Ultra Block Walls

With excavation underway, it was time to position the concrete blocks that will shore the soil along the property lines. These ultra-blocks (such a cool name) weigh 2,200lbs each.

About half of them will be left in the ground after the foundation is poured and back-filled. Why? Cheaper than removing them. One truck can only carry about 4-5 at a time and we need about 50.

Staging the ultra blocks while they dig out the back wall. And correct, they're basically just large legos.

The blocks here represent the NE corner of the house. Many roots died to make this wall.

It was pretty incredible to watch them dig this part. The soil becomes very hard clay that far down. That's great for our foundation, but tough to dig in, even for the equipment. It was slow going.

The workers were using lasers and receivers (is that the right word?) continuously to tell the operator how far down to dig. They'd walk over with a little pole which would beep whenever they raised it to the level of the laser being shot across the property. Lasers are pretty cool.

The white pipe you see in the lower right leads to the 30' long buried infiltration trench we now have in our back yard. Don't get me started.

The ultra blocks will line most of the north property line, all of the east wall, and most of the southern property line.

I'm sorry, but it's starting to look like a medieval fortress wall. Awesome.

Gotta have that crushed rock underneath the ultra-blocks! And anyone who has played with legos knows this strategy for building walls. #masterbuilder

End of the day now. Time to go home and get ready for Christmas. Work will start again January 2nd. Merry Christmas!

The Oldest Photo of Sunnyside

When we started the project, we asked the city if they had any old photos of the house. They responded with this great shot from 1937!

If you view the web version of the blog, you can see we've put along the right side a timeline of the house over the years. Enjoy!

Sunnyside 1937! The old wood siding and clam shell shingles can be clearly seen. Also clear is the old covered entrance. We're bringing that back in the new house design. Hard to believe that stone wall survived to 2017!

Excavation Begins

With demo done, we now get to dig a big hole!

Grant and his crew were at it today, marking the boundary lines and starting to remove soil from the site. Ultimately, we'll be almost doubling the size of the basement, and moving the house out a couple feet into the backyard, as well as a few feet north.

Pouring gravel over the entry way to keep the mud down. This is where the crews drop off the containers to be filled with soil.

Diggin' a big hole. The soil is at least a few feet to high here and will eventually come down to grade with the sidewalk.

From this point east (left) is essentially where the old kitchen table was.

You know you're done digging when you've made a big pile of dirt. Tomorrow, more digging, with the installation of the ultra blocks (retaining walls) to commence on Wednesday. That should be fun!

Demo Wrap Up

After demoing the house in 2.5 hrs (wow), Dave spent the next couple of days on clean up.

We removed the remaining debris and trash, cleaned out the last of the concrete from the basement floor, as well as the stones used for the foundation. We even found the old oil tank buried in the back.

Dave spent the last couple days of demo cleaning out the remaining stone and concrete. Here you can see the back footing and wall of the 1980s extension to the house. This was the wall under the kitchen floor. That pile of glass was the back sliding door.

Throughout the demo, the garage bay served as a convenient collection spot to position debris for loading into the trucks.

Uncle Dennis sure knew how to build a wall. Dave spent a good 5 minutes trying to pull these two pieces apart. Rebar is strong!

Here's a panorama of the site about half way done clearing the stone and concrete.

Look at this big rock! Dave found the oil tank in the SE corner. Luckily, it was empty.

Dave was also a champ salvager. He pulled bricks for a future-Michele project, the fir beams and stones for the future wall.

The rocks in the background were from the original front wall of the house, and carried back there by myself, Casey, Tim and Michael over a few days of back-breaking work. Thank you gents! The rocks in the foreground were from the foundation, and placed there by Dave in about 2 seconds.

Finished, Dave rides off into the sunset, like a grizzled hero from an old Western. See ya round, Dave. Ya done good.

A lot of nice clean dirt stands ready for excavation work. TBD 12/18/17!

Cornerstone Found!

The massive cornerstone of the original house. It was so big even the excavator had trouble with it. But in 1913 they laid it by hand!

Demo Day!

Well, it finally arrived: demo day! December 11th, 2017.

After long delays, we finally had the green light to demo the house. And it happened a lot faster than anyone thought. In just about 3 hours, the house was gone.

Thankfully, Grandma Eva, Aunt Bea and Michele and the boys were able to rush over for the big event. It was impressive to watch, and bitter sweet.

The Sunnyside house was built in 1913, and has been home to so many wonderful memories. It was sad to see it go. But, it was ultimately a joyful moment knowing the house will be rebuilt. And there were plenty of exciting demo moments! Enjoy!

As the morning light pierces the fog, so too does the iron claw of demolition pierce the walls!

First the garage. It took one punch to get through the roof. Two more and it was gone. Then, Dave (the operator and a really nice, joyful guy - considering he's destroying a century of memories) drove up into the garage to reach the house.

A few scrapes from the claw and the front of the house fell off. It was a little strange to see inside your bedroom...from the street.

In about one hour the front of the house was gone.

Dave finally made his way to the bathroom, where hilarity ensued when he crushed the toilet.

As more of the house got munched, Dave used it to climb further and further back to the rest of the house.

We make a picture!!!! (and photo-bombed by an excavator.)

You can't tell in the picture, but the back right of the house is actually the inside of the boys' closet. Dave had ripped the back closet wall away to reveal the inside of the closet wall, the side you never see since you're always looking "in". When Dave exposed the wall, we noticed the familiar handwriting of Matthew. There he had simply written, "I love you." He must have secretly written it during the Goodbye Party. It was perfect - the last farewell from a faithful house.

The boys soon arrived and got a (safe) front row seat to all the action.

Here Dave loads one of many scoops of debris into the dumpster. All the material gets separated by stone and "everything else." Ultimately, it all gets recycled. Amazing.

Dave moves in for the final blow to the back kitchen wall. The sound of the sliding glass door shattering was incredible.

Boom! With the NE corner down, all that stood was the SE corner.

Like The Last Watchman, steadfast at his post, the SE corner wall refused to fall. So Dave crushed it.

Here you're looking out from the back yard to the front.

One of the many small miracles of the day was Dave's ability to pull all but one of these fantastic timbers from the basement. These 100 year-old beams will get sanded, stained and reused in a half dozen projects, from a nice post in the house, to a mantel.

Incredibly, when the gutters fell, a bunch of moss and mud fell inside the gutter, making them appear like someone hadn't cleaned them in a year. Amazing.

The final pile.

It is completed. Sunnyside has been demo'd. But like the Phoenix, it will rise again! Coming July/August 2018.

Temp Power Pole

Demo has been delayed while the temporary power pole gets installed and inspected. This has taken a lot longer than anticipated. Here's a shot of the house with the pole in and "ready". Demo will likely happen later next week.

The temp power pole. This thing has been inspected, adjusted and "fixed" about 7 times already.

Here's the house with the pole installed. Poor house. Poor neighbors!

Prepping for Demo 2

After getting moved out, we had a lot of work to do to prep for the demo. First, the rock wall in the front had to be removed. Next, the asbestos siding had to come off, and last, we needed to strip parts of the interior we wanted to save.

A huge *thank you* to the Bernstein, Kneier, Bassage-Glock, Larpenteur and Stamschror families, as well as my parents, for making this phase a reality.

Here's the house before all the serious prep started.

First the rock wall had to come down. Mr. Tim brought his huge impact tool to help, and the boys loved it.

All the stone removed from the wall was carried by hand to the back yard. We hope to use it in the new wall.

I love how photos make a big job seem instantly done. In reality, taking out the stone wall was brutal and took a few days.

Next, materials from the interior were salvaged. Here, Mr. Michael "supervises" Mr. Tim taking out Uncle Dennis' beautiful wood panels. Safety fourth!

We had really hoped to save these original painted tiles over the fireplace to use in the new house. But they were set deep into the mantel. So, Mr. Tim once again brought over an impact tool and made short work of it. Michele was very pleased!

 

This shot is of Mr. Casey taking a load of rocks to the back yard, but gives you a good view of the house with and without the asbestos siding.

Prep done! Here's the house with the siding stripped, the rock wall removed, and the interior ready for demo. Thank you to everyone who helped!

And just for comparison again, here's what the house looked like when we started.