Puzzlefloor

This is pretty neat flooring. I don't know how much fun it would be to clean pet hair and food particles out from between the pieces, but at $15 a sqare foot, who can resist finding out? www.puzzlefloor.com

Foundation poured

There it is. All dry. Ready for the slab to be poured next.

Inspection passed

The inspector gave the go ahead to begin pouring concrete; I'll post pictures of that later.

Plumbed

The plumber has installed what he needed to before the concrete gets poured on Friday. You can also sort of see the grid of rebar that Kevin and Javier built to tie the existing foundation into the new one. The inspector comes today to make sure all is proper before the foundation goes in.

Beatrix

My wife yelled at me (justly) for failing to mention this on the blog: she delivered our wonderful baby girl, Beatrix, just before midnight on Thursday!

Heat shield

After the stucco was removed (along with the back porch) the sun really started heating up the back rooms. To combat this, Kevin (the site foreman along with J.D.) put up some foam panels. It works like a charm.

Rebar

Day 5
More reinforcing today. They started adding rebar in the trenches as well. There should be a plumber in the next day or two to put the pipes in there before the cement gets poured.

We met with James (the architect) yesterday, which was fun. I think we'll have to pick out the color of our concrete floor soon. This will run down the hallway to the stairs, in the studio, the little downstairs bathroom, and the back bedroom. They mix color into the concrete, so you can't change it later. Oh, the pressure!

I was nervous about the concrete floor until I happened to see it in my friend's kitchen. It was a very warm yellow, and she loves it.

Reinforcement

Days 3 and 4

Dirt. I'm not a neat freak or anything, but whoah! Dirt everywhere. In piles. Tracked through the house. Coating the driveway. It's hard when you're a nesting pregnant woman!

Also, I have to give this crew credit. I thought construction types usually finished around 3:30, but here it is 5:40 on Friday and they're still working. I really hope they get overtime.

They're reinforcing the trenches with boards. I'm not sure if they planned on doing this, but JP heard something about the dirt being really soft. I think they're going to try and pour concrete (cement?) on Monday, and then get the inspector here. Things seem to be moving so fast! (Remind me of this in about 120 days or so...)

Trenched

Day 2
Okay, so I guess technically this is Day 3 (but I'm sticking with 2 b/c all they did on the actual day 2 was put up a chain link fence and drop off a port-a-potty).

Today we had both a Bobcat and a little digger here. They got rid of the grass and laid out and dug the foundation. It's weird to see the trenches for the foundation -- it doesn't seem as huge as I was imagining, which is a good thing. No McMansions here, please!

One of my friends who's gone through an addition claims that demo, framing and roofing are the loudest parts. So hopefully framing will begin soon -- the sooner to get it over with.

I thought the loss of our backyard would be tragic, but my son is so into the machines that so far it hasn't mattered. He spent some time this evening running around in the trenches.

Will we see a cement mixer tomorrow?? Stay tuned.

p.s. We have a bunch of rebar in our front yard if anyone's interested...

Day of destruction, pt. 2

(Erin posting this one):
Good things about construction starting:
-- We broke ground before my water broke. Whoo-hoo!
-- A Bobcat going up and down the driveway is pretty entertaining for a 2 y.o.
-- They got so much done! Check out the photos. I was really impressed.

Bad things:
-- At 7:15 one of the workers asked to use our bathroom. Grrrrr.
-- It was SO loud. As in earth-shattering, wall-shaking loud. I'm hoping it's not quite so bad once demo is over. I feel really bad for our neighbors. Unfortunately, there's usually someone home on both sides of us. We might have to ply them with Porto's Bakery goods this weekend to sweeten things up.
-- Our phone stopped working about an hour in, and was out all day. Ooops. I do have a cell phone, of course, but reception sucks inside our house so it isn't super-useful.

They are ahead of schedule (yeah, I know it's only been a day, but I'm optimistic!), so we'll have a couple days off (good for neighbor relations). At the end of the week they'll be marking for the foundation, and on Monday they should be digging trenches. Or pouring concrete. Or something like that. Stay tuned...

Day of destruction

They rolled a Bobcat digger down our driveway this morning. It had a mean looking jackhammer thing stuck in its maw, so I knew it meant business. They're going to take out the back porch and the two sheds behind the garage.
Also, it turns out that a guy chipping the stucco off your back wall with a power tool at eight in the morning is every bit as loud as you might expect.