Floored

We have floor. We still have no walls, but now we have floors.


Beautiful flat floor.


Hole to China sealed up.


No more moat. Poor alligators.

Schlumpy

It's been a month now, and the weather is colder than Illinois. Water everywhere. Actually, water everywhere EXCEPT my bathroom. It's been a month now, the end of the tunnel is soooooo far away. Sleep upstairs. Pee downstairs. Microwave downstairs. Eat upstairs. If I can pee while waiting for the microwave, then I feel very efficient.


This is my entertainment center. So sad.


The new water heater is hung, but not hooked up yet. This is supposed to be super energy efficient and halve my gas bill. Which will go from $9 to $4.50. Woo Hoo! So that means it'll pay for the additional upfront cost 12 years from now.


And this giant clunker gets tossed away.


This contraption holds up the second floor above old kitchen area so poles won't get in the way when they pour the new floor over the old one. I'm very proud that I figured this out all by myself.


They had to redo the formwork for the foundation because of all the rain. The soil caved in from all the rain. 7 inches yesterday. 11 inches in 6 hours last week. The stop lights are still flashing red today. Kind of a mess in the neighborhood right now. But I'm getting lots of compost making material that washed down from the trees.


The outside staircase will get it's own footing.


They spent a lot of time this morning digging out the dirt that collapsed into the moat. It's all schlumpy.

Poles positioned

They installed the steel beams yesterday. I watched them the entire day. It was better than watching those home improvement shows on television. The electricity to the bathroom is off, so I do my business in the dark. And I scheduled a shower today for during the day, with the bathroom door to the outside open for all to see. Oh my.

With all the rain that deluged us last week, the skunks are out in force this week. I can smell them. I really wish I had walls. I'm going to ask Santa Claus for walls this year.


Brand new shiny water heater in a box. It's supposed to supply the entire house, but fit in an itty-bitty space. Small and freakishly powerful. Like me! :-)


Steel pole will get embedded in more concrete soon.


Beam made in USA. Pole made in China. See, I told you the hole was going to China.


As soon as they attach the floor joists to the beam, the temporary supports will go away.


The entire weight of the second floor and roof will be transfered to the new steel beams and poles.


Little hydraulic lifts. They look like little beer kegs. They're currently holding up the outside wall to the second floor. Not very well, I might add. Probably because they look like beer kegs. Oddly appropriate though.

Over 10 inches of moistness

Ginormous rain storm yesterday. Telephone line and internet went kapoot. Delayed updates until tonight. With the shortage of walls currently, the moisture is causing all the doors to expand and stick. But at least this solves the humidifier problem this year.

Is the entire world traipsing through my house now? In addition to the usual gaggle of plumbers, framers, electricians, and architects, the nearby Waldorf School 3rd graders are using the house as their class project about shelter. And now, the County of Los Angeles Department of Agricultural Commisioner and Weights and Measures is using my orange trees to monitor infestations of "harmful exotic invasive insects."


I was standing right on the other side when they started sawing the beams away. It was like in the cartoons where they cut a hole in the floor and Daffy Duck falls through it.


Concrete! Finally, there is stuff being ADDED to the house instead of SUBTRACTED.


Big ugly pipes are gone.


Here they went.


This seems to be the pipe where they'll run the electrical to the new sub-panel. But I could be wrong.


Pool, overflowing with abundance.


Rusty sink is gone.


Should I be worried that I caught my sink showing together with the toilet?

Pleasantly surprised

Due to today's rainy weather, I thought no work would be done today. Glad I was wrong. I brought home my stash of frozen coffee grounds to add to the compost bin. (Yes Nancy, I am compost obsessed. But that's not news to anyone.) On the way to the bin, I noticed all the construction debris and trash were hauled away. Clean again. Wow.

And then, while retreating to my room with a beer, tub of southwest salad, and 2 spinach and black bean tamales, I discovered......


My bathroom floor is gone!


Lo and behold! Where did all the tile go?


And not only that, underneath all the tile lurked GREEN linoleum to match the banana leaf wallpaper. There was quite an obsession with green in this bathroom. Very atavistic. (I learned a new word yesterday, and I've been dying to use it. )

I shredded a giant trash bag full of paper tonight. Very theraputic to shred pieces of my past to recycle into mulch in the compost bins. OK, I'm mulch obessed. I admit it.

The Soil, Compost, and Mulch Forum

Hit me like a ton of bricks

Embryonic bricks that is. Or "dirt."

Moved around a ton of dirt over the weekend. Terracing the yard. So much destruction.

35 trips with the wheel barrow
x
60 pounds of dirt per load
=
2100 pounds of dirt moved around in the back yard

It's raining this week. I'm estimating zero progress at the house in the near future.

Shopping efficiency

Grocery shopping for absentee kitchen, down to a science

1. 3 days worth of refridgerated prepared foods- in single meal portions with own container, included utensil a bonus
2. Frozen items must be single serving*, microwave-able, have it's own container
3. Snacks and dry foods must be in resealable bags or individually wrapped
4. Beverages in screw capped containers or small bottles
5. No fresh produce
6. No meats or fish
7. No eggs
8. Ramen and instant soups must have it's own bowl, or fit into disposable microwavable cups
9. Eat fruits at the office, not at home
10. Lots of booze to drown out the stress- large bottles OK**

*Davy serving = 2-3 normal servings
*Davy booze serving = 2-3 normal servings

Nothing

No progress today. Inspector left a notice yesterday that nobody was here to let them in. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And the water heater shut off this morning. It's only week 2. I'm not sure I can stand another 6 months.

Hole in ground hole in pocket.

I was right. Big Big checks. Need to redo electrical. Need to redo plumbing. All from scratch. This hurts.

I'm having a tough time. Home used to be my release. It balanced out all the crap that happens at work during the day. Now what's left of my sanctuary is itself adding to the stress.


Little blue holders for foundation bolts. These are really cute in person. I'm currently grokking on them. I dig them.


Another hole. This one will be home to the concrete pads that hold up the outside staircase. I'm assuming the trench may be for the new electrical work also. Over budget. I'm scared.


The piles of dirt keep growing. To think, just last month, I was scrounging for extra dirt for the garden.

Omen

Not much progress today. I think this means I'm going to be writing a big painful check soon.


Steel mesh for kitchen floor. It's for show really, since the kitchen drain hasn't been put in yet. But I'm relatively happy that the house will be built like Fort Knox. Scary Spooky. Insert creepy omen music here. There's some dollar signs in the future.

See through nightie

House is being buttoned up now. Plastic is better than air. Not as good as walls. This waking up early is taking a toll on me. And I'm getting stir-crazy being confined to a single room.


Pile of sand. Or portapotty for cats.


Sealed for your protection.


I have a wall! I have a wall! OK, it's on it's side on the ground, but there's a wall!


The wall will get surgically attached to the foundation.


Little steel zits. Will help the new kitchen concrete floor to stick to the old kitchen concrete floor.

Bars

It appears that we need to rewire most of the house. We'll see. Meanwhile, with the electricity off to most of the property, I expect the pool to be haven for mosquitos and algae soon. So much progress, but still so far away from completion. I did stock up on assorted instant-noodles-in-a-bowls. Maybe the preservatives I've been eating will keep me warm for the winter.


Where's the first floor? The formwork and rebar for the new foundation are going in. Good bye moat. Gosh, I almost put in an order for alligators to live in the moat. Oh well, the alligators can live in the mosquito infested pool.


Putting bars into the house. But not the booze kind. Hhhmmm... maybe I'll put in a tiki bar outside.


The back wall of the first floor is gone! If I was going to amthropomorphicize the house, it'd be mooning you with it's wide ass.


Mr. Beaston, I'm tearing out everything you did in your remodel. I wonder if you are still alive.


The hole to China now has a metal grate. Immigration to the United States is so hard these days.

CSI

I'm now using the trunk of my car as storage space. Damn that Costco habit is hard to break. Half of the electricity in the house is turned off. I came home when it was dark last night and nearly fell into the ditch. I should remember to take a flashlight with me at all times. I just talked to Stephane, so I'm writing this with a French accent, but that's not coming through on the internet.


The walls are gone, but I still walk around in my underwear.


The first floor is gone. Doesn't it look like a crime scene? CSI was going to film an episode at my house last month, but it fell through. Oh well. Maybe next season.


More holes in the ground. This is to connect a drain line for the kitchen sink's new home.

Holes

A missed meeting with the architects today. Email miscommunication. It's hard for me to fathom that many businesses still function without checking email for days. We would totally go Lord of the Flies if separated from email more than 15 minutes. I'm not sure if that's better. But I'm punishing the architects by making the next meeting at my house on a Friday late afternoon. Fondue for dinner at Fatty's. I'm so happy it wasn't microwaved. I miss food. Real food.


There's a giant hole in the middle of the living room.


The wood beam is gone. Told ya so.


The ditch that will eventually form the foundation for the addition.

Tons and tons and tons

It's been less than a week since demolition began, and I'm suffering. Today's dinner was microwave Kraft macaroni and cheese, and microwavable Campbells soup. I didn't realize how well I ate when I had the kitchen. Processed foods. Yeeeech.


Large dumpster has been replaced with mini-me version. At least I can see the house from the street now. And the other dumpster was completely FULL.


Tons and tons and tons and tons of concrete. All headed towards concrete heaven.


Temporary wall will hold up the second floor while the wooden beam gets replaced by new fangled steel.


They removed the plywood subfloor in the kitchen to discover..... a concrete floor underneath.


Patio, balcony, and staircase all gone. This dirt will soon have a second life in landscaping the back yard.