What a week!

Here is the pipe laid for the kitchen.


This is the pipe laid in the bathroom for the sink, toilet and tub.


This is the old pipe that was our exsisting sewer


Well, what a busy week. I guess I should whine more often because the plumber called Wednesday night and they started on thursday. They were in on saturday and are finishing up today. They had to dig a low more dirt out for the trenches for the pipe and the new clean out. So Jason and b-i-l Mike were in today to start moving some of that dirt out. We think we have decided that the floor concrete will be done by hand (mixer) rather than a big truck because of the thickness we want. Jason seems to think it will be more manageable that way. He's the concrete guy - so it's his decision. He also figures it will cost less but take a couple of days. At least we are getting there...we all figure once the floor is in things will beging to move faster because we aren't waiting for other people, we have the control back ;o)
On an aside the girls and I were to Girl Guide camp this past weekend and had a great time. The weather was awesome and nobody went home in the middle of the night! I think that is the first time that has happened. But two nights in a tent and a lot of getting up to take kids for bathroom runs took its toll on this old lady, when we got home sunday I was beat. I was glad the I 'had' to sleep during the day to get ready for work monday night.

Here is the gang!

OK......

I suck at waiting. Where is the plumber! Also wouldn't mind seeing the electrician so the other window can go in (power box and mast on front of house has to be moved).

Dining Room Light

Well, we're still waiting on the plumber so not much new to report. Some of the rocks in the foundation were out a little far at the base so we chiseled a bit of that away and put in a couple more steel posts that we had left over. On another note my dining room light arrived today and I think it's gorgeous. Not to everyone's taste - but they don't live here do they ;o)

Gravel Gravel everywhere...

The weeping tile is all in place and the front two rooms have gravel in them. Jason ran chalk and level lines all over the place to mark the level for the gravel. I was kind of shocked at how much gravel is coming into the house, it seems like we are losing a lot of our height. I guess I have to wait and see the whole space with gravel in it....it's amazing how much variation in height there is in the ceilings and floors. I guess that goes with an old house that was built in two halves by two different guys!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, what a difference a couple hours and some jumping up and down do - there is less gravel and more hope for a higher ceiling. Guess the old saying "If mama isn't happy - ain't nobody happy"....nobody wants to mess with the mama.

Waiting Game

Not too much going on right now that is exciting, we are waiting on the plumber. Jason is finishing repointing the foundtion walls. There were some pretty good gaps at the top of the walls on the west end of the house so they are filled in now. No more access holes for critters.
We had to move some of the gravel because it was obstructing the sidewalk and the town didn't like that. So we had a young fellow bring some of it inside so it will be ready to spread. The weeping tile is ready to go in, the ditch is dug for it.
We spent the day today down at our trailer, getting it and the deck moved into their new spot. You can see pics of that adventure here

what pretty gravel!

The hole is gone and we've got gravel!

Jason finished filling in the hole in the foundation today, and we are in preparation for pouring the floor. We were able to get our weeping tile from a great friend of ours (thanks Cameron!) and we also had gravel delivered today. The plumber was here last night and he seems to think that all our plans are doable. Weeping tile around the perimeter of the foundation, to drain into the sewer. And the well will be filled with gravel and have its own drainage into the sewer and it will become part of the poured concrete floor. Hidden again for many more years to come. Jake dropped his hatchet down the well and figures he'll just leave it there for the next people to find! Right now we have a sump in the well that is keeping the water level under control.

Here is a pic of some of the rocks that were taken out of the floor while it was being dug. We hope to use them to make steps in the backyard as well as a retaining wall.

The Big Dig

So being a 'basement' floor of the house, the ceilings weren't as high as we would like them. The floor was dug down a foot by hand, into a bucket, into a truck and then dumped offsite. This took our nephew Jason less than a month and amazed us as well as others who have done the same thing and taken a LOT longer - What a worker. We started getting water at the back of the house and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Until one day Jason dug down where there is an indentation in the wall and lo and behold he found a well. Yup, a well, inside the house. We were not sure where that left us but after talking to people and calling the plumber it's going to be ok. We will fill it in with gravel and incorporate int into the weeping tile system. It's been quite a topic of conversation! And you know in all those horror movies it always had something to do with the well in the basement.

With floor dug down the place looked great - imagine what I'll think when its done ;o)

Foundation

The stone foundation is also in good shape. We have had it all wire brushed and repointed. There don't seem to be any leaks in it. We will be covering it all back up except for the face of the flue in the kitchen which we hope to incorporate as a 'backsplash' for our stove. We had to try and leave a bit of this beautiful stonework exposed.

Support

Like I said, we got off a lot luckier than we thought we would in the support dept. We want to keep the space as open as possible and we will be able to do this. Our main source of supports is a lot of steel posts down the centre of the house and on the inside of the flue. We were wanting to keep the foyer open, there used to be two doors and a post in the middle. So we had a steel cradle made for the front beam and put steel posts on either side of it. It is working so far ;o)

We also poured a new door sill for the posts to rest on because the exsisting one was cracked.

The beams in this house are amazing and in great shape. They certainly don't build houses like this anymore.

The Demo

One of the best parts of this reno has been the demo. When we began there was a bachelor apartment on the left side of the house and the right side was used for storage. We began one saturday morning in February and it took almost a month to complete. I don't even know how many trips to the dump or how many pounds of plaster. We didn't know if the house was going to say ahhhhhh, thanks for getting that weight off me, or ahhhhhh! don't take that out - it's holding me up!

The kids got in on the demo too, we gave them hammers and crowbars and let them go to it. They were able to take down a lot of the gyproc in the old living room. There were about 7 layers of 'wall' until we got to the actual foundation. Gyproc, chip board, cardboard, newspaper, plaster, lath, barn board.

The top picture is of a whole in the foundation in the back of the left hand side of the house. Apparently there was an annex on that side of the house and this was the doorway into it, when they took it down they just covered it over with boards and this is how we found it. At the top we could see the deck in the back yard. We are almost done with cementing it back in.

When we completed the demo all that was left in there were the 2 stone flues and the staircase to the second floor.

Next we had an engineer come in and assess our structure which surprisingly was in great shape. We are going to be able to move on with just one exposed post and the rest will be in the walls.

The Plans

So here is the basic floor plan, we reserve the right to change the placement of things at any given time. This happens frequently! The top one is where we are living currently, it will become all bedroom and existing bathroom. Our present kitchen will be turned back into a hallway/den and we will open up the stairs to the thrid floor again.

On the first floor (where all the action is) you come in off the street and there will be a foyer, and steps down into the living room (left side) and dining room (right side), we need the steps down in because we have lowered the floor by another foot so that we can have higher ceilings. Our nephew Jason dug it all out by hand in less than a month, carrying all the dirt out by bucket. To quote him "If I ever see a shovel again, I'll hit them over the head with it"

Anyways as you can see, there will be an L shaped living room and bathroom on the left side of the house and dining room and kitchen on the right. The two rectangles in the centre of each half of the house are flues/chimneys that are 4x6' and go right up through the house. They create some wasted space but are likely what is helping hold the house up.

Intro

Ok, we've taken on a huge, I mean HUGE project here. We are completely gutting the first floor of our house and rebuilding from the outside in. I hope to document our journey here. We actually started in February and have done a fair amount to date but have a long way to go yet. Our goal is to be done in October. So far it seems doable although if we have to keep waiting for trades to come and do their work, we could be looking at years (LOL).
We plan to put a living room, dining room, bathroom and kitchen on that floor and make bedrooms of the floor that we are living on now. This will more than double our living space and give us the room we need with two tweenage girls, who are desperate for their own bedrooms!
So stay tuned, I will add pictures and commentary as we go.

A little history on this house, from what we know from documentation at the Hector Exhibit Centre the house was built in 1837. It was actually built in 2 halves by two sea captains and was owned in halves until the MacKenzie's bought it as a whole in the 1940's. The 'halfness' of the house is apparent in the foundation stones of the house, one side is done quite a bit neatly than the other.

It is a large home that has been cut into different rooms over the years, walls removed, replaced etc. Our plan during this reno is to try and take her back to her former glory and replace support that is missing. The beams are in incredible shape, many have commented that they are as good as the day they were put there. The main beam for the house on the first floor is about 18' square. They are all rough hewn and beautiful. The actual floor on the first floor is still dirt, there was one 1/4 that was concrete but we removed it and are getting ready to pour a proper LEVEL floor.

As the house is now, no one was living on the first floor, we inhabit the 2nd and my in laws are on the 3rd. There is also a full attic too. A lot of the reason for doing this project is so that the inlaws can stay living in their home and we can have more space to be here with them!