Cement In

As promised the cement was poured today as you can see from the picture.The gas line is still there and I'm not to sure when this would need to be moved or how much it's going to cost.Talking with my brother today he seems to think that they can still work around the gas line for a bit still.And I'm not sure if we need to call the gas company or if our contractor does that,hopefully he will let us know either way.            

Here is just another picture of the forms with the cement in.So things are getting there and from what I have been told this is the slowest part of the process and once they start framing it things will really pick up.

You can see from this picture we are going to need some serious landscaping done after this is over.The picture doesn't do these ruts any justice,the are actually pretty deep. 

Took this picture just to show the massive sand pile that is almost taken over our son's playset.And that would our son who is behind the post there.

So with that you are all up to date and with tomorrow being a holiday that will put things on hold for one day.Hopefully they don't decide to take Friday off as well.I will keep you all posted.

New Week...New Hope!

I wanted to get a post on here yesterday but circumstances beyond my control turned a 6 hour car ride into 12 hours. So with the long car ride behind us we woke up this morning to find that the hole had some activity going on in it yesterday.They started putting in the forms so they could pour the cement.Cement pouring I was told was set to begin tomorrow, we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Here is a current picture of the hole and as you can see the forms are ready for the cement(tomorrow).As I said before let's keep our fingers crossed. Not that I don't trust our contractor but to me and I am by no means an expert,this to me seems like it would only take a few hours to do and not 2 whole days? Now keep in mind that I don't know anything about construction,and also keep in mind I am still suffering from frustration hangover from last week and lack of sleep as well. So maybe that is a 2 day job who knows? 

This was taken from the corner and the more I look at it the harder it is to believe this will be part of the house.Looking at it also reminds me that $75,000 really doesn't buy you much when it comes to home renovations.It would also be nice if I had any kind of carpentry skills at all but I don't.Not that I would try to tackle a project this size,working full time I just wouldn't have the time and I would probably end up on that show Disater D.Y.I.

What we have here is a picture of that footing that doesn't extend all the way across,like it should.You can see were the footing stops and the wall looks like it was just put on a pile of sand.This is not up to code because there is nothing there to carry the load of the new part of the house,thus the problem needs to be addressed. We all ready went over what was going to be done for this and hopefully nothing more will need to change

.

There you have it on the construction front.Money wise, my brother handed me a bill from the electrician for $594 and $450 of that was for labour(ouch!).I am definitely in the wrong business.Now with this last bill that brings up the total spent so far $17,587.Hard to tell at this point if we are on budget or not.Something tells me we are not,but that could just be the pessimist in me coming out.

A Whole Lot More Of Nothing!

As you can tell by the post title there is still nothing going on! Much to our disappointment things for some reason keep stoping! Now it's getting to the point were it is becoming frustrating.We have a new baby due to arrive in August and at the rate things are going,well let's just say that things will not even be close to being ready.

My wife is having the baby down south where her family is from, which is great for them because they don't have to drive all the way up here.Add to the fact we wouldn't have any place for them to stay.The plan was she would go down there, have the baby and then her and my son would spend a few weeks down there.I would come back up here(home) get the inside of the house ready and when it was finished I would go and pick them up and bring them back up here( home) to a new house.Now I'm thinking at the rate things are getting done around here the inside of the house probably will not be ready before my 6 year old son starts school! 

I was talking with my dad at lunch today and earlier that morning he was talking to a friend of the family who owned a construction business for years,he actually just retired earlier this year.He was also the one who did the original plans for the house for us free of charge which is always nice. He told my dad that, yes there are always issues that come up but the fact remains that these issues shouldn't take 2 or 3 or 4 days to resolve.And they shouldn't stop the job dead in it's tracks.Although in this case the job never really got started to begin with.The fact of the matter is the building inspector came over,looked at the problem,gave the contractor possible solutions,the contractor gave us our options,we told him what we wanted to do and now the job should be moving along.There is no need my dad was told by our contractor friend that the job should be stoped after the problem was discussed and a solution was agreed upon.

I really just hope by next week something happens.We are really getting tired of staring at that massive hole in the backyard not to mention the dirt and mud that is all over the place because of all the rain.We now have to use our front door to go in and out of the house because there is so much mud from all the sand in the driveway. I can't even park the car in the driveway!That's all the bitching I have for now.Don't worry I'm sure the way things are going there will be plenty more to come.

Here is hoping that next week is better!

Things At A Hault Again!!

Well, we were so hopeful the way the week started that the concrete would actually be filling the hole right now!

But it's not!

Here is the deal.....

The footings on the current foundation of the house do not extend all the way across to where the new part of the addition was going to tie in. So what has to happen now as we discussed with the contractor earlier tonight is that, instead of coming into the new entrance and either going down or up the stairs,there is now going to have to be a hallway leading to the stairs and then you go straight to go down the stairs or turn left to go up the stairs into a hallway leading to the bathroom and bedrooms.

Now with these changes the way it is going to be set up it's going to eat up some of the space in the bedroom upstairs.I know this is hard to picture but just try.

The other solution that would have kept the stairs in their original spot was to knock about 2 feet off of the existing kitchen space we have now.Which would make the kitchen even smaller than it is and plus the fact we would then have to redo the whole kitchen which is definitely not in the budget.We are trying to keep this as close to the $73,800 we were quoted at.Plus we still have to put a furnace in and all new duct work throughout the house which is going to cost us another $13,500.This due to the fact that our 30 year old furnace decided to crap out this winter, thank God it wasn't a cold winter.Plus all the duct work in our house is all rusted because there is so much moisture in the basement, so this means new duct work and we have to put in an air exchanger for moisture purposes.


So here we sit again waiting! Another problem is the fact that we spent about $1000 dollars to get these plans stamped and now things are changing, so that was pretty much money we wasted. I don't see the point of getting these plans stamp only because when the original plans are drawn up you can't plan for things like this.You don't know what things you are going to run into.So now every time something comes up I have to draw up a new plan bring it to the town office let them know what's going on. So this  $1000 we paid for these nice plans to be done and stamped are now worthless! To me it just seems like another money grab and believe me when it comes to home renovations that's all it seems to be! 

That pretty much sums up the day which turned out to be pretty disappointing, only because we were hoping that there would be some cement filling that hole in the backyard. Here is hoping for a better and more productive day tomorrow!

That's all for now!

Hole Pics And More.....As Promised

I woke up today with the rain pouring down figuring oh great this should hold things up.If it was me I defiantly would not be working in this type of weather,but that's just me.But too my surprise there they were the contractor,my brother, the electrician(who was not happy to be working in the rain)the hydro guys and 2 dump trucks.So it was a good day.The hole for the basement is dug out and the hydro meter was moved. Of course I have some pictures as promised.............

The first picture is of the trench that was dug through our driveway by my brother and his friend.This was dug by hand,and they busted up the driveway with a sledge hammer.Of course this is where they were putting the cable for the hydro meter.  Down below is the picture of the hydro meter in it's new place. 

There is unfortunately were the hydro meter had to go,it's not the most ideal spot but for cost purposes it had to go there.The job of moving it took them about 4 and a half hours, which will probably cost us about $500-600 in labor for the electrician who help my brother with the move.My brother had never moved a hydro meter before, so he needed to get someone who has to give him a hand.Which is fine by us because my brother is handling all the rest of the electrical work saving us a few thousand dollars.

Here we have a picture of the hydro panel that is now in our living room.Again not the most ideal spot but this again was a cost saving measure.The reason being that to put it anywhere else would have required more work from the electrician who was working with my brother.And at $110 an hour labor we couldn't afford to have him here anymore than he needed to be if it could be avoided. 

Here it is the hole.Actually this is what the hole looked like yesterday. Today it looks like......

this.As you can see the gas line still needs to be moved, but the chimney is down.   

Another picture of the hole and you can see where the hydro meter was and how deep the hole is.The problem with the hole is convincing our son that he doesn't really need to play in the hole and that he would probably have a hard time climbing out of it if he was in there. And below we have a picture of the big pile of dirt that now sits in our backyard. 

Of course convincing our son that he doesn't need to climb this has been a challenge as well.That's were things are right now in the construction and it's hard to believe that one day that hole(scrole back above if you don't remember the hole) will be part of our home, even though our son would love to get in it now!

Hole Update!

Just wanted to do a quick little update on what went on today...........


There is now a hole in the backyard.Yaaah!!! 

The bad news is the battery in the camera died(perfect timing) so I won't be able to get a picture until tomorrow.The hydro meter will be moved tomorrow by my brother who is doing all the electrical work in the house which is saving us a few thousand dollars...... thank God!! I would love to repay him somehow,hopefully one day I can. So yeah things are starting to move and I will post pictures of the beautiful hole that will one day be our basement......once the camera battery recharges.

Before Pictures Of The House........Part 2

As advertised I have some more pictures of the house before, of course I shouldn't really say before only because this is the way the house still looks(except for the garage being gone).Anyway for your viewing pleasure,

Here we have a view of from inside what was the garage looking into the breezeway. The garage was in bad shape,but I do miss it for barbecuing.

Speaking of barbecuing, there it is along with the old wood stove that was in our living room a few short years ago.I repainted the stove and sold it for $80. It was more than I expected to get for the stove I figured maybe around $50, but I'm glad it's just out of the way now.

Here is one more of the garage and as you can see the wood has shrunk over the years and separated. I think next we will move on to some of the house in the back where the addition will be added.

So here is a picture of the back of the house where the addition will be going.As you can see the chimney will be coming down,the hydro meter will be moved and so will the gas meter.The addition will be extending back from the existing house 16feet.The two windows you are looking at will obviously be gone as well.

A back/side picture with part of the garage in it.The doorway you see goes into the breezeway which will be turning into the new entrance of the house.

This is what scares my wife and I.This was part of the siding ripped up at the back of the house.What scares us is this siding was put on a long time ago and we are worried what nice surprises they will find when they tear off the old siding.We can only hope that the wood is in half decent shape as we can't afford any surprises.This house is old and has not had any new upgrades in years and that could mean trouble for us. 

Last but not least we have a picture of the house without the garage.We have had so many people come by and tell us that we have made the house look better with just taken down that old garage haha. That's it for now, but I do have a lot more pictures to come.

The Week That Was!

It's Sunday on what should have been the first week of construction.Ok, maybe nothing was going to be built this week,but we were at least expecting a hole in the ground.

We talked to the contractor on the Friday when they tore down the garage and he told us that he would need a gas meter locate to be done before they could start digging. Monday I came home for lunch and there was the gas guy doing the meter locate.Perfect I thought,things should be rolling soon.

Tuesday brought rain all day so I figured this would hold things up for sure.And it did.

Wednesday comes and still nothing! No contractor or sign of him at all.

Thursday rolls around,my wife informs me that the contractor poked his head in the backyard really quickly around 8am and that was the last we have seen of him. 

To top off this week of nothing going on, we had to dish out about $2000 out of our pocket to cover the cost of a furnace down payment($1000) the cost of electrical materials($600) and the cost to have the hydro disconnected and reconnected($391)what a RIP OFF!! I guess they have to make up the money they are going to lose while the hydro is off because we all know that the hydro companies are REALLY hurting!! Brutal!

What makes this whole thing worse is the fact that we can't actually use any of the money we do have for the renovations until the contractor completes a certain amount of work.It works like this.

Before the next amount of money can be released, the bank sends over an inspector to make sure a certain amount of work is completed.While this is a good thing in certain situations,when your dealing with a smaller independent contractor they don't have quite the budget, therefore they need more money up front which makes this not really that good for us.I say that because now we have to somehow front any money for all the little things that come up,like permits,flooring and such.Now this has created a situation were money is super tight.I even called the bank to see if we could have access to any cash at all,you can guess by this post what the answer was.

Next week promises to be better! I was told by my brother who was told by a friend who was talking to our contractor that he was going to start digging this Monday.Is it bad that we have to hear this from other people,or is it just me? 

I guess to us it doesn't really matter who says it,just as long as something happens next week!!

Before Pictures Of The House........Part 1

As promised I thought I would post some pics of the house,so you could have a look at the house before things get started.  This first pic is of a front view of the house that I took from the street.Note the really bad siding and light fixture which will both be changed.

As you can see with this picture we will be in need of a new roof.Now this roof was put on about 15 years ago or so and as you can tell has not really held up that well. It will be nice to see a new roof on here.    

Here again is another picture of the roof.I think this one was taken from the back and as you can see it looks no better than the front.Ok it might not look as bad as the front,but really when your roof looks like that its bad no matter what angle.

This next picture is a shot of my son's room with a touch of the garage and the top of the bin showing. My son's room will be turning into a office/computer room.Since I don't work at home I guess I can't call it an office so we will say computer room.

Moving on down the house we have a picture of the side of the house with the garage door opening and the breezeway opening, which would then lead you to the second door of our house that leads into the little tiny entrance in our house.When I say tiny,I mean tiny.In the winter and even now with our coats hanging on the coat hanger in the entrance you cannot open the door all the way.Kind of a pain in the ass when you are carrying groceries in or something like that. The breezeway which you can kind of see will be part of our new BIGGER entrance,this will defiantly be nice. That door leaning against the house was on the side of the garage.

So this is where that door I mentioned in the picture above went.Before we moved into the house, the house was rented out to some people and they decided they needed a door on the side of the garage.That's where they put it.As you can tell the wood on the garage has seen better days.

Here is another picture of the garage.When the siding was taken off there were thousands of big carpenter ants all over.Aparantly they had been nesting there and built an ant continent.Of course some of these ants made their way into the house on numerous occasions.I found myself killing at least one a day and I have noticed since the ant continent was destroyed we have not seen one in the house yet. Hopefully I didn't just jinx that!



I hope you enjoyed the pictures,I do have more to come of course,but for now I think we have all had enough!
 

Day 1 and Still No Hole!!

So I woke up today thinking, actually counting on some digging going on today since this was supposed to be the day that things got started. We had the gas guy over yesterday marking the gas line out so they would know where it was when they began digging. This to me was a great sign I had thought at the time when the gas guy was marking the backyard. There was a sense of excitement in the air.Things were going to happen!

You could imagine my sense of excitement turning to disappointment really quick when I came home for lunch today only to find the backyard in the shape that I had last seen it.......holeless!

I have come to terms with the fact that there will be delays.Probably quite a few delays.I watch a lot of home reno shows so you come too expect this.

But on what is supposed to be the First Day! 

At this rate the house won't be ready until the baby is about 4 years old.Day 1 and nothing! This does not give me much hope for things to come.

The Wait Is The Hardest Part

As with most things in life waiting is the hardest part.This definitely applies to home renovations.More so when you are REALLY  anxious for more space.

My wife,my son and I have been waiting for more space for what feels like an eternity.When they finally tore the garage down on this house last Friday,we felt one step closer to some breathing room.

For me it has kind of been well, a little strange.Only due to the fact that the house we live in once belonged to my grandparents.I practically grew up in this house.I only lived across the road so I spent a lot of time here sampling grandma's baking.We had a lot of great Christmases in this house when I was a kid.Spent a lot of time playing cards here.For me the fact that I ended up back in this house to raise my family,the place were I had all these great memories was strange.

It was nice.But strange.

As many memories as this house has for me,it was time for a change.

The Change 

My wife and I found out in December that we were going to have a new arrival in August.So with the tight quarters we had now we needed to get some space, and we needed it by August.So we had a friend of my dad's draw up some plans for us(for free which was great) and passed them along to a few local contractors.

I have to say my parent's have been doing pretty much all of the leg work getting things going,calling people,passing the plans along so having them around has really helped with taking some pressure off of us.

Anyway the plans get passed out in early January.Finally we hear back from some contractors about the end of  March.

Fast forward to about April.

We tell the contractor that we decided to go with that, he got the job and asked him when he could start?

Delay #1. He tells us he is good to start about the middle of May. Of course this doesn't happen.

So I told him I needed to know(this was late May) when he was going to start because the bank wanted to know.He tells us June 15th,which would be tomorrow. The only thing that has happened so far is the garage has been tore down and the backyard has been marked were the addition will be going. Other than that for us it is still slow going.

I have taken a lot of pictures of the house so I will post them when I can. But right now I need sleep!