I have a little job. It's only two days a week for now, but will grow into something more over time. Our neighbour out at the beach hired me to help him do some book keeping, a business he runs out of his house. He's the nicest guy and his house is stunning. So when I go to work, I get to hang out in this home that's like something out of Architectural Digest and listen to the waves. In addition, he has a satelite dish (not terribly thrilling, I know) but he's always got the music channels on, ya know, the Galaxie (at least here in CDN that's what they're called) ones? Anyhow, today he had on The '90's channel and "All for Love" by Color Me Badd came on. I almost laughed out loud. Instantly I was transported in my mind back to my highschool hallway where everyone seemed to be wearing either red or green coloured jeans and vests. Lots of vests. This must be how people who grew up in the 70's feel about bell bottoms and Peter Frampton.
The afternoon would have been made complete if I had heard Informer by Snow.
(I love YouTube).
So anyway, here's what we're really here to talk about...the house. Yes, yes, the house, I know you've all been hanging by a thread, up all night can't get anything done at work cuz you want to know, hell, NEED to know how my house is coming along. Well, it's been a big week, lemme tell ya. I don't even really know where to begin.
I guess the beginning would be a good place to start. And a good foundation is a good beginning. Which we didn't really have. See, the main part of the house, which is one hundred million billion years old, has a stone foundation, which is structurally sound and will hopefully last another hundred million billion years.
Somewhere along the way, someone came along and built an addition, which is the apartment, which is where we are doing the actual living while we clean up the mess next door. Well, the addition had a few kinks. Okay, not so much kinks as gaps. Big ones. Really, the whole foundation was pretty much exposed, compared to the original house where the foundation met the dirt and you couldn't really see it at all.
The original idea was to have some concrete fellows come and do what my husband had described to me as a retaining wall. A nice concrete finish to the rock that was already there. Great I said. Wonderful. Lets do that.
So they came and they had a look and I'm thinking secretly, a chuckle or two.
We settled on having them do just the areas that were exposed and in need of repair. They said great. Wonderful. We'll do that.
Day one they took a sledge hammer and just tapped a corner to get the rocks loose and three feet of wall caved in. Yadda yadda yadda, a couple dozen jack posts later and none of us were in fear for our lives anymore.
Here we have the rock foundation removed and the jackposts installed, as well as the framing in place for the concrete to be poured for the footing. And oh yeah, we need some siding around the back too. That's the next project.
Some, and only some, of the rocks that were removed. This is a very small some actually. The constable looks on as the big loud cement truck pours in the footing.
Ooooo, footing (under the rock wall that was actually done properly). The framing goes in for the foundation. And as you can see, there's a couple more rocks.
Oooooo, foundation. Oooooo, structurally sound. Oooooo, added resale value.
After all, the whole idea is that we'll get some enjoyment out of this place, but with the nature of hubby's job, it's not at all likely that this will be the house we'll retire in. So hopefully we'll turn a tidy profit when it comes time to sell.
Alright, one more before I break for dinner...
Ooooooo, backhoe.
Stay tuned for 'Oooooo' Part 2.
Until later...
