The Next Project: October 2010

Well, I met my goal to get the sunroom demolition completed by this weekend... now to clean it all up!! :)

This is my friend Shawn. He helped me finish taking off the flooring and piled up the joists as I cut them down.

All cut off!

Saw dust from head to toe... very itchy!

had to remove these bolts off the house side. (this is where an LVL still has to go.)

the triple 2x10's are bolted into these steel beams

first set I had to cut to get started. they are free but sitting on the concrete column... but not for long :)

1 down- 3 to go

the steel beams are bolted to a concrete pad. So unbolt the bottom and the top and guess what you can do???

however, this beam was nailed to the house itself. so after literally hanging on it, beating it with a sledge hammer and prying until I was wore out... I decide to go another route.

after I took the ledger board off the house, the final beam came down with ease :)

and there you have it! I wish all of my sheeting looked as new as the spot where the sunroom was. Oh well, hopefully it will pass the sheeting inspection.

Hey everyone, I know it has been a long time since you have heard from me and received an update on the house, so I figured it was time to give those who are following an update. The house has been in turtle-gear since August. As most of you know, the renter that I had in July, decided she couldn't afford the rent and moved out after one month. So I have been trying to figure out how to sell or rent my house in Greenville for several months. The economy (and our government) is not helping the middle class any that's for sure. My house is worth $25K less than what I owe on it and I have lived in it for 4 years... how's that for depreciation?? So it's not a good situation. But the Lord has provided me a renter who moves in October 15...BLESSING!! He will be paying a majority of my mortgage and I will have to supplement the rest. But pray that he can get a loan in the next few months, because this would be a win-win for both of us. And some good friends went over and finished the painting that my original renter had started and left unfinished and fixed my fence that mysteriously fell down. So I have not had to make a trip to Greenville yet. What a blessing!! Thank you Holy Horses Amazing Race Team from Discovery Church and the Monday Night Lights small group!

Although we've been in turtle-gear, there has been progress made on the house, so here goes...

I finished digging the holes under the house and poured them with concrete. This was long, hard, laborious work, let me tell you...but I try to be as safe and efficient as possible when doing my construction projects, so while it took more time, I accomplished it with just a bit of ingenuity.

so under the back of the house, I carried in the dry concrete in buckets after I opened the bag in the wheelbarrow... I couldn't carry an 80 lb bag of concrete! LOL! I only have about 20 lbs on the bags! :) And under the front of the house, I slid the bags in my foundation vent holes where I had a "slide" for the bags to get to the floor. From there it was a 20 ft drag to get them in the holes... not too bad. Then I put the hose under the house and filled the hole with water as I dumped in concrete, leveled, and smoothed it off.

The next project is still underway but I'll give you the rundown in this blog. So I have to put in eight 30 ft long LVL (these are extra strong laminated beams) under the back of my house as per the structural engineer's request. This is to make sure that there is enough structural support to hold the house up. LOL... I guess its important. (although almost everyone but the structural engineer thought it was unnecessary!) Anyway, here are the pics...

We have 4 LVLs installed with 4 more to go. As you can see, we have to use a bobcat to lift and push them in because they are so heavy. Each floor joist has to be cut and a temporary wall built before we can slide them in. Also we have also done some grading, but we still have more to do.

My plumbing fixtures have also come in but are not installed yet. But I like the color and style a lot.

I also cleaned the upstairs loft.

We framed in the unsightly windows that were in the most inconvenient spots and were very weird shapes and would have cost me an arm and a leg to buy. The top two are in the knee wall upstairs where the AC units are... don't ask! Dumb!

Lastly, I have been tearing off the floor of the sunporch that we tore off a while back. I am half way finished and should get this project completed by this weekend.