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.

Wall Progress

One wall is now 7 courses high, and more corners are up. Wet weather makes for slow progress, but some of the piles of debris are actually smaller today, so they're doing what they can. I don't think they'll be done on Friday, though, unless The Flash is on their crew.

The Block

The block and mortar arrived this morning. The walls are going to go up first, then the house will come back down and the rest of the dirt will be scooped out. This afternoon they had one half-wall finished. The weather has gotten cooler and rainier, although the last few storms have missed us and gone to The Cities. They can take them for the next few days, I need dry, wall-building weather! The boys are much more impressed with the mountains of dirt in the yard. I think they'll miss them when they're gone.

Bobcat Found Under House

Well, it's been raining all morning, so I wasn't expecting much at the house, but I found one guy out there filling in between the footings with gravel and getting ready to lay the drain tile. Nothing too dramatic, but it's progress. I tho't you'd like to watch the bobcat drive under the house:
It's fair week this week, so we're off to eat too much, see the winning quilts and watch the human cannonball. Then we'll go back again tomorrow.

Concrete Operational Thought

They framed up the footings today. I got out to the house after lunch, and the forms were all set, the building inspector was there, and they were all waiting for the cement mixer. I'm thinking that being a building inspector has got to be a pretty good gig, 'cuz he was standing around shooting the breeze with the other guys the whole time I was there. Of course, around here everyone knows everyone, so they had plenty to talk about. They were probably related, for all I know. Jordan fell asleep in the car, so I took the kids home and came back two hours later, and the footings were poured! I had to include a photo of the well-decorated mixer (Go Twins!). All the rooms are laid out, including the window well for the egress. The next step is a little more complicated. Either the house movers will come out tomorrow and move the cribbing (put up four new stacks, then take down the old ones) so they can dig out the rest of the dirt, or they'll start building the block walls tomorrow and leave an opening. Then they'll set the house down, and remove the dirt through the opening after the cribbing is removed. It seems to make no difference to the concrete guys, but there is a LOT of dirt left. Either way, they won't pour the floor until the drain tile is in and the walls are done. So if you want to bury a time capsule under my house, now is the time! We kept hoping we would find the long-lost family fortune under there, but all we found so far is a hat. As for the last photo here, I really hope that guy gets his hammer back.