Working on river house today

Dave got up early with the kids and let me sleep in til 8:45 am. What a treat! We got breakfast going and as soon as that was over, we loaded the van full of supplies necessary to continue sealing/painting the new cinder block foundation on the river house. We brought along the kids trikes and a stroller too. We packed lunches knowing we would get hungry later and wanted to avoid going out to eat. Dave even packed the folding table and chairs in the van so we would have a place to eat instead of sitting on the floor, which hurts after awhile. Dave got to work painting and I took the kids on a loooong walk on the trails. Violet was soo excited to get out on her trike and Calvin happily sat in the stroller, playing with rocks, sticks and flowers on his stroller tray. Violet was talking nonstop the whole time, fascinated by the trail. She was convinced we were going into a jungle! The birds were chirping, the frogs were croaking, and we could peer through some trees and see two horses grazing in a field near the trail. The weather was beautiful. Being on that old trail reminded me of the summers of 2006 and 2007 when I would go running a few times a week. Violet was captivated by the trails ups and downs, she would turn in circles as she waited for me to catch up on foot, and we made a point to stop at almost every bench along the way for a water break. We went about a mile and a half down the trail when I made the call to turn around, knowing that we had a long way to go back and she was starting to show signs of being tired and hungry. We went all the way back and an hour had passed since the beginning of the walk, so she definitely got some exercise. Dave made a goal of finishing up painting sealer on one wall so we waited for him to finish up before eating lunch. Violet and Calvin got busy in the sand, and they got SOOO dirty. Violet sat right in the sand and buried her entire legs and feet. Calvin of course, tried to copy her, but wasn't as successful. Either way, both of them were so filthy. We used the neighbor's hose to rinse off and then we ate lunch. Calvin was so crabby, he fussed about everything that was put in front of him, but with some persistence, Dave got him to finish his pears before he got to eat his PBJ. Violet snarfed down her pears (she ate three pear halves!) and her entire PBJ. The littlest things keep kids busy, it never ceases to amaze me. While Dave and I finished up our lunch, they became occupied with a pile of leaves, and ran back and forth from the edge of the deck to the pile of leaves with handfuls of leaves dumping them over the edge. They wanted to run around inside the house but we didn't let them. We got them home and in the bathtub in record time, and made a point to tell them no books since it was so late in the afternoon. Both of them crashed in bed for their naps at 2:30 and are actually still sleeping hard. It is 5:05 pm!! Dave went over to the house right after they went to bed and continued to paint. When they wake up we'll go back over there again but just for a walk this time - no playing in the sand.

Elevation complete on the river house

Elevation on the river house is now complete. There are a few more things to be done before it is marketable, but the majority of the grunt work is behind us. Well, maybe not. I guess this just seems like a big milestone! It was raised up 5 layers of brick, approximately 40 inches. The garage was cut wider and higher and we installed room for three big basement windows to add more light to the basement and cut up the huge wall of brick. We still need to install the windows, get a new garage door, and reconnect the plumbing and electrical. We are having Klunder Homes construct three new wood stair cases. I'm excited to see how nice it looks!!!

Progress on the river house

You can tell the brick work is well under way. We added three windows to the basement (the other two are on the east side not visible in the pic). The new, brighter brick on top is obviously new. Klunder Homes completed the wood work necessary this past week that had to be laid on top of the new brick before the house gets laid back down on the foundation. The house movers will begin lowering the house tomorrow morning. When the brick workers were working, we requested they make the garage door wider too, so now it is the standard width of a single garage. You can see the new steel I-beam that had to be put above the garage door. The yard is an enormous mess. There are piles of garbage, useless wooden gates, mortor piles, and extra brick just laying everywhere.

Just a few more pics of the house

River house is elevated!

Only half of the work is done to completion of this whole project, but the house is now completely elevated to the height it will be after the brick work is done. Wednesday the house movers elevated the house approximately 12 inches. Dave explained to me that it is a very slow process, involving 2 days of elevating. The steel I-beams are put in place, and a very strong hydraulic system is used to raise it up. They go up an inch, tweak and balance, and go up another inch, tweak and balance, go up another inch, etc. Thursday they finished the height of elevation and now the rest of the work will be completed by another masonry company who will build up the brick foundation. Then the house movers will "set" the house back down on top of the new foundation and take out the support beams. The brick people do all the "repair" work and patch up the brick holes that were busted out for the beams to be inserted. We went there yesterday to see the progress...its just crazy and amazing to stand inside the basement of our old house and see the sky and feel the wind at the same time. We both felt like we were in some kind of dream seeing the house "floating" above its foundation a good 40 inches. The brick people said they can start on Monday. We have a few decisions to make before they start: where to insert the new basement windows, the width and height of the garage door opening, and Dave has to build a few wood window frames. It will be a busy weekend! Some pics:

Elevating the river house

Today begins the work on 1726 Cottage Row Rd. The house movers are elevating the entire house up 40 inches. Prep work was done by them and us over the last few days. Dave removed all three wooden staircases from the house, he ripped off the garage door, and the house movers smashed huge holes in 8 spots (2 on each side of the house) in the cinder block foundation where the long red steel I-beams will enter the house. Its just crazy that this is happening! I drove over there this morning to look at the work, and with in a couple hours of working, they had all the steel beams in place. He said they'd have it raised up by the end of work day today or for sure by tomorrow morning. They are communicating with the brick people who are going to come in and lay the extra 40 inches of brick foundation so they can lay the house back down. I'll post pics later when the process is more complete.

"Big Mess" house

That's what we've always called the river house when we talk to our kids about it. Violet seems to be processing the information very accurately though. She talks about how the house got flooded, the water made a mess, and it the inside had to get torn apart. She some times still calls it "home" when we pull up there to look at it or do something there. The other day we were at Gateway Park and a little tiny house that had gotten flooded was in the process of being torn down by a big piece of machinery. Violet wanted our house to be torn down in the same fashion as this one they were watching being torn to the ground. Dave went over there today to open up some windows and air it out since cleaning the basement after the last flood a couple weeks ago. He noticed that two of the basement windows had been broken, and it had to have happened yesterday evening, because the windows weren't broken when he was there cleaning it out yesterday afternoon. That rattles us a little. Who would want to either vandalize the house or break in??? A lot of work needs to be done to that property. I want to host a cleaning party or something...the entire driveway needs to be power-washed, sticks and leaves need to be picked up all over the property, and the yard just needs some TLC. Since we plan to put it on the market and sell it after it gets elevated this week or next, we both want it looking its best.