11/08/06 "The Sashman" came back today and restored two more windows. They replaced broken glass and replaced the ropes on the two windows in Jayden's Room. They will come back in February to do the Master Bedroom windows. While they toiled away upstairs, Kass was in the basement gluing ABS pipe together for the plumbing drain lines and vent pipes for the Basement bathroom, the Half Bath and the Kitchen sink. It's rained so hard here the last few days that the Basement is a mini lake (can't wait to get the floor in!)
11/04/06 Friday night Kass and her son Rick went to the local big box store (Home Depot) and picked up plumbing parts for the drain lines in the house. Kass began working on the Kitchen and Half Bath drain lines. Sunday we made another trip to the big box store for more parts and continued working. Kass' dad Fred joined us in the afternoon and he and Kass managed to get most the Half Bath, the Basement bathroom and the Kitchen all laid out and almost completed just need a few more parts. Big Rick helped out for part of the Basement bathroom until Jayden needed some help in the house. :)
10/22/06 Minor work this weekend/week. Kass found some lights Big Rick picked up on his way home from work on Tuesday. This weekend we met with a kitchen designer at Oregon City Home Depot, Tim Johnson. He is very good and very helpful! We came away with LOTS of ideas for the kitchen. He is taking all the elements we discussed and working up a room layout/design for us. Can't wait to see it! Big Rick also completed the stairs in the spare room to the attic and put in some lag bolts to secure it. Kass did a little more work on the plumbing lines but we're hoping our plumbing friend can come over soon to guide us through most of it. Updated the purchases page with the lights & boiler we recently acquired and finally updated the Attic page after over two years of no updates in that room. :)
1015/06 We took a drive up to North Portland to look at a rug we found online, but it turned out to be a little drab for what we wanted. Very nice house they had though, an 1894 home on the historical registry! On our way back we stopped in at The Rebuilding Center to look for a bathroom cabinet for Kass' work. While there Big Rick stumbled upon a woodburning fireplace insert for $50!!! We brought it home and will look it over to make sure it will work. This will save us a LARGE amount if it works out. If not, we can always put it up for sale as is for $50. <grin>
10/08/06 Another productive day! Fred & Kass' son Rick continued wiring the 2nd floor, completing three of the bedrooms on the 2nd floor. Kass & Big Rick ran telephone, computer & Cable TV lines for the remaining rooms upstairs and began installing lines for a central vacuum system for cleaning the house. Kass also worked on installing an intercom system, so someone in the basement can call for someone on the 2nd floor without hiking up a mountain of stairs! :) Big Rick cut out, framed in and installed the new pull-down stairs in the front bedroom to get up into the attic. We just need to lengthen the stairs eight more inches so they hit the floor when pulled down and they will be complete! Not bad for a day's work.
10/07/06 Had almost the entire family out working on the house this morning. Fred and Kass' son Rick were completing some of the wiring for the 2nd floor, running it down into the basement for the hook up to the breaker panel. Big Rick cut out the section in the Bathroom to put in the medicine cabinet so Fred & Rick knew where to run/not run wiring in that area. Then Big Rick & Kass ran telephone/computer and TV wiring down into the basement for Jayden's room & Alex's room. Kass had to leave to take her Highness, Princess Alexandra of the Colton High School Homecoming Court to a parade and then shopping for a new homecoming dress. Ah the demands of the royalty. <G> Big Rick & Jayden burned off the large burn pile of scrap lathe and lumber that has been accumulating all summer along with some garbage. Jayden really enjoyed playing 'fireman' as we watched over the burn pile. Sunday we will try to complete all the little details of the 2nd floor wiring so we can have it inspected and move on to plumbing, insulation, and eventually drywall!
09/30/06 We met with a plumber to go over our septic & plumbing plans and he will be out next weekend to supervise us as we install them. He's also the soccer coach that Kass' son Rick used to play for and Big Rick still announces for down at the High School. Kass primered and painted the roof over the bay window, which completes the Roof project for the house!!! Kass' son Rick has been installing the wiring for the 2nd floor, and with the exception of some boxes we need to buy for him to install, has it nearly completed. No luck on the kitchen cabinets so far, but we're keeping our eyes open for any good deals or finds. Today is Jayden's 5th birthday so no major plans to work on the house today. :)
09/10/06 We took a week off for a family camping trip, and when we came back it was a combination of getting the kids ready for school and emergencies at both Rick & Kass' work places that we haven't done a whole lot since last month. This weekend we managed to make up for that. We did finish the last floor joist re-enforcement last weekend, and we built the wall between the Master Bedroom and the Bathroom. This weekend we finished removing all the lathe and plaster from the upstairs and almost all of it from the main floor as well. Kass' son Rick has begun wiring the 2nd floor, and we're looking into the plumbing for the main bathroom on the first floor, and traveling up to Vancouver, WA this evening to look at some cabinets for the kitchen.
Saturday we went to several stores looking into fireplace options. One place was All Ways Warm in Portland, OR, and we spoke with "The Blabber" about everything from Commercial Fishing, Alaska, playing Bass Fiddle, and eventually fireplaces. :) Very knowledgable guy and gave us a lot of information that has been helpful! We did a TON of cleaning today and Kass and her dad looked over the bay window roofing to see what repairs we need to do to finally complete all of the roofing on the house. Thursday Kass made a big score off of Craigslist.com by finding a boiler for the radiant floor heating at about half the cost of a brand new one. Piece by piece we are definitely getting into the 'putting it back together' stage. <Grin>
08/13/06 We managed to strengthen two of the three floor joists in the Living Room where we had some sag in the floor of the Master Bedroom. We laminated 3/4" plywood onto the beams after Rick jacked them back up to just above level. Actually we put one layer on one side of the beams, and two layers on the other side using Sub Floor & Decking glue & our pneumatic palm nailer. We would have finished the third but we ran out of glue. Hoping to get the wall between the Master Bedroom & Bathroom done soon so we can get the wiring & plumbing done ASAP!
08/03/06 Yesterday night we tore off the asphalt shingles over the bay window in the stairwell, and found some lovely wooden shingles underneath! We're thinking of just patching what few holes are in them from the nails used to attach the asphalt shingles and leaving it as it is. Pictures are available in the Roof section.
7/30/06 We haven't figured out why but everytime there is rain on the forecast, we have a section of roof exposed. Kass swears they change the forecast AFTER she begins the project, but we think she does it just before the rain to give us extra incentive to finish quickly! We did finish the West side of the roof this weekend, which now only leaves the very small bay window over the stairs to be repaired. We did not originally plan on using the tin roofing we purchased there, but as we have enough left over we may see if it will work for the window. Otherwise we may finish it with cedar shakes until such time as copper roofing becomes affordable without a second mortgage!
07/27/06 This morning Fred & Kass started on the final side of roofing to be replaced. At the end of the day the entire West side of the roof had been removed and stripped down. All that remains now is putting on the tarpaper and attaching the last of the roofing. This will mark the completion of the first project for the house! Well, except for the move, and the foundation. <grin>
07/26/06 It's been four days and I think Kass & I have recovered enough we can write about it now. Last weekend we went to Rockaway, Oregon, to a beach house of Brian and Deb McDonald. They had advertised on www.craigslist.com a chance to "Reclaim This Old-Growth Clear Vertical Grain Fir Flooring" for FREE. Kass corresponded with them in e-mail and last Saturday we journeyed down there to remove it. With their help, we started at about 10 o'clock in the morning and with two 20-30 minute breaks for lunch and dinner, had just about all of it up and out by 9:30 pm that evening! I know the next day Kass & I were quite sore, and we heard in e-mail Deb was too. Hopefully Brian didn't suffer as bad but I am sure we all felt it the next day. In the end we recovered about 600 square feet of flooring, mostly clear some pieces had linoleum on them and will have to be cleaned or planed, but all of it looked very nice! Our thanks go out to Brian & Deb for the flooring and their assistance! Turns out they live barely 30-40 minutes from here, so hopefully they'll be able to come by and see the house once it's finished and how their flooring turned out. <grin>
07/09/06 Not a whole lot this weekend; Big Rick finished the wall around the fireplace, after compensating for uneven heights in the sill plate. After that he helped Kassandra clean out a lot of the scraps & debris from recent projects, now the house has clean floors (be they sub floor or regular floor) and all the clutter is out of the way. This week coming up we have window repair people coming in to restore the windows in Bedroom 3! Kassandra & her daughter are at a 4H camp till Tuesday (3 blue ribbons for Alex so far this weekend!). Jayden helped Daddy clean out his fish tank after a 'ghost' dumped all the fish food in it. But other than that it's been a semi quiet weekend. :)
07/04/06 Happy 4th of July! We acquired some bead board from an ad on www.craigslist.com and the gentleman also had some old window sashes with wavy glass in them! We picked them both up and brought them home last night. Kass picked up some molding to try around the pillar on the back porch and it looks like it will work out for the job. Sunday Big Rick managed to get the Rim Joist under the living room wall, and began rebuilding the frame of the wall to the left of the fireplace, but after three tries and uneven sill plates, decided it was a project best finished another day.
06/26/06 The weather has gone from chilly and grey to HOT! over night. Last week we were in the low 70's and then BAM! we hit the 90's and even over 100 degrees today. Didn't keep us from working on the house though. Kass continued to scrape paint, this time the back of the house is getting the "face lift" . Over the last few days she was able to get the whole back scraped and ready for paint, go to Home Depot and get the paint (only took two trips as the guy who mixed the first gallons we bought put the wrong label on the wrong can, so when we went to get more they mixed up 5 gallons of the burgandy instead of the blue <UGGH>) Rick worked on rebuilding the Living Room fireplace wall. We need to rebuild the window openings to fit the windows we picked up. Kass' son Rick is eager to paint the front of house, so he finished scraping the dormer on the roof. He even put a little primer up there this weekend!
The hot weather also brought on the start of hay season. Kass has to take "time outs" from the house work to go ride around the fields on a tractor mowing, raking and baling hay. Keeps her pretty busy for a week or so. The it will be back to work "full time" (in our spare time that is) on the house.
06/18/06 Kass and her daughter went to a horse tack sale this weekend, it was a bust only two vendors, anyway... there was a "big sale" just a mile down the road, so they decided to go to that. Kass was talking to the lady and she asked where they were from. Kass told her just up the road in the Highland area, and the lady said "my husband grew up in that area, in that big old grey house they just moved". Kass told her.. "I'm the one that moved that house." The lady had to run and get her sister in law and tell her. Her sister in law grew up in the house, and when she heard who Kass was, she came and gave her a big hug and said "THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY HOUSE!" They then talked about what we were doing to it, etc. Turns out the stuff they were selling was from her mother's estate. Kass bought a rag rug and an embroidered small table cover (which actually could have been used in the house way back when). Kass had another table cover picked out but when the woman (who grew up in the house) saw it, she asked if Kass would mind if she kept it, as she hadn't been able to go through some of her mother's stuff prior to the sale. She is going to look through the old family pictures and let us know if she finds anything of interest about the house. Just shows how small of a world it is. The woman had just moved back into the area not long before her mother passed away. Her mother did get to drive by the house just after we moved it. They had fond memories of living in the house and wished they had never had to leave it.
We did manage to complete the lower roof on the back of the house and straighten out a bit of the back roof that was damaged in the move. Kass' son Rick also scraped off the dormer window area up in the attic. He wants to paint the front of the house ASAP.
06/17/06 Family day today! Kass' dad came over and helped us both finish the roofing on the very back of the house, and the side by the Master Bedroom. Just a small 10' section by Bedroom 3 and the lower roof will be done! Kass' older kids Rick & Alex helped out by cleaning out all the roofing and lumber scraps, and started leveling out the gravel in the basement, and Jayden helped paint a few boards before he went to work on leveling out the dirt pile. <smile> We plan on finishing the last section of the lower roof tomorrow, then we have to decide the next project to tackle. I'm thinking the basement floor needs to be done next, but we might hold off and do some smaller projects upstairs before we get that far.
06/13/06 On a whim Kass went online and looked for some lights for the house, and found four sets of wall sconces on ebay. She bid on them and in less than two hours they were ours! Pics on the purchases link are from the ebay page. Then she went on www.craigslist.com and looked for things locally and found two windows for our living room!!! I asked her about buying a lottery ticket online (good things come in threes right?) but she wouldn't go for it. <smile>
06/12/06 It was probably a simple accident. I am pretty sure I believe her when she says the drill just slipped out of her hands. Last night, with impending rain looming on the horizon for as long as we can see, it was decided to try and get more roofing done on the back wall. We put down about another five linear feet or so when the cry 'lookout below' was heard, and a large cordless drill came tumbling out of the sky. In hindsight, I should have just stepped out of the way, but my instinctive move was to bat it away from me. The doctor told me later it was pretty mild, the blow did not break any bones, but it sure will feel like it for a few days. It wasn't until about an hour after I left the ER that I could actually feel the throbbing in the stitches around the 2.5 cm gash where the drill bit had gone through my leather glove and into the palm of my hand just under the pinky. But I'm stil pretty sure it was an accident. Pretty sure. <grin>
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When a drill is dropped two stories above you... let it fall. ................................... |
06/11/06 Happy Birthday Alex! Kass' daughter turned sweet 16 today. We did a LOT of work this weekend too! Back on Thursday the 8th, we tore off the lower roof on the back of the house to prepare it for the new roof. We then figured once we have the metal roof on that section, it would be very hard to finish repairing the soffitt boards and painting the wall there, so we went ahead and scraped off the walls, replaced the boards and put on PAINT!!! There are picture on the "Exterior Repairs" page under the "Back Wall" section. We also managed to get all the tarpaper on and part of the roof started before the end of the day Sunday. Saturday we were unable to work on the house as Alex had a 4H Gaming fair and Rick & Jayden went to Rick's parent's house and installed a new front door and screen door. Hopefully we'll finish the metal roof on the back fairly soon. There are no special angles to this section, so it should go fairly quickly once we get back to it. Now we are just crossing our fingers for the weather to be nice the next few days!
06/04/06 We took one step forward and two steps back this weekend. We rented the floor nailer again and we were hoping to finish repairing all the damaged flooring upstairs. We did manage to repair the damaged floor in Bedroom 2. That room is now completely ready to go (except for a few nails from the old lathe that still need to be removed). When we started to work on the floor in the Master Bedroom we noticed that the bottom plate on the wall between the Master Bedroom and the Bathroom was completely rotted out. To repair that we had to rip out the one remaining plastered wall in the Master Bedroom. We decided to not rebuild that wall until we have leveled the floor/ceiling joists from below. We also repaired the South East corner of the Master Bedroom.
We also want to give very special thanks to Grandma Pat & Grumpa Cliff for taking our son Jayden overnight Sunday; we were able to sleep in till 7:30 Monday morning and worked all day Monday on the house! It was a wonderful weekend!
05/13/06 After a lot of cleaning, especially Bedroom 3 as the window repair people will be coming out soon to work in there, most of the upstairs is ready for renovation. Just the ceiling in Bedroom 1 needs to come down. Also cleaned up most of the downstairs as well. Wednesday a Radiant Floor Heating specialist will come out to look over the house and give us a quote/advice. Kass' son Rick also backfilled a lot of the area around the house, and Kass & hubby Rick move in rocks to start a flower bed on the SW corner of the house.
05/06/06 We spent the last couple of days removing lathe and plaster from the Master Bedroom and Bedroom 3, and dismatnling the built-in cabinet in Bedroom 3 too. We have most of the upstairs gutted now. We have to remove one more ceiling and two walls in Bedroom 1 and then the gutting will be completed. We found some rotted wood in the south east corner of the Master Bedroom that we need to repair, a short section of wall between the Bathroom and the Master Bedroom, as well as the wall between the Master Bedroom and Bedroom 3, then we can start putting the upstairs back together!
On a little trip to get away for our anniversary, we found some glass panes we can use the glass from to repair most of the damaged windows in the house. We also scouted out some possible furniture and other odds & ends for the house once we get to the decorating stage. Most of the 2nd floor rooms are gutted and ready for wiring, plumbing, etc. With the weather turning warmer, we are ready to get back to many projects on the house put on hold. Included in that list is going back to the original site and cleaning up the mess left by removing the home. Now that the ground is not so muddy, we can get the tractor over it and clean things out for the Barkers who gave us so much assistance while preparing this home to be removed from their property!
04/16/06 We've removed more of the lathe and plaster from Bedrooms 2 & 3, and made some progress on the casing. We had to buy a new router bit to do the hinges. Our rain drains passed inspection and now we can back fill all around the house. Once it's dry enough to get the tractor in close enough that is. :) We had hail storms as short as 3 hours ago!
02/13/06 After a trip to the local Home Depot we picked up a 2x12x12 and 2x12x10 to complete the railing for the back porch. After finishing the siding on the walls, we trimmed down the column and with Kass' brother Kevin lending a hand, began routing the railing. We had one spot that needed to be glued together before it could be routed down, so we'll hold off on finishing it for now. Next weekend Kass will be away with her daughter at a HS Equestrian Meet, so it will probably wait for a while anyway. We need it to warm up too so we can paint the primer on the new wood anyway.
02/09/06 With a couple days off this week, Kass managed to nearly complete the railing on the back porch! She finished all the framing, most of the siding and will be picking out some wood for the top of the railing tomorrow or this weekend!
12/25/05
Happy Holidays!
12/17/05 Made contact today with Steve O'Hollaren, who is a
grandson of
Nora's
oldest son, George Earl Miller. He has a photo of
himself in
front of the
house circa 1964! We plan to meet with him for lunch
soon and get
more
information on the Miller Family and their home.
He's told
us that
his family had a professional genealogical study done and had
it put
into a
hard-bound book back in the early 1970's! This
should give
us some
great details & insight into the Miller family and Rick
can
complete his
'History' page on the family. Steven also told us he had
some
information
on the people who built the house! All in all, it
sounds
like an
early Christmas present! <G>
12/11/05 The back filling has begun! Had the
county
inspector out
last Wednesday to inspect our waterproofing and footing drains
(Not
sure why
they have to look at tar painted on the walls but what ever
floats
their boats
<G>) and we passed without any problems. Today,
Fred
scooped up the
dirt and started dumping it along the back corner of the house
(by the
back porch
is). Along the west side of the house, Kass and Fred put in
the rain
drain for
the gutter down spouts. Over the past couple of weeks
Fred and
Rick
finished the decking on the back porch and Rick worked on
repairing the
wall
between the porch and the laundry room.
The weather has been sunny but COLD, so work has slowed
a bit
for now.
12/4/05 Our house has it's first Christmas decoration in
over 20
years. Rick built a giant 8ft wreath ring and Kass
decorated it
with
garland, red Christmas bulbs, gold leaves and red and green
lights. not
quite sure how we are going to store it, but we hope to use it
year
after year.
(see picture above)
11/23/05 The roof on the front of the house is
officially
complete!
Fred and Kass finished it up this afternoon. Now we can
turn our
attention to replacing the missing windows through out the
house and
getting
the laundry room/back porch finished up.
11/21/05 Over the 16th, 19th & 20th, Kassandra, her
dad Fred,
Rick,
his dad Clifford, and Kass’ son Rick managed to tear off and
replace
the
roofing over the front of the house. Well, almost all of
it, just
a few
feet were left when it became too dark to finish on Sunday
afternoon.
The
move had opened a few holes in the roofing there and we took
advantage
of the
unseasonably good weather to fix that section of roof while we
could. On
Thursday the 17th, the local newspaper, The Oregonian started
a story
on our
house at the following link:
They have asked to do a photo essay on the house over the next two years as we finish the project!
11/13/05 Today
Kass
and her son Rick were able to tear out the remaining
laundry room walls and the flooring as well. Yesterday
she and
her dad
Fred were able to frame in and pour cement into the gap left
for the
beam under
the porch, so they were also able to put down the last piece
of
sub-floor for
the back porch when they took the framing off. They also
put up
sheets of
plastic to help keep the weather off the porch. Kass
& Big
Rick
visited a siding supplier to see about replacement siding for
the house
&
for the porch once it's re-built. He thinks a home they
are
working on
right now has the same fir siding on it and they will be
removing it to
put all
new siding on the home. Have to make sure it's a match,
and if so
see
what kind of a price we can get for it! Today Big Rick
worked a
little on
the web page, creating a 'History' page for the house and its
known
inhabitants. While searching through a listing of
pictures from
the Ava
Helen
& Linus Pauling Papers pictures, there are listing
for
pictures
of a Betty Leone Brown with Pearl sitting on the back
porch. We
are
thinking this is the Betty whose name was on the back porch
stepping
stone. Now we are trying to determine who she was.
The
eldest
daughter Blanche married someone named Brown. If she was
married
around
18 or so and had a daughter named Betty, she would have been
close to
Lillian’s
age! I am hoping to get some genealogical information
that will
help me
with this.
11/9/05 One more day of sunshine and Kass took advantage of
it. She
finished
waterproofing the back wall of the basement. The waterproofing
wasn't
drying at
the same speed the sun was setting so we put a tarp over the
area and
stuck a
propane heater under there; nice and toasty and dry.
Put in the footing drain in along the West side of the
house and
along the back. Timothy and Bob from the Oregonian came
out this
afternoon, took pictures and interviewed Kass for the upcoming
article
on the
house (can’t wait to read it.) Also had a guy from Chosen Wood
Windows
come out
and look over the windows, he will send us a written estimate
(scary
thought)
on repairing the windows and replacing the missing ones.
11/8/05 Kass stayed home with a sick little boy today, nothing
serious,
just a
little bug. The sun was shining today, so while he
watched
cartoons Kass
tried to put some waterproofing on the foundation walls, but
they were
still a
little damp. She did manage to get one side completed
<yeah!>.
She also tore out more of the laundry room and re-opened the
window to
its
original size and she "cleaned up" a bit as the Oregonian
newspaper
called today; they want to do a story on the house! They
want to
follow
us over the next couple of years as we progress. That is
so COOL!
11/6/05 Finally it stopped raining! Well for most of the day
anyway.
Didn't dry out enough to waterproof the foundation, but we did
tear
apart and
start restoring the back porch! Kass, Fred, and her son
Rick, put
up the
new floor joists, put down plywood and put in the 4x4 corner
post (even
salvaged one of the original columns and reused it over the
new corner
post.) Big Rick (Kass’ hubby) did what he could but he
has a
pinched
nerve in his hip, so we sent him to make lunch.<G>
They
also tore
off the old walls that the previous owner had used to enclose
the back
porch. It looks 150% better now, even without the
decking down!
We also
discovered some rotten 2x4's in the wall between the back
porch and the
laundry
room so Rick (Kass' son) tore out the old sheet rock on that
wall.
11/2/05 Curtis from The Heat Exchange came out today to look
at the
house and
give us some tips on Radiant floor heating, Kass needs to get
him a
floor plan
of the house and he will give us a bid for the system.
He
suggested the
closed radiant system, meaning we will have a boiler for
heating the
house and
a separate hot water heater for our water. Fred and Kass
went to
look at
some composite decking for the back porch and purchased some
waterproofing
underlay
for the back porch. Hopefully we will soon have stairs
into the
house and
not a ladder. <G>
10/28/05 It was very anticlimactic. One minute it
was up,
next
thing you knew, it was down on the foundation! Settled
nicely, no
surprises or scary creaking; just a sigh of hydraulics and a
gentle
"clunk". Waiting for Kass to come home from work so we
can both
go in together. <S>
10/27/05 We received the call, TOMORROW is the set down
day.
Kass
finished up replacing the rim joists and we cleaned up around
the
inside and
the outside to get ready for the movers to come. Its all
up to
them now,
we both have to work tomorrow, so we wont get to watch <:O(
10/25/05 Had a call from the house movers Monday afternoon,
they wanted
to set
the house down on the foundation this Wednesday. Fred
and Kass
took
Tuesday off from work to finish up bolting down the sill
plates and
framing the
walls. The house movers called this afternoon and
delayed the set
down
for another week. A little disappointing, but I think it
will be
to our advantage
in the long run, now we can replace the rotten rim joists we
had been
wanting
to do and some other odd and end things that will be easier to
do while
the
house is still jacked up.
10/11/05 After a wait for the delayed concrete company, we still managed to get the concrete poured today! We had a minor blowout on one corner by the fireplace, but still managed to get it all done. Dennis from D&S Concrete Pumping came out again, and we've been VERY pleased with his work! I am sure when it comes time to pour the floor in the basement, we will once again be using his services. See the Foundation page for more details! Now two more weeks to wait as the concrete sets and then we can lower the house onto the foundation and resume work on it!
10/10/05 We spent another long weekend trying to get the foundation forms put in place. Thanks to the help of Kassandra's brother Kevin, his wife Janette and her father, we were able to complete it around 8pm Sunday night. The building inspector came by today and gave us the "approval" to pour our walls! Oh also found out a neighbor wants to buy about 25 sheets of the plywood from us when we are done, that will help the budget some.
10/04/05 The lumber arrived Saturday morning and so did the rain. (Actually the rain showed up Friday but who’s counting?) The truck became stuck in the field so we had to use our tractor to pull him out. He dumped the lumber and we began forming the walls. Once we had the hang of it, I think we made good progress. After the first day we had one outside wall formed up and by Sunday afternoon (We had a short work day because we had to celebrate Jayden's 4th birthday <S>) we had the back wall and 4 sheets of an inside wall completed. Monday, Kass finished cutting all the vertical rebar pieces and had tied all the rebar together. Fred and Rick worked on the outside wall and made it to the fireplace area and then we stopped on account of darkness. (The light went out, literally).
10/01/05 We found a leaky roof today. The move must have knocked some shingles off. Rick and Kass ventured up into the attic, found a tarp, some boards and some screws. Kass crawled out onto the roof (in a safety harness) and covered the right front corner of the house. A little wiggly up there when some one moves around, but a great view. <G>
09/29/05 Well another set back. No luck finding forms to rent, so we decided to make our own. We need about 72 sheets of 3/4" plywood @ $27.99 per sheet. Thought we had some one who could buy them from us when we were done, but that fell through. Did find 16 forms we can use and maybe some 2ft forms as well, that would cut the plywood down to 52 sheets a little better but still not great. Also we discovered that some how we were off on one of the corners of the footings by about 5" (too far out from the house). Now we have to figure out how to correct that problem. Oh and it is supposed to rain off and on the next few days.
09/26/05 Good news and bad news today. The good news, we poured the footings! The bad news, we had reserved forms for this Friday so we could form up the walls, well the rental place won’t have enough forms for us, until who knows when. They said they have some due back NEXT Wednesday (as in a week and half from now) but couldn't guarantee they would actually come in on time. We are going to try to find some forms at other rental places but no luck so far <sigh>
09/23/05 The footings passed inspection, but the plumbing didn't. We have to redo a couple of things and we are good to go. I had a fireplace mason come out tonight to give us advice/estimate for the fireplace. We need to tweak the footings just a little bit to get ready for a fireplace on the main level and a wood stove for the basement. (Eventually.) The mason gave us a "ball park" figure of $11K to build the fireplace. (I think we will be waiting a while to do that.) I reserved the forms for the foundation walls and will pick them up next Friday.
09/21/05 We have been frantically working trying to get our footings formed up. We finally finished tonight and have called for the inspection to be on Thursday afternoon (keep your fingers crossed we pass). Concrete is now scheduled for Monday at 2:30pm.
09/20/05 We found out yesterday that our contractor (a friend/work associate) is not going to be able to help us form the foundation walls, his work schedule is just too backed up at the moment. We had a concrete contractor come look at the job and give us another bid ($9990). We also looked into renting the forms and doing it ourselves (roughly $3200 for everything including concrete). Needless to say, we are going the "do-it yourself" route.
Had a phone call from the concrete boom truck operator, he came and looked at the house and decided he isn't going to be able to do the job, his boom wont go over the house its too tall. He suggested we use a line pump truck. We had to reschedule the concrete for another day.
We did get some good news today. We will be getting about $4,400 back of the $11,787 we had to give PGE to move the lines. Not quite 50% but we will take it!
09/18/05 What do 2x6's, digging dirt and rebar, have in common? The makings of a foundation. This weekend we finished digging and framing up the footings, configured the future basement bathroom plumbing layout, and started on the rebar. We have to have it all ready and inspected prior to the concrete's arrival on Friday afternoon.
09/17/05 Our house made the local newspaper, The Molalla Pioneer ran a story on the house move and our plans for the house. It took up about a half page and included 3 pictures. We have already had "looky-lu's" driving by the road checking it out.
09/16/05 Today "Lucy" made it to her final resting place. Now she can begin the transformation from and "ugly" duckling to a beautiful swan.
09/14/05 OH WHAT A DAY! The house move officially began at 10:30 am and they put it to rest just outside the foundation site at 4:00 pm. A little past the two to three hours they estimated, but we're not complaining.
09/06/05 We had notification today that the BIG MOVE is on for September 14th, at 10:00 AM! The weather has been kind so far and we are hoping our luck holds on for the next 8 days. <Knock on wood> This weekend we finished the drainage ditch and filled it back in. Kass ran the backhoe, hopefully she wont want to buy one of her own now. <G> We took down the fence by the road side and we're finishing up moving temporary fences to keep the horses safe from the move area.
08/24/05 The guys came back today, installed the beams under the house and jacked it up. Now I guess we just wait to hear from PGE. Unfortunately, I missed the whole thing....UGH. I was off at Home Depot getting drain pipe!
08/23/05 Received bad news today, the local utility company (PGE) has changed personnel since we began this whole process last year and now wants to start over on their part. This could delay us for 3-4 weeks! The movers are still proceeding with getting the house ready and are going to put pressure on the guy to get it done quicker. We have to move the house before it rains!
The steel beams arrived today and the guys started putting the cribbing under the house. They also removed a dead cheery tree with their track hoe (boy did he make it look easy).
08/22/05 You know how some people like to wait until the last minute? Well that was today, the last minute was here and we were scrambling to get everything done. Rick, and his dad, cut out the last slab of concrete and Kass’ dad hooked onto it with the tractor and pulled it away! The Back Porch is finally cleared! Kass and her son Rick cleared out the final bits of abandoned items left in the Master Bedroom storage closet just as the house movers showed up. Big Rick and Little Rick removed the remaining beams from inside the house and around it as Kass, her dad and Rick's dad finished putting plywood over the 2nd floor windows. The movers dug under the house and cleared some space for their beams to get through, so it looks like we are pretty much done with the house till it gets moved, hopefully this Friday, August 26th! Tonight, Kass & Rick worked on the footings with Kass’ dad, till Jayden decided he needed someone to play with so daddy was sidelined while they worked on what they could for the rest of the evening.
08/21/05 Time flies when you are having fun right? Well it sure flew by today. The concrete in the Back Porch went from easy to down right impossible. Turned out to be a thin concrete slab on top of a ton of rocks, broken glass, pieces of metal and more rocks that filled up a hole about 3ft deep with a 6" "wall" of concrete all the way around it! The guys chipped away at it piece by piece, but we didn’t get done so we have to keep the jackhammer another day and hopefully finish up in the morning before the house movers come! Kass did manage to get the lower windows all boarded up, the bracing done and she put the double 2x8's at the end of the floor joists that once butted up against the fireplace hearth. Rick's mom (Patty) cleaned out the storage room off the master bedroom and found a ton more junk (ugh!)
08/20/05 We're gearing up for the big move! Video cameras charged, digital cameras charged, Kass has the week off. Oh, you're looking for information on the house! Well yesterday we started with Rick testing out the jackhammer we rented on the large rock we had come up in the middle of our footing and chipped it right out of the way! We then finished removing the bricks from the chimney, and cleaned out the debris from Bedroom 3, and much from the Master Bedroom. While Rick & his dad took that to the dump, Kass and her dad removed the loose cornice by the Master Bedroom. It had too much rot to re-attach it, so it was removed and saved to be rebuilt after the house is on the new foundation. We began knocking out the concrete floor from the Back Porch, and it was going very quick, but the hearth from the fireplace was not coming out so easily so we took the jackhammer over there and punched it out first. Tomorrow we plan to finish removing the concrete floor in the Porch, cover the windows with plywood to protect them during the move, and maybe do some additional bracing inside the house, just in case. :)
08/19/05 Over the last week we have accomplished quite a bit! We finally had our building permit approved and picked it up along with our Electrical and Plumbing permits as well. On Thursday we had a tree trimming company come out and trim all the large branches over the roadway between the house and our property. Kass and her brother Kevin Kirchhofer, were "flaggers" (both decided that is not a job they would want) and Fred, Kass dad helped the tree guys de-limb the branches and cut them into manageable pieces for firewood. We've picked up most of the remains left along the road except for some rather large branches (over 8" in diameter) that need to be cut down to fit in our truck. The footings are laid out along the back wall of the site and one side is about halfway completed. Rick started using the jackhammer on a large rock in the middle of the other side, and we'll try to bust up the concrete flooring with it this weekend, along with finishing everything we need to do on the house itself. We had a tentative move date of August 30th given to us, but school starts on the 29th here, and they can't block the road after school starts, so they may have to move it up to the 26th. More details as they develop!
08/14/05 We removed most of the brush & trees from in front of the house today. With the tractor and four chainsaws a buzzing Rick, Kass & Fred tore up most of the trees & blackberries in the morning. Jayden & Kass’ nephew Doug Kirchhofer picked up some of the bricks from the fireplace as well. We are still arguing with the county over the foundation plans however. They asked for our engineer's calculations, which he provided for them. They said the text he referred them to was not acceptable so he needs to show his complete calculations or we need to do a prescriptive wall. Neither of us or our engineer have any idea what a prescriptive wall is. After a futile search on the web, all we can determine is per the One & Two Family Dwelling Code (OTFDC) we don't have to have an engineer's stamp as long as our walls meet it's code per tables 404.1.1(10 and 404.1.1(2). Sadly, no reference to either table is available online other than that's what would let us use a non stamped plan.
08/07/05 After a week camping we returned home and again accomplished just a bit more. Today Rick's mom & Aunt Sandy came out to help Kass’ dad Fred tear out some of the brush from in front of the house while Kass & Rick tore out the remains of the chimney and rebuilt the wall around it, putting in a header over the fireplace opening. This is ALMOST the last of the structural repairs needed to be done before the move! We still need to knock out the cement floor in the old porch area, and the cornice over the SW corner by the Master Bedroom is loose, so we need to tie it in to keep it in place during the move.
We took out the Front Porch page and added it to the Exterior Repairs page to make room for a new page: Foundation! On Monday, we had tried to get a little more work in and get the page up before we went camping, but three flat tires and one broken hydraulic cylinder just seemed to tell us it wasn't our day to get much done!
08/01/05 The sun was shining bright... the birds were singing sweet songs, sounds like the perfect beginning to a vacation <insert scratching sound> I started the old orange tractor, made one turn and the steering jammed, dad jumped off the back hoe and fixed that for me, I proceeded to scoop a load of dirt and dump it on the ever growing pile, when suddenly I am being anointed with Hydraulic fluid. The hydraulic cylinder that lifts the tractor bucket up and down has broken and sprayed hydraulic fluid all over my face, my hair, my clothes, everywhere. It was off to the shower for me! (You know how hard it is to get hydraulic fluid off?) I was all cleaned up just in time to find out that the little yellow pickup (my dad's Chevy Luv that won’t die) had a flat tire, my minivan had a flat tire, and our big blue tractor also had a flat tire. We put air in my minivan tire (slow leak) and loaded up the other two tires and took them to a local tire dealer, they had a TWO hour wait. I ended up driving to another tire dealer (same company different location) and getting all three fixed. We decided it was time to go camping!
07/31/05 The Basement has begun! We hired a truck to haul Uncle Leroy's Backhoe to our place last Monday. Fred (Kass' father) has been digging away ever since. He scoops the dirt into a pile and then Kassandra loads the bucket of the Orange Tractor and hauls it to the pile. Her Uncle Jimmy jumped in on the action and brought over his tractor, so now we have tandem tractors going.
Rick, Kassandra and her father also tore apart the Living Room corner on the fireplace wall this weekend. We had it put back together by Sunday afternoon. Still need to reattach the siding, but the corner is done. Next we will tackle the wall above the fireplace by putting in an actual header instead of letting the wall studs rest on the bricks!
07/24/05 Well third time was the charm; on Friday Rick was finally able to get our foundation permit submission accepted! ($130) The rest of the weekend, we managed to stake out the foundation, and use a laser level to find out our elevation drop (only 30"). On Sunday Rick's parents (Pat and Cliff) brought out their little trailer and we loaded up all the old wood shingles and some other burnable stuff laying around into their trailer and all the non burnable stuff into our trailer. We spoke with my Uncle Leroy, and he is going to let us use his backhoe to dig the basement out. We hired a truck to haul it up here on Monday and hopefully Uncle Leroy will come with it and show us how to run it or should say show Fred (Kassandra's dad) how to use it. <G>
07/20/05 Well, Rick tried again at the county for our foundation permit, still need more information. (Third time the charm?) Today Kassandra and her daughter Alex removed our yard fence, a tree, some shrubs and did a little excavating with the tractor to clear the area where the house will sit, so we can mark it out.
07/18/05 Last Thursday Kassandra took the foundation plans to the county for approval. Well, it didn't quite go as planned, they wanted some more information so today Rick and I took the foundation plans back to our neighbor (the engineer) and hopefully have everything they wanted (notice I underlined hopefully <g>.) After mowing about 5 acres of hay this morning I decided to go tackle the chimney and the fireplace. Jayden and I spent about an hour and half down there, he knocked holes in the plaster wall and I knocked down bricks. Then this evening Rick and I spent another hour working on it. (Too hot to do much more; over 90F today.) We tore it down so it is level with the concrete mantel someone added and discovered that the wall above actually doesn't have any support other than the fireplace, this will soon be corrected.
07/06/05 Keith from Northwest Structural came out to look at our progress and let us know what we need to finish before the house can be moved. Guess what? We are very close to being ready. We need to repair the Living Room corner, take out the concrete in the Back Porch, take down the remaining chimney, cut some brush and we are good to go. We need to get our foundation plans approved by the county and the permit issued before Keith can get the move permit. We have a tentative time frame set for the week of August 21st, 2005!
07/03/05 A very productive and satisfying weekend! Most of the Kitchen is completed. Let me sum it up for me: floor. No, not good enough: FLOOR. We completed the bearing wall, repaired the rotted base plate of the back wall and laid down all the sub floor. FLOOR. It feels SO great to be able to walk through there without jumping from joist to joist. We also discovered a hidden cabinet in the NE corner of the room under where the stairs are. As we're putting in stairs to go down to a basement, we'll have to take the cabinet out, but we can use the shelving in it as it was made of the original flooring wood. We also completed the bearing wall, laid down more sub floor (FLOOR.) in the Living Room and laid out the wall and opening between the Kitchen & Laundry Room. We decided to re-open and use the original doorway opening from the Kitchen to the back porch, and use part of the Laundry Room for the Kitchen. See the Kitchen page for details. Wednesday the 6th we meet with Keith of Northwest Structural to go over our foundation plans, finalize the date of the move, and look over the house for remaining things to do before they move the house for us. A very good weekend. Okay, once more, I can't hold it in: FLOOR.
06/19/05 This weekend we finished repairing the pocket door walls and the sub floor in the parlor; the parlor is now complete! We also managed to put one piece of plywood down on the kitchen floor. We need to clean up some of the debris under the house before we can finish the kitchen floor. After taking an assessment today, we think we have to finish the fireplace wall of the living room, the floor joists between the Living Room/Kitchen and the Den, the wall between the Den and the Living Room, and upstairs the wall between the Master Bedroom & Bedroom 3 before the move. Our next project will most likely be the wall between the Den & the Living Room.
06/11/05 We spent a couple of hours at the
house
today. We
were able to rebuild the Living Room side of the Pocket Door
wall
today.
Doesn't sound like much but when you consider the fact that
each 2x4
had to not
only be cut to length but also for width (the wall is narrower
than a
standard
wall because its actually two walls with a space in between
for the
doors) we
accomplished quite a bit.
We also took the rough foundation
plans back to our neighbor (an engineer) so he could draw up
the final
plans. Won't be long and we can get bids for the
foundation.
06/09/05 Kass and her son finished cleaning up the old shed today; they hauled 3 loads of boards to the burn pile and burned them. When Rick came home from work, Kass and he picked up al the non-burnable stuff and loaded the trailer for the dump. Still need to take the tractor down and scoop up all the sawdust that was in the walls.
05/28/05 Today we finally were able to work on the house again. In fact we worked on it all 3 days of the holiday weekend. The weather even cooperated so we decided to tackle the back roof area. Three long 10 hour days later and the roof on the back side of the house is complete. Fixing the roof also led to repairing the SW corner of the Master Bedroom, so we were able to cross two things off the list.Kass’ son tackled his own project, tearing down the old shed that was connected to the house.
04/30/05 We replaced the top of the window in Bedroom 2, finished the header and the rest of the wall in there as well. We have some sporting events for the kids coming up, and then we plan to work over Memorial Day Weekend.
04/20/05 Not a lot done over the last few weeks. Alex had an OHSET equestrian meet and Rick's coworker was out for two weeks, then another coworker was out for a week from a medication reaction. Finally went back in there today, removed the top panel of the window that was rotted out and the 2x4 stud next to the window. We replaced the stud but can’t put the header in until we get a new top piece for the window in. Need to get one we can stain to match the rest of the window.
03/19/05 Rick & Fred managed to get the top plates replaced in the wall spanning the Bathroom & Bedroom 2. Also sistered in two rafters in the bathroom as well. Kass & Jayden made it down to help finish the studs in the wall before Fred had to leave, and then we put in the header above where the new bathroom window will go.
03/16/05 Rick's co-worker injured herself so he had to go into work today. Kass & her dad replaced the sill plate along the Bathroom wall and into Bedroom 2. One of the tarps came loose and when they went up on the roof to fix it, it began to rain. Talk about just in time! No new pictures yet, but we promise, soon!
03/15/05 Met with Dave at Kitchen Concepts in Gresham, OR to get some layout ideas for the Kitchen and the Utility room. We did a couple of different layouts of the Kitchen, one with all the original doors, one without, and the first layout of the utility room met all our needs. Our only decision on the Utility room is whether to build the cabinets ourselves to match the original cabinet already there, or to up date all the cabinetry there. Tomorrow we plan on working on the house and getting pictures to update. Dean finished repairing the upper wall, but did not put a 2x8 or 2x12 over it so we can decide on the level of the upper deck and put on which ever will suit our needs.
03/14/05 The 2nd floor wall has been put back into place! Dean was there today and had it pulled up and in very quickly. He plans on putting a 2x8 or 2x12 over the front to hold it in place and for us to attach the upper deck to when we get that far, but it looks so much better now! The molding in Bedroom 2 now lines up correctly, and there's no more 'view' to the ground below. Pictures will be obtained ASAP!
03/09/05 The bearing wall in the kitchen is finally up! No pictures just yet but we have it in place and removed the jacks that have been there for so long. We also met with Dean Hansell of Hansell Construction, a contractor who went through the house and said we had made good solid progress and approved of the work we had done so far. Gave us a list of things he felt we should work on to get it ready to move, in priority order, and he will be coming out next week to pull in the second floor wall that came loose when the front porch collapsed. Might be working on the house more this weekend, if we can get permission from our kids. :)
03/02/05 Due to weather, high school sports and busy work schedules, we have not done much work on the house over the last couple of months. We completed the living room ceiling joists today! There's still a small amount of sag on one side, but there's a missing bearing wall to put in that should help with that. We're also considering putting in two exposed beams to assist leveling out the floor. This would open up the kitchen and the living room area into a great room. We'll have to think it over and decide soon. We may be moving it in four or five months, and there's a lot of work left to be done!
01/10/05 We did a little work on Jan 1st, rebuilding the wall between the bathroom and the SW corner bedroom on the 2nd floor. We also received $100 in gift certificates for Home Depot for x-mas we are deciding how to spend. <grin> Looked into radiant floor heating for the house and we're thinking that's the way we may go. Had a little problem with the tarps on the roof but for the last couple weeks it's been dry & tight. Hope to be back to regular updates on here soon!
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