Monthly Archives: December 2011
Home Renovation, foundation
| December 28, 2011 | Posted by matt under home |
One part of our renovation that we will see very little of is the new crawlspace. The old sun room had sat on a concrete slab, and was quite cold in the winter. The new addition all will sit on a new foundation with a crawlspace complete with a second sump pump, drain tile, and a slushed floor. The old crawl space under the house also received a new slush coat, making it much easier to store items and move around versus the old gravel floor. It should also cut down on the amount of moisture in the basement. Access to the new area is through a hole cut in the south foundation wall of the dining room.
Here are the molds to the new foundation walls. The hole in the existing foundation wall is seen boarded up.
Here is the finished foundation and crawl space after the molds were removed. This is looking over the family room and towards the dining area and mud room. The floor is finished with a slush coat of concrete.
Here is the foundation seen when looking towards the kitchen. You can see the old retaining wall which is now going to just sit in the crawlspace protruding from the floor.
The existing crawl space was slushed with a coat of concrete, here is what it looked lik with the vapor barrier before the concrete was poured.
And here it is after the slush coat. This will be much easier to move around in and store things in plastic bins.
Home Renovation, demolition
| December 20, 2011 | Posted by matt under home |
Before you can build something up, you have to tear it down. The first step in our remodeling was the demolition. The sunroom on the back of the house had to come down first, revealing the concrete pad that it sat on.
We had a large concrete patio as well as the concrete slab from the sunroom that had to come up. After the patio was removed, it was revealed that there was a retaining wall for an old underground garage entry at the rear of the house. Our lower level (a half basement) used to be an underground garage, similar to other homes on the block. Everyone has since filled in their driveways and built garages on the alley, but the retaining wall needed to be partially removed for new foundation wall. This was a change order, but not too expensive considering the amount of work needed to remove the wall to the depth of the frost protection.
At this point, the necessary excavation for the crawl space had been completed. This work took place in the first two weeks of November.
Once the space for the foundation was cleared, the footings were poured. The foundation is starting to take shape.
Home Renovation, intro
| December 11, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
Laura and I bought our house in 2002. When we bought it, we knew it was going to need a little work – mainly paint and a new kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Following the advice of our realtor, we decided to live there for six months before doing anything besides cosmetic work. We renovated the kitchen with a general contractor who subcontracted out plumbing and electrical work for a six week project. That project went very well, and we’ve been happy with the work. I also renovated the basement, putting in a new bathroom and a new ceiling with all new electrical.
We’ve now lived in our house for 8 1/2 years and we have realized it’s time to consider some more work. The house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath split-level built in 1950. There is an entry area, living room and adjoining dining room, kitchen with eating area, sun room, downstairs family room with a bathroom and laundry area, and three bedrooms with a shared bathroom. The house comes in at about 1700 square feet. The space is enough for us, but there are multiple areas that need improvement.
- The rear entry of the house has nowhere to place clothes and shoes, and ends up being a big mess
- The sun room has poor electrical with only one outlet, very little insulation, and is built on a slab instead of crawl space. The room is too cold to use regularly in the winter, and has no walls for placing furniture against. It also has two large picture windows that have leaked and are are impossible to see through due to cloudiness.
- The siding on the house is in some disrepair and we would like to change the color.
- The roof has only about one or two years left on it, and we would like to change the color.
- There is no first floor bathroom.
- We would like to have a master bathroom attached to our bedroom, and there is no room to add one on our current bedroom.
- Front of the house, before the project started
And here’s a shaky home video of the back of the house.
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