A Strong Foundation

These days, a call from Rob DeChant, our contractor, is quick to divert my attention from any task at hand.  It may be time to choose exterior colors or put in our window order or write another check ;).  Today, his message was to let me know that the new foundation to our home is being poured at this moment.  Some couples, he said, like to bury something sentimental in the piers.  Tonight, Rob and I will think about what that sentimental something may be.

tree leaning on house

It's hard to believe that the foundation to the home where our children (hopefully) will take their first steps is being poured at this moment.  It was a year and a half ago when we tore down the old (and poorly built) addition to the house and updated the original structure's foundation.  It's been a year since I packed up the house and we thought we may be moving out any day and getting started on the project.  I can hardly contain my excitement.  The below photos show the staging of demolition and foundation work over the last year and a half

addition to original structure

corner porch

graffiti closet

The original structure of our house was built in 1928.  Decades later (maybe in the 70s?) the second owners added on a living room and second bedroom.  The addition did not stand the test of time.  A tree had grown into the roof, the wall under the window unit was rotting, and the floor sloped as you walked toward the back of the house.

second bedroom

When we bought the house we knew that the foundation would eventually need updating.  We also knew that it was best to update the foundation before making significant changes to the interior structure because the process of putting in new piers would level, and therefore shift the walls of, the house.  Well, we just couldn't wait to update the bathroom (I'll post on the bathroom process separately...) but we pretty much saved any other major renovations until now.
Our original plan was to renovate our home in stages, building an addition and moving into that addition and then renovating the original structure.  To save money, we decided to tear off the existing addition before we updated the foundation to the original structure.  We moved all of the furniture and other items from the living room and second bedroom into our dining room. Rob strategically stacked everything, knowing we wouldn't be able to get to it very easily for the months to come.

the addition comes down

Our back wall for 2 nights!

We sat and had a beer and marveled at the first major steps toward a new home.

Addition? What addition?

And over only one weekend with the hard work of one young man, the addition was demolished, hauled off, and the back wall was rebuilt and the siding put back up.  It was time to get bids on the foundation!