sufficient insulator, but it was heavy!
We also found out that the house is in the Carver Historic Preservation District, meaning that the house could not be torn down and any outside renovations would be subject to the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC). 
Another discovery was the roughly 6’x8’ water cistern attached to the back of the house. On our first trip out we were more focused on the severe settling of the basement walls and the massive heaves in the basement floor; we never noticed the missing space before. On the right side of the back wall in the basement is a small fruit cellar, and on the left side of the back wall was a fuel storage room, which was once probably filled with coal or wood. We never noticed that the two spaces never connected. We also never noticed the water spigot sticking out of the wall in between these two rooms. After putting two and two together, we were fairly certain that ta water cistern existed between the two rooms, which explained a lot. Taking into account the immense weight of all the concrete and water in the cistern, in addition to the weight of the brick insulation upstairs, and given the high probability that the footings were either nonexistent or at least undersized, add in the likelihood that the cistern was probably leaking and undermining the soil supporting the structure; the reason for the settling became apparent to us. These discoveries made the house much more attractive. A messed up foundation is disconcerting, but not knowing why its messed up is even more so.
At $113.000 there may be a chance to make some money, but it was still a risky proposition—it always is. After some more inquiries, we learned if the house did not sell in the next two weeks, it was going up for auction. What to do? We had been to plenty of auctions where people lose their minds and get into a bidding war. I’m not sure that it is always the best reason to make a big financial decision, but what clinched it in the end was the fact that we had nothing else to do. We would offer $100,000. If they refused, we would go to the auction—they accepted. It took about a month to close the deal. In that time we started doing a little research on the background of the house and tried to come up with a master plan. The county courthouse was one source of information. They couldn’t tell us exactly when the house was built, but they did tell us that it was moved to where it was now in 1920, the same year that the MLS had it listed as "year built." This meant that the house could be considerably older, which we had suspected. John Von Walter is an amateur historian and the resident expert on the town of Carver. In our conversations over the phone, John was very helpful in giving us a better idea of the real age of the house, which he guessed to be about one hundred and thirty five years old—now that’s old. After much consideration, we decided the best plan would be to build an addition. The basement of the addition would be storage; the main floor would be a living space, the upstairs would be the master bedroom. We figured we would be able to keep the old time charm while modernizing the layout. In order to make this happen we needed to get going on the plans. We would need HPC approval before they would issue us a permit, and the HPC would not approve anything without plans, pictures, samples, etc. I write these journal entries in the morning. I comment on the previous days events and discuss the day to come. Wednesday, April 04, 2007 My sister Becky (our agent) and I went to the closing, which was uneventful. Access Builders Corporation paid for the house with a line of credit, so it was considered a "cash deal." At most closings I end up signing about twenty-five different documents; I think I signed three at this one. Thursday, April 05, 2007 Today is our first day of actual work on the house. My friend Lee came down from Northern Wisconsin to help with the demo. He brought with him a couple of 30 ton house moving jacks he picked up from my uncle, a retired house mover who lives in Wisconsin, not far from Lee. Colton, my middle son is also going to help us. Friday, April 06, 2007 Yesterday was messy but productive. Lee went to town with his grinder in the basement dismantling any thing and everything. Colton stayed busy moving stuff here and there and knocking down about four hundred wasp nests in the shed. Randy and I wandered around scratching our heads wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into. Around late morning I called Carver public works department to find out where our curb-stop was; a curb stop is the shut off valve that is buried underground usually located out by the street. A water guy was there in fifteen minutes (I love small town service). He couldn’t find the curb-stop but guessed that it was under a big landscaping rock. I told him that when I brought my bobcat out there, I would move the rock and call him again. While he was there I asked him about the manhole cover in the back yard. He told me that it was the access to the septic tank—my heart sank. I told him I assumed that the house had city sewer and water and questioned his information. He assured me that it was truly a septic tank because he had pumped it earlier in the year. My first thought was that we are going to be responsible for getting rid of the tank and or bring it up to compliance. I’ve heard enough septic tank nightmares to be apprehensive. He said that most of the houses have them in the old part of town, and the city is responsible for them, whew! Later in the afternoon, the same water guy was back, and he told me he wanted to "talk to me about our septic tank." "Oh, oh, this sounds expensive," was my first thought. He said that the met council wanted the city of Carver to get rid of X amount of tanks per year, and he wondered if they could remove ours. "What’s it going to cost me," I asked. "Nothing," was his reply. "I would be honored if you would remove my tank, sir," I told him. He told me they actually don’t remove it but rather fill it in and run a new pipe right through—whatever it takes, as long as it's free, I’m all for it. Monday, April 09, 2007 Randy was off last Friday finishing up another job. Colton and I spent most of the day tearing off the screen porch where the new addition is going to go. The kid was a dynamo with the saws-all. The saws-all is a great tool to get your aggressions out. I’m not sure if Colton had any aggressions built up, but if he did, he no longer does. Tuesday, April 10, 2007 Randy and I spent most of the day walking around scratching our heads; it will be a marvel if I have any hair left on my head after this job is done. We need someone to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the inside demolition. My friend Jaime Venzor is a siding contractor who used to work for me years ago; since then he has done very well for himself. The problem is, like everyone else in the business right now, he has had no work for several months. He agreed to bring his crew over to our house and do most of the nasty demo. They will be showing up in a couple of days, so Randy and I will go ahead and take out anything we want saved, which unfortunately isn’t much. Wednesday, April 11, 2007 We took out most of the doors we thought were salvageable, but I have my doubts about the possibility of their reuse. Because of the way they were put together, every door would have to be re-jambed. Each opening was site-built and built to the specific opening, which will in all likelihood will change before the project is finished. Also, because of the severe settling of the house, most doors had been planed out of square in order to accommodate a crooked passage. We did save the giant heat registers, and the huge grates in the floor used for the convection heating that was popular in the day (convection, meaning build a fire down low and let the heat rise up through big holes in the floor). Thursday, April 12, 2007 We spent more time scratching and some more time getting ready for Jaime; he is coming out today to start the demolition. We found out that the HPC only meets once a month, and the next meeting is in less than a week. We don’t have another month worth of work to do if we don’t get our addition approved by the commission this time around. We need to get Mr. Minnesota out here (that’s what we call our draftsman, it's actually Minnesota Home Design) so he can draw us up some plans we can show the commission. He obviously won’t have time to add a lot of detail; we just need a simple picture of the house with the new addition on it. Friday, April 13, 2007 Boy, does Jaime sure make a mess. Of course, that’s what happens when you tear down a ceiling with fourteen inches of insulation above it. The guys were wading through it like swamp water, nasty. Monday, April 16, 2007 Jaime finished eighty percent of the inside demolition on Friday. He said he has a siding job he can start today, which is not quite so messy, so I don’t blame him one bit. Randy and I will have to finish the rest on our own, but the worst of it is done. Today we will probably work on cleaning up which includes pulling a thousand nails or so. We also need to prepare for the HPC meeting tomorrow night. Tuesday, April 17, 2007 John Von Walters stopped out yesterday (Carver’s resident historian). It turns out that he is also the head of the HPC. He was curious about our project, so I gave him the grand tour. He was very excited to see framing members on the inside and the square nails that held them together. He was also enthralled with the front door. He said that the windows around it were an unusual feature for the time. I told him we were going to do our best to save it, which pleased him. Today is going to be spent mostly on getting ready for the meeting: pictures, color samples, prints and that sort of thing. I’m more nervous about it than Randy is, but then I worry more in general. Wednesday, April 18, 2007 The meeting was a success! Well, at least we got our addition approved. I’m glad we took a little extra time preparing; I was at the podium for almost a full hour answering a hundred and one questions. The board consisted of seven people not including a city council member, Mark, the building inspector, a city administrator and a couple of people who I was unclear on what their role was. The meeting was held in the Church by the River, a neat little church which was recently restored and is now used by the city. The main objections to our proposals were: vinyl siding, sliding glass doors, and the future deck. They were horrified at the thought of using vinyl siding, and apparently they didn’t have decks or sliding glass doors a hundred years ago. We agreed to eliminate the slider and rework our deck so it looks more like an olde tyme porch. We also agreed to consider the use of the cement board siding. We explained that in order to use that type of material we would have to re-sheath a good portion of the house. If we follow through with all of the changes they recommend, it will cost us an extra twenty thousand dollars—I think the meeting was a success? Today, Marvin and his stucco removal crew are going to start doing their thing.
Thursday, April 19, 2007 Stucco removal is another nasty, noisy, messy job. They use grinders to cut the stucco all the way through the chicken wire under it. They cut it into small, one or two foot sections and then pull it off with pry bars. As soon as the dust started filling the air we were out of there. We had another job to finish and will be away from the Carver house for the next few days. Tuesday, April 23, 2007 We’re back, and the stucco on the house is gone. The problem is, the stucco on the garage is still there. Unlike the house, the garage has built rite sheathing; when they tried to remove the stucco, the sheathing was coming off too; this wouldn’t do, because the garage is the only place where we can store our tools. Randy and I will have to do it ourselves and probably re-sheath it as we go. Wednesday, April 24 2007 Nothing good can come from lack of supervision. We made the mistake of allowing the stucco removal crew to fill our trailer with seventeen thousand pounds of stucco and brick from the chimney. The problem lies in the fact that our trailer only holds eleven thousand pounds. It was parked in the back of the house, and when I hooked my truck up to it to haul it away, it didn’t budge. It took both of our trucks and two hours to get the thing into the driveway, at which point we spent a frustrating hour unloading some weight from it into the dumpster we also had on site. We only lightened it by maybe three thousand pounds, which wasn’t as much as we should have, but now at least it was roadworthy, or so I hoped. I’ll bring it to the landfill today with fingers crossed. Thursday, April 25, 2007 I made it to the landfill without incident, poor trailer. Today we will continue with the demo, not exciting but necessary nonetheless. 
Friday, April 26, 2007 The water department showed up yesterday to fill in our septic tank. While they were doing it, I noticed something disturbing, black dirt, a lot of it. I watched them dig four feet down to expose the tank’s cap, and it was black dirt the whole way. Black dirt is great for a yard or garden but not so much for building on. The footings for our addition would have to be down close to that same level, and black dirt would not do, not at all. I am going to bring my bobcat out to the job today and will probably leave it there until completion. I want to get started on excavating the site for the new addition; we’re more than a little curious about how far we need to go down before finding good solid soil. Monday, April 30, 2007 Last Friday I did not get around to excavating, however, we’re one step closer, which seems to be our mantra of late. We used the bobcat to move some things out of our way: debris; landscaping blocks, wishing wells, clotheslines, etc. The highlight of the day was moving the two clothes line poles. They were round vertical metal poles with a metal t-bar welded to the top, and each one was anchored into the ground with a hundred and twenty pounds of concrete. The first one I pulled up with no problem. The second one did not go quite as smoothly. I stuck my bobcat forks under the t-bar, and pulled it straight out of the ground, so far so good. When I started to back up though, the bottom of the pole hit the ground, and the whole thing started swinging back and forth; on one of the swings away from the bobcat, the top t-bar broke off, and the concrete ladened pole fell with a thud to the ground; this caused the top part of the pole to come right into my cab with the force of a mighty sledge hammer swing; it missed my stomach by six inches and missed both of my exposed kneecaps by less than that; my guardian angle earned his pay on that one. Those are the kind of incidents you don’t tell your mother about. Tuesday, May 1, 2007 Well I moved a good portion of the soil that used to be under the screen porch, and it was nothing but bad news. I dug down at least as far as the future footings would be, and just as I feared, nothing but black dirt. We sat and stared at the hole in the ground for a good long time, and yes, there was head scratching. We then called Ken Theis, our excavator to see if he could bring a machine out to dig down further. He said that he could get out there in a day or two. Meanwhile we will continue to demo and address the other seven thousand loose ends. Wednesday, May 2 2007 We mainly cleaned, pulled some nails, cleaned some more and then pulled a few more nails. We expect Ken to come out with his smaller excavator today so we can see what are soil situation is. We are coming to the conclusion that it was not only the tens of thousands of pounds of concrete and water that sunk the back part of the foundation, but poor soil likely played a role as well, disappointing to say the least. Thursday, May 3 2007 The good news was that Ken made it out in the morning with his machine; the bad news was that he had to dig almost twelve feet down before he hit clay, not good, not good at all. We discussed our options, cried a little, and then came to the conclusion that this house was not going to get an addition after all. We guesstimated that any type of foundation, whether it was piers, pilings or just really, really deep footings would at the very least triple the cost of the foundation. We need to put it behind us and move forward with plan B. Plan B involves scaling back on some of the future expenses like cement board siding and fancy porches. Plan B also involves getting much more creative with the limited space we have to work with. Today I plan on excavating the whole back of the house. I want to expose the entire water cistern and the two rooms on either side of it. We plan on renting a jackhammer for the bobcat and seeing what kind of damage we can do. Ken is going to leave his excavator on site in case we need some back up; either way, the evil cistern’s days are numbered. Friday, May 4, 2007 Yesterday started out great. I put on some rock n roll music and moved dirt like a madman. When I finished with that, I put the forks on the bobcat and started prying up the concrete slab that was in front of the walkout portion of the basement. I pulled up and hauled away the first five feet of the ten-foot slab, no problem. The second five feet, the part that was closer to the house, didn’t go so well. As I was prying up a big chunk of concrete, several things happened all at the same time; I noticed that pieces of dirt were falling off the bottom side of the slab and landing in water; I noticed Randy resolutely motioning me to back up, and I felt my bobcat clunk down a couple inches. We discovered another septic tank, yeah! It wasn’t a large one, maybe four feet by eight, but it was full of shit, and it was all ours. Luckily I didn’t get my bobcat stuck in the stupid thing, because the clunk I felt was my back tire breaking through the old, thin cap of the tank. We removed all the concrete on and around the tank, and stared at its contents; head scratching soon followed. There was too much debris in it for a pump truck to pump it, so we really only had one option, bust it up and bury it. The tank had two compartments, and we broke through the outside wall of the first compartment in no time, but I really couldn’t maneuver my bobcat around the side closest two the house. We had to give Ken a call. He said he would send his kid over the next day to finish the job with the excavator. Monday, May 7, 2007 One of Ken’s kids is supposed to come out and bust up that septic tank for us today. While he is doing that, Randy and I will start jacking up the house. We want to get the house close to where it is going to permanently sit before we start knocking out the back wall; we’ll use a couple twenty ton bottle jacks and couple thirty ton house moving jacks to get the job done. To keep it in place we will use a lot of temporary bracing. The most important component to the whole project is faith, faith that the building will not fall down on our heads when the back wall goes away. Tuesday, May 8, 2007 One of Ken’s sons (I don’t call him by name because Ken has two sons, and I can’t tell them apart) came out to knock the shit out of the septic tank, literally. Meanwhile, the back of our house appears to be hovering off of its foundation. This morning I’m off to rent a jackhammer for the bobcat; hopefully it will do the job. Wednesday, May 9, 20007 The jackhammer worked fine; wait, I take that back—it worked fantastic! I
rarely find myself saying, "This works much, much better than
I could have ever imagined." But, that’s exactly what I found myself saying
throughout most of the day. The best part of the whole deal was that it was fun.
I would hammer away for a while, then put my bucket on and haul away the debris,
then back at it with the hammer, and so on. Occasionally we had to hook up some
chains and straps to portions of the wall and give a good Thursday, May 10, 2007 
Things are moving right along; we had no trouble pouring the footing. We decided to pour the new footing over the old one, which was possible because the old one sank eight inches. There was plenty of evidence that the foundation stopped sinking at least thirty years ago, and we are confident that it will not sink any further. But as an additional insurance policy, we decided to make the new one three feet wide; that’s almost twice as wide as would be required by code. The block guys will hopefully be out today to start on the new wall. Friday, May 11, 2007 Access Builders Corporation is a well-oiled scheduling machine; just like clockwork, the Platte Valley Boys were out to start building the new block wall. They got most of it done and I am already sleeping better at night knowing that the house will soon be sitting on something solid, and I don’t mean a neighbor kid. Actually, the entire back wall won’t be complete for a little while yet. We need to build it in two sections because it was too difficult to brace the entire thing with the limited amount of jacks and cribbing at our disposal. The other reason is that section number two is going to be a walk out area and the footings will be four feet lower than the one we poured the other day, and to be perfectly honest, we’re not one hundred percent sure how it is all going to work out yet, scratch, scratch. Jim Stebbens and his son Scott, of Platte Valley Boy fame, should be out to finish the main portion of the back wall today. Monday, May 14, 2007 Second HPC meeting and more Concrete removal. Monday, May 21, 2007 
We need to get ready for the excavator in Carver. We have to determine the general layout of the basement in order to know where we want to rough in the new sewer line. We also need to bust up some floor and hand dig under the very large footing. In addition to that, we need to make a bunch of relief cuts in the existing footing at the point where we want to go down to a frost footing. The frost footing will not have the required 4’ of ground coverage on each side of the opening, but it will certainly be better than it was before—no frost footing whatsoever. It’s important that we maintain the ability to walk out the basement. It would have been considerably easier and cheaper to bring the grade up higher and cover the whole basement level: no door to buy, no retaining walls to build (two of them), no frost footings, no insulation for the footings. We will save a little money by reducing the amount of fill we need, but overall, I think the walkout will cost us a few extra days of work and fifteen hundred dollars over and above. We know that the women make the buying decisions, but when a guy sees that he gets a workshop or a TV room all his own, I’m confident that he’ll put in his two cents worth. Tuesday, May 22, 2007 Yesterday did not go exactly as planned, but sometimes is seems that yesterdays seldom do. It was a fluid day with lots of head scratching. We got the new sill plate on; foamed up in-between the old and the new then lowered the house onto the new wall—hooray! At first we were thinking of getting a jackhammer for the bobcat again to remove the concrete from basement, but Randy suggested that we try using the forks. It was a good Idea because I was unable to maneuver inside the basement once I got over the footing. The soil in there was too saturated, a problem that the new drain tiles will take care of, but in the meantime it didn’t make sense to haul in dry soil, pack it down and then dig it back up for the drain tile. So today we look forward to a good healthy dose of manual labor. I need to rent a hand operated jackhammer for today. And actually, busting up ten yards of concrete isn’t the hard part; it’s moving it that becomes the chore. I have to remember to drink a lot of water. Yee—haw! Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Oh my aching back! This morning I have to pick up a hundred feet of drain tile and hopefully meet the excavators at the site. They made a surprise visit yesterday and hauled away the huge pile of concrete we had. I think Todd made three sixteen ton trips—so that would be close to fifty ton, or one hundred thousand pounds of concrete. Oh, my aching back! Well, we need the rain badly, but it would be nice if it held off just long enough to get the drain tile around the front and side of the house done. While they’re doing that, Ken and his boys are also going to hook up the sewer and dig the hole for our frost footing. Underneath the concrete we busted up toward the front of the house the soil was completely saturated with water. Our hope is that the combination exterior/interior drain tiles will keep the basement bone dry, springs or no springs; we're confident it will. There is an even greater chance for rain tomorrow, ninety percent, so I may have Ken hold off on the frost footing because the hole will just fill up with water. I am going to pick up the permit today Mark the inspector let us delay this step because we didn't know exactly what we were going to do until we had enough torn up and knew what we had. Mark said it came to about sixteen hundred and change—much better than the fifteen thousand dollars we paid for the last new-construction house we built in Jordan, MN. One other thing of note: yesterday, I used the forks on my bobcat to pull up the sidewalk on the front of the house. When I got to the slab in front of the entry door, I could not budge it. After a futile attempt with the jack hammer, I had Todd give it a shot with the excavator. The thing was almost two feet thick. We think that when they rerouted Co. Rd. 40 in front of the house, they raised the grade on the front part of the lot. So what they did was pour a thick slab right over the old thick steps that led up to the front door. The excavator Ken & Sons had on site was their smaller one, which was able to dig around it and slide it out, but not big enough to lift it. So now we have a seven thousand pound hunk of concrete in our yard which will have to be dealt with—latter.
I didn’t think I was going to have to work as hard as I did yesterday. Oh, my aching back! The excavators showed up to do their thing bright and early, like they always do. It only took them an hour to hook up the sewer, and then they found the water line and the gas line and started digging for the new drain tile. In the mean time we decide that we should finish the basement drain tile. I told them to dig the hole for the frost-footing last, because once it was dug, we would be unable to get my Bobcat in and out of the basement. We needed about eight scoops of rock and eight of sand with the bobcat or a hundred with the wheelbarrow—we went the Bobcat route. But still it involved a lot of hand digging, way too much in fact. But all went well in the end. Ken, Tony and Todd were all out there making noise, and we got it done right before the heavy rains hit. I would guess we’ve had over two inches since they finished. I am looking forward to finding a dry basement when I arrive to work this morning, although I am certain that the footing hole will have several inches of water in it, not a big deal. This morning we need to do a little head scratching in order to get the exact locations for the floor drains, because Mike the plumber is coming out today to have a look. Hopefully he can started sooner than later. When we are done with that we may try to separate the 1880’s addition from the 1930’s addition. When we jacked up the house six inches, the oldest part of the house went up fine and looks great, but the middle addition did not. The floors are level but the walls are not plumb. We think that if we can free it up completely from the additions on either side of it, we may be able to pull the top a few inches toward the street which would go a long way in straightening the walls. We’re crossing our fingers. Friday, May 25, 2007 Met Mike the plumber yesterday afternoon, he said he can start this coming Monday, which happens to be Memorial Day. I was planning on working Monday anyway so it works out well. Randy and I were both feeling worn-out; consequently, we did not make a great deal of progress yesterday. We did some more cleaning, and worked on the kitchen floor. There were two layers of linoleum and two layers of quarter inch sub-floor as well. The top layer seems fairly new, and whoever installed it, installed the sub-floor with inch and a half long sheathing staples, overkill to say the least. We put a metal pole on a cats claw pry bar so as to avoid three hours on hands and knees. It worked surprisingly well, but there is still plenty of work that needs to be done. The good news is that the wood floor underneath may be able to be restored—I heard the distressed wood look is in. We never got started in the process of straightening the middle addition yesterday; there is one section that needs to be worked on from the outside, and it was just too muddy. So we’ll try again today. The weatherman says it’s going to be seventy degrees today with a decent chance of golf. Saturday, May 26, 2007 
Once again the weatherman was wrong, no golf. Friday was another day of medium progress. We finished pulling up the flooring in the kitchen, or rather, we finished pulling the thousands of staples that held it down. Oh, my aching back! Next, we laid-out and staked the basement with the location of all the plumbing in the floor. Then we worked on straightening the middle addition with modest success. Upon further inspection, we concluded that the original two buildings were neither straight, level nor plumb when they were attached to one another. Without removing the 30’s additions’ entire floor and roof system, we were restricted in what we could do. But given these limitations, we still managed to make the East wall (the worst offender) about forty percent better than it had been. We were shooting for seventy five percent, but at least our attempts were not a complete bust. After completely separating the 30’s addition from the 70’s addition we hooked up the Bobcat to the corner, up towards the midsection of the building, and pulled. We moved it about an inch, but it seemed that it should be able to move some more. Because the house has been sitting so crooked for so long, more than likely it has become complacent with its position in life and is resistant to change (sounds like several people I know). What we decided to do was to put some tension on the wall then nail a diagonal cross brace to hold it in place. After a couple weeks in her new position, we will go back and see if we can persuade her forward another inch or so. Tuesday, May 29, 2007 Yesterday was Memorial Day, and we took the day off. I met Mike the plumber out there just to make sure we were on the same page, but nothing other than that. Mike said we could call for an inspection today on the plumbing rough-in. There is a chance of rain every day this week, so I think the thing to do is to pretend there’s not. We will probably set up the footings today and maybe even pour them. Also, I think I may do some more backfilling if it’s not too muddy. While I’m doing that we need to put the gas meter back on the wall and call the gas company. The copper portion of the gas line was partially crushed due to the house settling. Overall, I think it is going to be another fluid day, and I am fully prepared to go with the flow. Wednesday, May 30, 2007 I didn’t expect to work that hard; I’m noticing a trend. Once again, due to rain, we determined that it was do or die on the footings. The good thing was—the rain held off for the day so we got the footings built and poured. The bad thing was—we had to pour footings. Actually, I don’t mind doing footings so much unless there is a lot of shoveling involved and or the only way to reach the forms is with a wheel barrow, both were case on this job. The sky broke open fifteen minutes after we finished, and I had to cover the exposed footings with plywood. It was only 2 ½ yards but there were four separate footings and two bulkheads with rebar and all that jazz. It took longer than I thought, but the deed is done. We also passed our plumbing rough-in inspection. I really should have a better plan of attack for today. We have a flooring repair (warranty deal) on a house we sold last year. Hopefully the homeowner is around; today would be a perfect day to wrap that up. Otherwise, I’ll head to Carver; break down the forms; clean up the basement, and then we’ll see what happens. We are going to meet with my neighbor Gene about possibly building an addition on his house. Gene strikes me as a guy who will probably go with some unemployed framer who is willing to work for cheap, and there are a lot of them out there right now. I don’t necessarily blame him, but one has to be careful going that route. Good framing skills don’t always transfer into good contractor skills. There is a great deal more to it than simply setting trusses. Thursday, May 31, 2007 Meeting with Gene went well. We didn’t get too much done in Carver: broke down the forms, scratched our heads, relocated the braces so the concrete guys could finish, scratched our heads, re-shimmed the side walls so the concrete guys could fill the holes with mortar, and then scratched our heads some more. Today, the concrete guys are going to show up and complete the block wall, and we will finally be able to set the house down in its permanent spot, hopefully, the spot it will stay for the next hundred plus years. Friday, June 1, 2007 
The block work is done, yeah! No more disconcerting chasm on the back of the house, now were just about ready for the flatwork in the basement. The block guys also fished filling in the gap between the straight house and the crooked foundation with mortar. In addition to that, they used their motorized concrete saw, which resembles a chain saw with a carbide circular saw blade on the end of it, to cut out the egress window in the wall. Most of the wall they cut through was poured, not block, so it was thick and it was uneven. Back in the day they used wood planks as forms for the wall and more often than not, they did not have enough of them to do the whole wall at once. Consequently, they would form up two or three feet at a time, pour that section, backfill, then move the forms up the wall. Where the last pour ended, the extra concrete often overflowed on the outside of the forms, leaving a very uneven surface. Our concrete guys sawed it through on both sides but could not quite get the last half of an inch. We had to drill a few relief cuts and then hook it up to our Bobcat. Luckily it came out with out pulling the rest of the wall over. Mike the plumber is coming this Sunday to finish (this is a side-job for him). I have in-laws coming into town until next Wednesday so Randy will be on his own for the next several days (I just noticed how similar the word in-laws is to out-laws). Today, he is going to put foam on the walkout part of the foundation then backfill. While I’m gone, he is also going to bring the basement floor closer to grade so the cement heads can pour on Thursday. Thursday, June 07, 2007 I am finally back at it. When I spoke to Randy yesterday he said that he covered the exposed foundation with foam and finished backfilling the back side of the house. He also said that the plumber did his thing, and besides needing a couple scoops of sand, the basement is ready to pour. The only problem is we had rain yesterday and last night, a lot of it, and the weather man says we have more on the way. Given the soft soil, we really need about three dry days in a row in order to get a truck close enough to the house. I told the Platte Valley Boys that I would call them this morning and let them know the status. It feels good to get back to work. Friday, June 08, 2007 There was a threat of severe weather breaking out all day. In fact, there were tornados in other parts of the state. There was bad weather to the right of us and to the left, but we got the basement floor poured—actually, the Platte Valley Boys did. We just removed the wall braces and the stairs, although Randy did end up helping out by dumping a few wheel barrows. We both were loitering on purpose in order to pay closer attention to what they were doing; we have been so slow lately; we may end up pouring more floors ourselves, especially on this project. In fact, yesterday we bought a tamper and a jack hammer from the pawn shop. Between the two of us, we have poured hundreds of yards of concrete, but that has been mostly formed areas like sidewalks and shed slabs and patios. We don’t have much experience with larger pours. After talking with the boys and how little work they have, I feel a little guilty in doing their job, but we’re in the same boat, and a guy has to do what a guy has to do. Our windows came today so we can get started replacing the old ones. I need to haul our siding trailer out to the jobsite, the one with all our planks and ladders on it, but it has a flat tire so first thing this morning I need to deal with that. Hopefully it is just a nail in the tread area of the tire which can be plugged with the repair kit that I carry in my truck. I’m looking forward to walking on a flat floor in the basement today, something nobody’s done for at least fifty years. Monday, June 11, 2007 Friday was a satisfying day: we put the old stairs back in place; we sealed the exterior side of the new block wall, and we also tore out two old windows and replaced them with two new ones. It doesn’t seem like much, but there was a good deal of head scratching going on with the first couple of windows. When all the pieces of an old window were removed, we were left with a flat area on the outside of the house big enough to nail the new window’s nailing flange to. Originally we thought we would have to put the fan-fold foam over the lap siding first and then put the nailing flange of the new window over that. 
What we didn’t want to do is nail the new window’s nailing flange over the lap siding, which on the oldest part of the house acts as the sheathing as well. We felt there would be no way to properly seal the new window with all the gaps in and around the flange. Headers were another issue—they currently do not exist on the two oldest sections. What we decided to do was sandwich two vertical 2x4s between two horizontal 2x6s that had been ripped down to match the original width of the wall framing which was 4 7/8". So the total height of the header is about 7 ½". With this configuration, the ripped down 2x6s provide a nailing surface on the inside for drywall and trim, and the sandwiched 2x4s add strength while allowing space for foam insulation, not a lot of R-Value but at least there is some kind of a thermal break. Unfortunately we only had enough room for 1x2 trimmers (jack studs), but anything we do is much better than it was before. Today I plan removing, reframing and re installing at least three or four new widows. Randy will frame in the space for our new double wide steel door in the basement. That needs to be done sooner than later because that is where the new electrical meter needs to go; the electricians (Randy’s dad and uncle) are hopefully coming out on Wednesday. Let’s keep this train moving. Tuesday, June 12, 2007 
Well, the train is moving; it’s just moving more like an nineteenth century steam engine rather than an electromagnet super train. I installed only two upper floor windows, and while my plank was there, I repaired the eyebrows, which needed a little steeper pitch. We did not even begin the framing in the basement. Randy spent most of the morning at the store getting windows for the garage and other assorted goodies, a necessary evil. Also, we needed to deal with the sill plate on the new block wall before we could frame in for the new walk-out door. It turns out that the original part of the house doesn’t want to be at the same height as the second addition does. Another reason for the slow down was the heat—it was hot, 90 degrees plus and humid. We’re not old by any stretch, but we’re no spring chickens either. The framing in the basement is obviously going to take longer than I thought, so my plan for the day is to replace one window and a couple more eyebrows on the front of the house when it’s cool and shady, then move downstairs and tag team the framing for the egress window and the structural wall by the stairs and perhaps the structural wall that separates the workshop from the utility room. Thursday, June 14, 2007 
Tuesday went pretty much as planned. Of course we didn’t finish everything that I was hoping, but that rarely happens. I have found that what works best for me is to mentally schedule more than I think I can get done. This may seem like I’m setting myself up for disappointment, but it works. On those rare occasion that I have finished everything I planned on doing early, I usually end up squandering the rest of the day aimlessly. I try to never leave a jobsite without knowing pretty well what the next day’s plan is going to be. The electricians showed up yesterday to move our meter and install the new 200 amp panel; we had to schedule our day around them. When we did the original demo, we left two live circuits, one circuit for the house with outlets on every floor and one for the garage. This was important because working off of generators is noisy, stinky and generally a pain in the butt. The old panel was located on the side wall of a little bump-out in the building. We had planned all along to remove the bump out (we needed to in order to get footings under it), but we couldn’t do it entirely because of the old panel, nor could we build the new wall that would house the new panel. So when the electricians got there, they cut the power and removed the old panel and meter socket. Then they waited for us to remove the only remaining section of the old bump-out wall that was in our way. We then quickly finished the new wall. The whole process only took a half an hour or so. Next, we helped them reposition the metal conduit that ran up the wall to the overhead line. The power line connects to the house at the upper gable above the garage; metal conduit kind of zigzags down the wall, around the corner and down the back wall. It is somewhat unsightly and not all together the ideal situation. We explored moving the panel to the garage, but because the garage is five feet lower than the house, we would not have been able to get enough height (18 feet) for the line to cross over the road. We also explored going underground, but that involved digging under the road, which for this project, was cost prohibitive. In addition to the electrician showing up, we installed a couple more windows, which brings the total up to seven. Today, I would like to get yet a couple more windows in and clean the place up a bit. Randy is leaving for a weekend golf trip at noon and I am taking off tomorrow in order to bring the heavy jacks I borrowed from my uncle Dale, the retired house mover. Dale now lives in northern Wisconsin at a resort he owns. It’s about a three hour drive, but my best friend also moved up to that neck of the woods, so I will take the opportunity to check in on him and his family. Also, I heard a rumor that they sell a thing called beer in Wisconsin—I may have to try one. Oh yeah, it was hot yesterday. Friday, June 15, 2007 One of two things needs to happen: either the temperature needs to drop thirty, or I do, and right now, it seems that changing the weather would be easier. There is something about sweating profusely by 7:30 am that sucks the motivation right out of a guy. Old projects like this one are naturally dirty and dusty. When I write about, "replacing this here," or "adding that there," it sounds so neat and tidy; well it’s not! Remodeling is a filthy job where more times than not the air is filled with a mixture of dirt, sawdust and insulation. Because all of these things cling to us when we’re sweaty, we end the day looking more like miners than contractors. It gets in our hair, our eyes, our noses, mouth and lungs (even with dust masks), our ears, and the inside of our clothes. It burns and stings and mixes with our sweat and blood, ahhhhhhg! Ok, bitch- session over. We installed two more windows yesterday and took down some old gutters and crown molding that would have been in the way for the new gutters, one more step closer to having it ready for the roofer. After that, I cleaned up a bit and bullshitted with the plumber who stopped by in the afternoon to hook up an old water closet he had lying around (for people who grew up with me in Ham Lake, that’s a fancy way of saying toilet). I think I am more exited about having working plumbing than I was when we completed the new foundation. It looks a little lonely sitting there in the open basement all by itself, but if nature calls—well, you get the idea. I’ve always believed it’s the little things in life that make the difference. Today I am off to the great north woods. I’m bringing my teenage son Colton with me so I can use opportunity to talk him into getting a real job where sweat, filth and working toilets are not an issue. Monday, June 18, 2007 I should have a better plan for the day than I do, but I don’t. I left the scaffolding up on the back wall so I think the prudent thing to do would be to reframe the opening where the old sliding glass door was and install the new door and window. The HPC does not allow sliding glass doors. We considered putting in a french door, but french doors are expensive and often times finicky. So we went with a single door with a window right next to it. The window is the same size as the kitchen window which will give the back wall a little parity. The weather is supposed to be a little cooler for a couple days before the blast furnace returns; we should probably use these days to get ready for the roofers. Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Slow and steady wins the race. Or was it, waste not want not? Either way, it was not a stellar performance yesterday. We installed the window and the door, but that’s about it. Today I hope to get one more window in and then start messing around with the hole in the roof where the chimney was. Both Randy and I are heading out of town again this week. So I should really think about putting in some long hours. I need to pick up some Buildrite this morning. We already have plenty of 7/16" OSB sheathing out there, but a couple sheets of ¾" material will come in handy patching the areas where the old openings were and the where the old sheathing needs to be replaced because of rot. Also today, the cabinet guy is coming out to help us layout the kitchen cabinets. We need to know their exact location in order to install the new kitchen window in the right spot. Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Finally, we get some decent weather. Randy Simmer the cabinet guy was out yesterday and laid out the location of the kitchen cabinets, which in turn gave us the location of the kitchen window. He told us that he was heading out of town to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary, a rare thing these days. He also told us that he almost became an undertaker. Undertaking to cabinet sales, life is often times wonderfully inexplicable. We installed two more windows and had a long discussion about our options on the 4" difference where the two additions meet on the back wall. We finally came up with an answer—we concluded that there is no good solution. Before calling it a day, we tore out the window that looked over the garage roof. We then reframed the opening and covered the hole with Buildrite. Thursday, June 21, 2007 Wednesday was very hot once again. Two different gas guys showed up to address our crimped copper gas line. When Ken and sons originally dug up the trench for the exterior drain tile, they had to hand dig up about thirty feet of the gas line. During this process, they found a big kink in the copper portion of the line, probably caused by the settling of the house. I called the gas company to have somebody come out to replace the eight feet of copper. Somehow, they categorized my particular problem as a "relocate" issue. The minimum charge for a relocate is $600. We decided to set the meter against a tree in the front yard and do nothing instead. We are finally to the point where something needs to be done, not to mention that it was disconcerting seeing that exposed gas line in the yard. I called the gas company again on Monday; this time I was careful not to mention anything about "relocating." I just said that I needed someone to look at a kinked line, that’s all. The first guy came out and said, "How would you like a brand new meter?" "As long as it doesn’t cost me anything, I would love a brand new meter," was my response. He told me that it wouldn’t cost me a dime at which point he was my new best buddy. About four hours later a second, more important looking guy came out the jobsite. He told me that the first guy made a mistake by telling me there would be no charge. This new guy apparently did not need a new best buddy. He said that because we crimped the line, we would have to pay. He also said that they would have to replace the line all the way to the main trunk. It turns out that years ago the gas company decided to switch to plastic lines instead of copper. They continued to use the copper for the last ten feet or so where it hooks up to the meter. It turns out that Carver, MN was the first town to get the new product. The plastic lined worked great with one caveat; they had no way of locating the line once it was in the ground. It didn’t take long for them to figure out they needed to bury a locating wire along with the plastic. This second guy informed me that while they were replacing the meter that we broke, they would dig up the old line and replace it with one they could find in the future. It sounded to me that we were actually doing them a favor by letting them tear up our yard and putting in a proper line, and I let him know as much. He knew where I was going with that, and we may have come to an agreement. He agreed to charge us only for hooking up our meter and that’s it; maybe an hours worth of labor, tops. So, while he wasn’t my buddy when he left, at least I didn’t have to chase him off the property with a pitchfork. Friday, June 22, 2007 Once again, I made the mistake of not planning enough to do. When I finished the excavating at about 3:00, I didn’t know what to do next, so I went home. I moved all the dirt there was to move. We are going to need plenty of fill brought in. The main highway that runs by Carver is closed due to construction, and the detour runs right by our house. Needless to say, the traffic has increased ten fold. Also, every third vehicle that passes by is either a large dump truck or a tractor with a dump trailer full of dirt. A phone conversation on the driveway is nearly impossible due to the noise. I know most of these trucks are heading from the gravel pit to the road project, but occasionally I see one heading in the other direction with a full load. I was hoping that a well placed "fill wanted sign" may prove fruitful. One good thing about the road construction is that it is part of a larger project that will create a non-stop freeway from the southwest metro to downtown. This will cut down on the traffic and will hopefully increase the value of our house. Today, I head down to Lanesborough, MN to go golfing and camping with the fam-fam. Monday, June 25, 2007 I have never felt that I needed a vacation more, than immediately following a vacation. My oldest son Sean is back in town after his first year of college. He is going to be working with us for a few weeks. I know he doesn’t want to go back to school, so I have been saving several particularly nasty jobs just for him. He’s going to get hot, and he’s going to get dirty and hopefully school will start looking like a fine alternative. While Sean is taking off that closet room today, Randy and I will be working on the two structural walls downstairs. When we finish that, we can start on shoring up the floor joists on the upper level. I foresee working at least two days on those two projects. It supposed to be hot again. 
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Sean was more sweaty, and filthier than even I thought he would be. He looked like a wet piece of charcoal. When he started, I told him that I may only have a few weeks of work for him and that he may eventually have to find another job. On the way home from work he asked me what I thought would be a good job after he is done with me. He said that he thought he might prefer an "inside" job. I had to snicker. Sean is a hard worker and will do well at whatever he chooses. He made quick work of tearing off the closet. Randy and I finished framing up the walls downstairs but decided to hold off on the upper level floor joists for now. We reframed the window openings on the area where Sean was working and started to re-sheath the same area. Today we will tackle the future mud room windows and door, maybe the kitchen window and possibly the office wall and windows. Of course I know that we will never finish all of it, but I know we will not run out of things to do. Sean will start removing stucco off the garage wall—yuck! And yes, hot again today. Wednesday, June 27, 2007
We’re getting closer to being able to put some siding on, at which point, the people driving by will really have something to gawk at. The front wall on the mud room was really something. The brick veneer was not really a veneer at all; it was part of the wall structure itself. Also, there was no sheathing on much of the wall; the studs were the sheathing; they just painted over them. A classic homeowner’s special—no offense intended to my homeowner friends. Another issue with that wall were the half-blocks. The blocks that make up a foundation are usually 8" to 12" wide. It is standard practice to have the top course be 4" or 6", depending on if it is a 2x4 or 2x6 wall. In this case, because they used brick a structural component, the half block was covered in rough mortar, too rough to build a wall on. We had form around them and pour a couple inches of concrete over them. I’m not sure about life, but this house is certainly "like a box of chocolates." Today I am getting a late start; I’m having breakfast with my two oldest boys. I need to bring our trailer to the dump, always a pleasant experience. Randy will start framing up the front wall for the office. Sean will, slowly but surely, continue to tear off stucco. Thursday, June 28, 2007 Yesterday I took in all the landfill had to offer: the aroma, the dust and and the nails in my tires. I also did a little house cleaning. We decided on which cabinets we were going to use in the basement and put the rest out by the road with a "free" sign on them. We hauled away the old appliances. And we just organized a bit. The garage has much more room now. We have some furniture in storage that we used for spec homes. We will probably move it over to this house, so our abundance of extra space won’t last long—it never does. While I was doinking around with that, Randy reframed the front office wall and installed the two windows. He didn’t do the door yet because we need to pour that floor first. Sean worked on stucco; he’s becoming a pro with the grinder. We also got the new kitchen window moved over to where it belongs. Today, because it’s nice and cool (Thank God!), we will jump on the garage roof; from there we can reach the eye brows on the side of the house, they need to be tweaked like the other ones. While we’re at it, we will attend to any sub fascia that needs tweaking, so Marvin the roofer can have at it. After that I will attack the back future office wall; I’m sure it is going to be as messed up as the mud room wall because it was framed up by the same person, so in other words, it’s wrong. Randy is going to stop this morning and pick up a new door for the walk out in the basement, as well as a new diamond wheel for Sean the monkey grinder—that’s not nice. Friday, June 29, 2007 The stucco removal process is done! Sean is one happy camper. Randy helped out on the stucco removal for a good portion of the day which helped move things along quite nicely. I started the day trying to fix the eyebrows on the house over the garage, until I discovered a wasp nest which slowed my progress significantly. I moved on to reframing the office wall. The HPC insisted that we remove the picture window and replace it with double-hungs. It’s a shame too, because after removing the existing windows, the gorgeous view of the river valley wildlife really came to life. I finished framing the wall, but did not get the three new windows in place yet. Today we could set a record. We will be installing six new windows. I may have Sean start jack hammering on the stoop. I might even have him start busting up the floor in the office. This has been a productive week—or at least that’s what my back keeps telling me. Oh yeah, the cabinets disappeared in a hurry, all of them. Some guy drove by and made a passionate U-turn, almost as if they would vanish if he took his eyes off of them. He wanted them for his cabin. In the same place that the cabinets used to be, now sits a pile of bricks with the same "free" sign on them. My neighbor Lori was coveting them when we left last night; she was hoping her boyfriend would hurry up and give her a hand moving them. I suppose I could have offered to help, but I was not feeling charitable at the time—what an ass I am. Saturday, June 30, 2007
We took off a little early yesterday. We got our six windows in and finished busting up the big concrete stoop. We bought the three windows for the garage at Home Depot; we felt there was no reason to spend an extra four hundred dollars on the garage. I believe they were made by American Craftsman, or something along that line. These windows were just fine for a garage or a shed, but there is no way I would ever put them in a house, any house. Randy and I have put in hundreds of windows and we both agree that when remodeling or building new, windows are not the place to save money. Monday, July 02, 2007 Sean is working half the day today and then he’s leaving on a camping trip. I really don’t have a good plan for the day today. Randy and I should start reinforcing the second story floor joist. They span too great of an area and are all sagging. Somewhere around the halfway point in the span of the joists, we need to cut out a section in each joist large enough to get a perpendicular support beam. Doing it this way is a little more difficult but it allows us to hide everything up in the ceiling. Once we get the joists straight we then will move upstairs and start reframing the interior walls; we really need to start seriously thinking of the final layout up there. Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Wednesday, July 04, 2007 It is clear to me now that this whole redoing the floor joists is going to take longer than I hoped. I came home last night completely filthy; I think it had something to do with the ninety-five percent humidity, and the beating on dusty walls and ceilings. I felt like a damp dish rag that was used to clean the entire kitchen floor. Randy was feeling under the weather, so I was on my own. Hopefully, for my sake, he is feeling better today, because I would like to finish this stage of the project sooner than later—yes, it is all about me. Today is going to be more of the same: looking up, banging on a sister floor joist while demolition remnants fall down in my face. I’m feeling itchy already. Thursday, July 05, 2007 Today is the fifth of July; which means yesterday was the fourth of July; which means it was time for my insane neighbor to shoot off window rattling dynamite till midnight. He must really love his country. I think I got what Randy had. I didn’t even make it to lunch time yesterday. It was a case of IBS, hopefully temporary. We just worked on the second story floor joists again with very little progress to report. Today is more of the same. We need to order the shingles for the roof, because Marvin is planning on starting on Friday, tomorrow. That means I need to go to the landfill to dump our trailer. I’ve gotten a late start thanks to pyrotechnics man, so I best get at it. Friday, July 06, 2007 I had an incident yesterday. It was just another day at the dump, you know, and I was feeling good about life, because the gal at the gate allowed me to go to the top of the hill even though I had a little cardboard at the bottom of my load—long story. As I was raising the box in the air, and just as the debris started sliding out, I heard a large clunk, and the trailer shook a little more than usual. After I lowered the box down and walked around to close the gates, I noticed one of the gates was not hanging perpendicular to its hinges as it should have been. After cursing like a sailor for several minutes, I strapped things temporarily in place and headed back to the jobsite. I’m still not a hundred percent sure what happened; all I know is that we need to bring it to a welder to have it fixed. After the dump experience Randy and I met my sister to look at a property that Access Builders may have had a slight interest in, but it was of more interest to Randy and his wife Dawn for their personal property, five acres on a hill with some nice out-buildings, nice. When we got back to work we finished the first half of the floor joists, a job that I thought would take two days. I’m feeling a little low this morning, because after work Randy made me stay up late last night in order to help him convince his wife to move to that property that we looked at. After a few adult beverages, I think she warmed up to the idea. Today our main goal is to get the roofers going. In order to do that, we have to do a couple of structural repairs. I don’t see working a full day today. Saturday, July 07, 2007 It is going to be ninety seven degrees and humid today; if I can avoid it, I’m not leaving my house, not once. Yesterday, we got our repairs done, explained to the roofers what we wanted (I spoke in broken Spanish and they in broken English), then we bolted. I don’t know how they can stay up on the roof in that heat; I could not drink water fast enough; I would need an intravenous line of Gatorade, to get me through it. In my own defense, my ancestors probably never saw a ninety degree day in their lives and may or may not have known what the sun even looked like. Monday, July 09, 2007 Rain, rain, wonderful rain, we finally got rain yesterday; and what’s even better, the temperature dropped from ninety-two degrees to seventy-two degrees in about fifteen minutes. It rained more in two hours than it has in the last six weeks; I’m certain that I heard a collective sigh from all the plants and other living things that had been suffering. Randy is off on another vacation; that boy sure gets around. In the meantime I will mess around with the front door; I am going to start to dismantle it. I will start with the six panels that have the glass in them. The crucial part is the old threshold; if I am unable to filet the old rotten one out of there in such a way as to be able to get a new one in, then it is likely we will have to replace the whole thing. Sean will finish busting up the floor in the office/mudroom; it is going ten times slower than the basement slab because of the rebar that was used. What a difference rebar makes, although with that being said, many people think that rebar prevents cracking which it doesn’t; all it does is hold the slab together if and when it does crack. Tuesday, July 10, 2007 About half-way through disassembling the front door, I came to the conclusion that we were not going to put it back together the same way; it was assembled in a half-ass manor: it was unstable, prone to water damage and impossible to insulate. The door may be historic, but it doesn’t make sense to save a historic piece of garbage. I called Steve Johnson, our millwork sales guy, and asked if his shop did any retro work. What I would like to do is bring them just the door slap (which is in decent shape), and have them build a new jamb and adjustable threshold for it. Next, I would like to have somebody duplicate the glass panels. Then I could rebuild the door from the ground up, properly; I think I could do it in about one and a half days. This all sounds great, but cost is still a concern; I need to add up the price of the new jamb, the new window panels and the significant amount of crown molding and other millwork that will be needed to complete the job; if the total comes to more than three thousand dollars, we may have to scrap the whole project and put in a new door; that would be disappointing. Sean finished up with the concrete demo; today we will work on shoring up the other half of the floor joists; I think he will be please to be doing something other than one hundred percent grunt work. Wednesday, July 11, 2007 Last night was the coolest night we’ve had in God knows how long; I can hear the birds outside through the open windows—can you believe it, open windows! We ran out of some supplies early in our attempts to shore up the old floor joists, so I had to make an unexpected trip to the store, but even with that and the fact that Sean had to leave early to go to his other job; we finished about seventy five percent of the floor. After Sean left, my productivity level dropped severely. I tracked down Greg Witt at his woodworking shop in another part of Carver. I wanted him to give me a bid on duplicating the six glass panels I removed from the front door surround. Greg is an interesting guy; he came over to the job site in his mint 1985 Ford Mustang; I rarely meet a woodworking guy who is also a car enthusiasts; it’s usually one or the other. Randy came back a day early, so in the interest of keeping Sean busy, I think we will start splitting duties. I plan to get started on the siding while Randy continues working on the framing inside; Sean should be able to be a gopher for both of us at the same time—you know, gopher this piece of wood, gopher that bucket of nails. Thursday, July 12, 2007 Even though, Sean and I worked on the back wall most of the day, from a glance it doesn’t look as if we did a gosh-darn thing; the same goes for the progress Randy made inside with the floor—but we’re one step closer; always one step closer. Sometimes it gets frustrating to work a whole day or a whole week and see very little progress. It’s a good thing I’m taking Friday off to head up to my mother’s house in the Brainerd Lakes area; I think I need the break. Sean is working his other job today, so Randy and I will start in on the nasty business of re-framing the bathroom. In my mind, this is really the biggest single job we have left as far as getting the house back to resembling a simple remodel. After this job is complete, all we have left are the same things we would have if we were doing a basement finish or a new construction house; it’s not entirely true, but by inventing certain mental milestones I am able to hold on to my sanity for that much longer. Hopefully Randy brings his positive mental attitude today. Friday, July 13, 2007 We actually made good progress upstairs: we cut out a good portion of the old roof that was impeding on the ceiling height in the bathroom; we put a large header right up to the roof trusses; then we devised a way to carry the load from the header right down to the foundation. And in addition to all of that, we were able to get the bathroom window roughed-in and installed—not a bad day. Just as we were finishing up, Mike Johnson the plumber came out to discuss the layout; he’s going to start this weekend. No work for me today, I’m heading north. Monday, August 20, 2007 I am not computer illiterate. I have been working with computers since they were invented, from the TRS-80 to the Apple IIe. It was my dad’s hobby, and I reaped the rewards of his knowledge; that, and I the fact that I have never bought a computer in my life; thanks dad. I am not computer illiterate. But right now I wish I was, because then I could use it as an excuse. You see, due to my shortsightedness, irresponsibility and downright carelessness, I lost a full month of journal entries. Unlike my accounting files, which I back up every time I use them, I neglected to back up this journal since, well—since Friday, July 13. I’m not a suspicious man in the least, but it is odd that my last recorded entry is Friday the 13th. Anyway, during the process of uploading it onto the website, I accidentally over-writ this journal file with a blank one. It seems odd that the fruit of fifteen hours of labor can vanish in an instant of a keystroke. There have been times when I have worked fifteen hours on something and have not been satisfied in one way or another with the final product. There have been other times when I have worked fifteen hours on something and the customer changed their minds, and we had to redo it. There have also been times when a storm destroyed what I created and it had to be rebuilt (Insurance has always paid for those times). But never before has this much labor disappeared before my very eyes, and a labor of love—poof! I actually felt sick to my stomach when it happened. But it is time to remove the black arm band and get on with my life. There is no way that I can remember the daily occurrences of past five weeks, so what I will finish this journal with some "after" pictures. Before After
Dining Room
Living Room
Upstairs Bath
Kitchen
Sean
Front Door
Rear Elevation
Front Elevation
More pictures and information upon request. Mark For More Information Contact: |
