Let's Raise the Roof!

This was the big weekend of lifting the eat-in area of the kitchen among other smaller jobs. Wouldn't you know it, the forecast was rain all day. For once the weatherman had it nailed, it rained all day off-and-on. Don't worry though, it only rained sheets of rain when we wanted to be outside, so that was nice.

We began the morning strong and fast - at 7:30 with my brother beneath the kitchen eat-in area (which I'll refer to as the "nook") digging out footings for the temporary footings for the jacks and supports that would hold the nook until we can remove the existing brick and rebuild the foundation walls. Then the rains hit. Ugh, it was a messy day. Not only messy, but it was also muggy in the house no matter how many windows were open. Sean kept at it and just after lunch we were ready to lift the house the first time. Oh wait, we hadn't secured the base of the nook at the house TO the house (as it hadn't been done originally in the 20's either). Needless to say we had to stop progress to do so and that meant sending someone to the store for the hardware.

Sean's handiwork from afar/Up close it's a bit scary


At the same time, we were trying to lay down more subfloor for the kitchen, master bath and laundry room on the second floor. While also creating a new bathroom on the first floor in the place of the existing 'water closet'. Many jobs, unfortunately most of them were in the same area of the house, meaning that we were all on top of each other. Muggy conditions, lack of great planning on my part and stop-and-go progress made for a long day.

we finally got to the point of lifting the nook and got it supported on temporary stilts enough to tear away brick and look at the foundation. We also got all of the subfloor on the second floor in place and most of the kitchen subfloor as well. We cut the basement floor for installation of the new plumbing and started to dig the trench. We also built the frames for the walls for the first floor bathroom, but still need to install and anchor them to the basement floor so they're secure. All was done smoothly and we were out of the house by 10:15 p.m. Many thanks to those who worked and a special shout out to Sean, Matt S., Jane M., and Angela for "closing it down" Saturday and staying SO late. I'm sure we ALL slept very well that night.

I'm hoping to do more work throughout this week during the evenings, so hopefully I'll have quite a bit more progress to report in the next entry. Take care and God bless.