More Pictures

The new bobcat path to the basement. The biggest piles of dirt are already gone. Only the smidge under the pressure tank is left.
The same wall from the inside. There's a geology lesson in this photo somewhere.
Under the dining room and bedroom. That pipe hanging down was cut off to make room for a house-lifting beam. All the plumbing has been hacked apart, which is why we need the plumber to come out tomorrow.
Looking up at the back door. The sill is rotten and is being replaced. Other than that, I just tho't it was a cool picture.
Close-up of the wall by the back door. I think this house's had a few mice in its day, don't you?

Down!

I loaded up the kids and drove out to the house at 9:30 this morning, and the house had already been put down. They said it would go faster coming down than going up, and they were right. I did get some video of the mover guys pulling a beam out of the house with a bobcat:

These guys are incredible! I can't believe how they maneuver the huge beams with a li'l bobcat, and don't hit anything (like our new walls).

It's so exciting to have the house down again! It looks higher off of the ground than it was before, but I think after all the backfill and topsoil goes in, it'll be close to where it was. We'll have to wait and see how many steps they need to build to the door! I'm hoping to get back out there this afternoon to get photos of the inside, and to see if the excavator shows up to scoop the last of the dirt out. In my dream world the plumber will be there, too, so we can move in next week, but I'm not holding my breath.

The big pile of sand is gone, so it's easier to see into the hole in the wall for removing dirt. It already looks darker down there. After the dirt comes out, the gravel goes in, and then the wall can be closed up. Then they can pour the floor, although I think the plumber has to do a few things first. That is why I have a contractor, to keep track of who needs to be where when. He's a great guy; he was at the house all weekend with his bobcat driver (his dad) filling and fixing. Yup, I said Weekend.

Ready To Drop

All the interior walls have been cross-braced to hold them in place during the house "drop". Our contractor came out on Saturday and did a little backfilling and clean-up. We walked thru the basement with him and made plans for how and where the bathroom will be roughed in, how the plumbing will be re-connected, and how the rooms will lay out. We'll end up with a storage room under the back porch that I didn't think would be accessible, which is cool. We're going from absolutely no basement storage to more than we planned on! The house movers are definitely coming on Monday to drop the house onto the new foundation. At least, that's the plan. Crossing my fingers!

Walls

The sill plate is on and the walls are going up. Thrilling stuff, isn't it? Not really. I'm antsy for the house to come back down. It's been 3 weeks. School starts in 2. Enough already.

Progress is Progress

Progress feels slow lately, but I'm learning to be patient while waiting for things to dry. The waterproofing went on today, and the lumber for the interior has arrived, so hopefully tomorrow walls will go up. The waterproofing should be called Black Goo, but as long as it works, I'll be happy.

Getting There

Ta Da! 12 courses high all the way around the house! These photos are from 6:30 last night, so they made a lot of progress after lunch yesterday. The walls even have a skim coat on them. Done! Now we can put the house down and move back in, right?? Well, not exactly. First, interior load-bearing walls need to be put up under parts of the house, specifically every addition made to the original house, and there are a lot of them! Every line of bricks on the floor in the second photo marks an addition to the original 1870 house, which may have been moved from across the road by E.P. Ring himself. No, it isn't a log cabin. The original farmhouse appears to have been two rooms: the dining room and the front bedroom, along with the room upstairs (this explains why the house had an extra set of stairs off the dining room, and why they were so tiny!) The room that is now the kitchen looks like it was added as a porch, and later enclosed, which would explain why it's 8 feet wide and 30 feet long. The other wing of the house was also added later, although turned out to be the center of the house, 'cuz they just kept adding!
If we use the second photo as a "map", the front porch is the first outline almost hidden by the front wall, followed by the main house, then the kitchen, and then the back porch. One more wall will run perpendicular to these, under the wall between the dining and living rooms. Of course, there's a large pile of dirt in the way, so that will have to wait. It looks like a mouse-maze of small rooms (wait, this basement is supposed to be Mouse Free!), but remember that the house is 45 feet by 30 feet, so there'll be plenty of room.
After the walls are installed, the house can come down. Then the cribbing and beams will come out.
Then all the dirt.
Then the last of the drain tile and gravel laid down.
Then the load-bearing interior wall.
Then all the "beam-holes" will need to be filled in.
Then the last wall will be put up.
Then the plumbing needs to be re-connected.
Oh, and the electricity.
Hmmm...I don't think we'll be back in the house for a while.

All The Way Around

Hooray! The walls are up all the way around, 7 courses high. Our contractor brought in extra bodies to get it done. He said the sooner the house comes back down, the better he'll sleep at night. 5 courses to go!
Isn't it pretty?

The opening for dirt removal. The egress window will go here.

The walls are 2/3 of their final height. The dirt on the right is still at the height of the original basement floor. The new back porch is straight ahead. The stairs will come down along the right side of the wall.