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On Tuesday, while we were busily visiting the Fairfax County Government Center, hoping we'd discovered the magical formula that cures the need to install a $17,000 drainage ditch, they poured the concrete. I'm kind of sorry we missed a chance to see and photograph the pour. That's a LOTTA concrete. |
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| Wet concrete... |
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| And inside the firebox, this wooden structure frames out where the linear gas burner will be installed. |
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| They thought they were going to pour concrete on Monday, but it didn't come to pass. |
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| But they did beef up the rebar infrastructure. |
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And they framed and rebarred (sp?) the back door stoop. This was originally supposed to have a 24-inch downturn, but when the soil turned up too soft, they wound up going down 8 feet. When the apocaplypse hits, our back stoop will be happily intact. Reuben is marveling at the engineering. |
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It's been a very slow week housewise, but a crazy busy week in almost every other way. On Friday, they removed another portion of the driveway... |
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| ...and prepared the spot where the back stoop will be poured. |
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| Barking for buddies... |
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No work was done this day as it rained all day. Also, Reuben was scheduled for surgery to remove two lumps, one from his back and one on the side of his neck. So here he is on a happier day, with his trusty girlfriends, Stella (left) and Lacey (right). |
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On Monday, they seemed to spend most of the day wrapping the house to protect against the rain predicted for Tuesday. |
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The added benefit of the Tyvek over the window openings, is that now we can leave the temporary bedroom hall door open, as there's nowhere that Reuben can jump out of the house. Almost every time I open the door, Reuben dashes out to the living and just stands there - because he can. |
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| And the doorway to the basement stairwell has been framed in. |
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| They framed the wall that will surround the basement stairwell... |
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| ...and they placed rebar in the new fireplace. |
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This is looking at the hearth form from the South side... |
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| ...and this is looking at the North end. |
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I accidentally left my camera in the truck, then asked Jack to take the truck while he was on travel. I woke up Thursday morning and realized I'd be without my camera for a couple of days, while it sat at the airport - sorry! They laid the SIPs roof panels, here in the living room, looking toward the fireplace... |
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...and this is looking toward the basement stairwell. There's a bit of the old roofline left above the stairs, which will wind up being closed in. There will be a little office area built in where the ladders are leaning, which we'll be able to close off with a sliding barn door. |
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This is looking down the new hallway toward the street. |
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| This is looking into the new dining room. |
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| They finished off the top of the chimney... |
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| ...are working on connecting the rooflines... |
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| ...and here, the stone carries in on the sides of the fireplace. |
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| On Tuesday, they made the form for the concrete hearth. |
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| It's pretty interesting to see how they made it, to support the weight. |
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This photo was taken standing in the front hallway. You can see a sliver of the inside of the old front door on the right. So the room on the left used to be the office, but will serve as the pantry. There will be double swinging doors, and to the left some cabinets, countertop and second sink. To the right of the swinging doors will be either tall storage or a tall bookshelf. |
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This picture was taken from the old dining room, which will become the new entryway. The two openings on the left are doors to closets. The third opening on the right will be swinging doors going into the kitchen. |
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And we're all relieved to hear that the vet thinks it's likely that Reuben's lump in an abscess. We should know more on Friday. |
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Monday left us with SIPs roof panels still stacked on the carport. Luckily, rain doesn't seem to be in the forecast for the next several days. |
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| The South wall (or 'back door side') is still quite open. |
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This is the inside view of the South wall. |
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| On the North wall (or 'front door side), they've torn off the siding and framed the back door opening. |
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Looking toward the street, this is the framing for a window. This was done a while ago, but I'm not sure I ever included a picture of it. This is where we most frequently enter the house and exit the house, using the old front door. |
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| They also covered the outdoor framed elements of the courtyard garden. |
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| Reuben's exhausted. (And wearing a shirt to keep him from messing with a little lump on his side.) |
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They installed what appears to be a "fail safe" system of tarps in the living room, which is leaving me considerably more relaxed. |
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| They added the structure, in the living room, where the ceiling will go from 8' to... whatever it goes to. |
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They removed several sections of walls which has left the remaining portion of kitchen a small island of normalcy. We have the added bonus of never having to put anything back in the fridge, as the kitchen is essentially outside anyway. And aren't those weird spots in this photo usually taken to be plain evidence of paranormal activity?! |
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The guys did a bang-up job cleaning up, then proceeded to tear down the wall between the office and the front hallway. Note the dangling electrical outlet... |
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| I find these "orphans" kind of oddly fascinating. Sheila said it was like modern art. |
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Kind of like the heating vent in the now open air living room, which is clearly contributing heavily to global warming. |
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This is what the living room looked like Wednesday afternoon. The SIPs roof panel installation didn't happen on Wednesday, so the guys spent about two full hours tarping the house because the rain was supposed to start late Wednesday night and continue pretty much until early Friday. |
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| I woke up to find this over the courtyard garden. |
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| This is the one I thought would burst. |
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This is the one that did. I'll never forget the sound - it was like an amazingly loud fffwwwwoooOOOOOSH!!! After shrieking and running in many small circles while flailing my hands, unfortunately in front of Sheila before she left for school, I started madly raising computer equipment and power strips off the floor of our new kitchen/dining room/office in the basement, directly below the now flooded living room. Water started streaming down the walls, out of the heating vents and light fixtures, and onto the printer and scanner. Amazingly, I think only the ceiling in the basement room took damage. The guys swept in and spent hours mopping, wet-vaccing (sp?), and re-structuring the tarp supports. So that's enough about Thursday. |
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...that this is precisely how I would react to a water-filled tarp bursting in the living room. Oh, and I shrieked like a little girl, too. |
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On Tuesday, by mid-morning, they had cut back the rafters across the 'front door side' (dining room, kitchen, front hallway and office). |
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| The living room outer wall and roof is being removed up to the steel beam. |
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| By mid-afternoon, a fair amount of the living room roof and wall was gone. |
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The blur of activity is all in preparation to install the SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) roof panels, arriving here. The installation is to happen on Wednesday before it starts raining again, early Thursday... |
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| They finished quite late, so at the end of the day we had a carport full of SIPs... |
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| An open air living room... |
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| And a new sign! |
