The Remodel. July 2, 2020

I do have a couple of cupboards cleaned out in the kitchen. Just two.  I don't need to say that the contents are now on the countertop, do I?  Well, not all of them.  I did box up the China from over the fridge.

This used to be my closet.

This used to be our shower.

This used to be the west wall of our bedroom.

These are the completed footings. We are just waiting for the stem walls to be poured. Next week.

The Remodel, July 2020, Part 1

Fortunately for us, Lexi,  Braeden and Ella made themselves available to be our laborers.  They are great workers.  We are so glad for their help. While I keep making inroads in trying to figure out WHERE to put everything that was in my bedroom and bathroom SOMEWHERE in this house, they have been helping Mike to demolish the west side of the bedroom and bathroom.

And the work goes on while we are waiting for the next concrete pour. Next week, we hope.

 My basement family room area has had these piles of boxes in it for many months.  Since Justin came. I cleaned out both the spare rooms upstairs and put all their contents down there. My sewing stuff (fabric collection) and all the toys and arts and crafts and stuff.

We did get the big king-sized bed OUT of our bedroom, with help from Lexi and Ella.  A good night's sleep is important to us, so we re-assembled it in the living room. Temporarily, of course.  We have to sleep somewhere!

 We do still have a nice guest room. However, there is no window. And it is DARK.

 A new look for our living room.

 The bunk bed room is packed to the gills will all sorts of stuff. And more stuff.

 And even more stuff.  Why do we have so much stuff????

 The carpet and pad came up. Braeden is back from his friend trip, so he's been a big help, too. The photos below are of Ella and Lexi demolishing the west wall of my bedroom.

The bathroom is on its way out, too.

July 1, 2020. Horse shoe tossing at Woods Ranch

 After a long hard day of demolition in our bedroom and bathroom, we drove up to Woods ranch in the afternoon for a rousing game of Horse Shoes before dinner.

Most of our tosses landed. .  . well, all over the place. On a GOOD turn, they were in the pit. ha.  And if it was better, they were close to the post.

Lexi

Ella

Braeden and Mike

 And on the final throw--Lexi with her one and only RINGER!!!   It was the only ringer of the game, we were only one or two points difference in score and she did this. Amazing.  Then we went home and had dinner. The kids had a Zoom meeting with their youth group in Texas, too.  Tandy was nice and accommodating, bringing all the equipment they needed to accomplish all that.  These kids have been such HARD workers!  Our construction project will be able to move forward because of them. Truly. Thanks, kids!

The Remodel, June 2020

As June started, Mike was trying to get everything all lined up for the permits. He had to pay money for an Engineer to do more drawings and submit them. When it was time for our family vacation and we were out of touch, we checked back on the 17th or so and the paperwork was still not complete.
Talk about an exercise in frustration.  Grrr. Makes us all mad.  Hurry up and wait. Plus, the owner of the concrete forms could have used them on many other jobs, but there they were at our house all tied up in a waiting game.

FINALLY, on June 29, 2020, the concrete pumping truck was available to come and pour. FINALLY our permit was issued.  FINALLY we could move forward.  And to much fanfare and lots of spectators from around the neighborhood, they poured the footings.

The stem walls should have been poured about Wednesday of that week. July 1.  However, there is no pump truck available until next week.

SO NOW WE WAIT.  AND WAIT SOME MORE.

Oh, well. We're used to it, right?

The Remodel, April 2020

Mike started digging the hole in the backyard to accommodate the footings and stem walls. He was told to go ahead and dig to about the depth of the bottom of the footings, and then the soil test would be done to determine how much, if any, compacting would need to be done.  He dug out LOTS of dirt and it was all hauled away by the city, thankfully, during the spring clean up this month, so we didn't have to pay to have it hauled away.

Well, it was a LOT of compacting. 

After he dug out all the dirt for the footings, he had to go two feet further down and one foot wider than the width of the footings and add road base.  Dampen, compact.  Four inches deep at at time.
That was a lot of road base and a lot of compacting.  But he and Larry did it.  Doug Gardiner also helped a bit with the digging.

 Mike also bricked in the guest room window.  It would have been un-usable under the new addition, so it was blocked off and will be re-finished. Another, different window will be added to the north side of the room when the rest of this is finished.  That north side of the house is an important access point to all the contstruction going on, so we can't have a big ol' window well there for people, tools and equipment to fall into!

Digging and digging, compacting and compacting.  It seemd to never end!  And that trench was SO DEEP.  Larry was standing at one end and held up his arm and you could barely see the top half of his arm, holding it straight up over his head.  Amazing amount of dirt dug out and placed all over my yard, over the tulips. Under the Apple tree, on the lawn.  So much dirt!