The Weekend Grind

This post is a weekend and a couple of days late but here it is - we decided to try something new a weekend ago and rented a piece of heavy mechanical equipment instead of buying it and, happily, it worked out quite well!  We picked up a tree stump grinder on Saturday morning and returned it on Monday morning and during the interim, ground down close to two dozen tree stumps of varying sizes (everything from giant to relatively small) all over the yard.  One of the stumps is still partially standing even after all our work - it turned out to be just too big to conquer all at once but we managed to reduce it quite a bit in size and will continue to work it down the old-fashioned way (fire, chemicals, ax, and chain saw...not all at the same time, of course) over the next few weeks.

We also started taking the old chain link fence down and discovered that the former owners used anchors on the fence poles, making a hard job even harder.  Having already done this once at the last house and being committed to doing it again now, I'm starting to feel like we may pay a premium just to buy a house without a chain link fence next time!

New machine, hitching a ride with the new(ish) truck

Chomp chomp chomp - note all the wood chips in the back corner already!

Still working...

Corner before, with giant ivy covered stump on the right side and many small stumps hiding under the foliage

And corner after, goodbye fence and many stumps

Ze Plans, Ze Plans!

We are getting closer to starting construction. We have a contractor narrowed down and should have our permits in hand in the next week or two. Hopefully demo will start this month! The plans look a lot like our last house, but on a larger scale. Adding a new second story and doing a two story bump out in the back. That seems to be the biggest bang for your buck construction wise. We're shooting for some nicer finishes on this house as the end price will be higher. If all goes well we will have the first and second floors done by the summer... Maybe Fall... next Winter at the latest.

Current first floor layout

Current basement layout - aka where we'll be living the next 6-8 months!

New basement layout.

New first floor layout. The deck will walk out onto a patio with grill and firepit. 

New second floor layout.

New front elevation. We're going with hardie siding and trim most likely in a dark blue with white trim. 

Right side view.

New back view.

Left side view. 

Laying the Groundwork

It's been pretty slow around here on the tangible house progress front but we are moving along.  We've been working with our house designer and have plans drawn up and submitted to the county for permits.  The house is slated to be even bigger than we originally planned - a whopping 6 bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, 4800 finished sq ft behemoth.  By suburban standards, this might not be too big but it's a significant increase from our last house, which clocked in around 2800 sq. ft.  But while the scope is bigger, then plan is much the same as before - pull off the roof, add a floor, and put a two story addition on the back.  So it's good to remind ourselves that this isn't a new process, just a bigger project!

In the meantime, we've been working on the yard to clean up the foliage and clear a path around the house in anticipation of construction starting and getting organized inside and out.  One small project with a satisfyingly large impact was cleaning out and organizing the garage.   The prior owner had some nice shelving and work benches in the garage but when we moved in, we just piled stuff in and around the garage without much planning or sorting.  So, we finally took a day to go through our tools and other items and get them organized and put on shelves.  We also demo'd a bunch of the shelving and workbenches to make more space and used a favorite trick of taking the doors off existing storage cabinets to create more visible storage space.  This wasn't a big project but it's a good one to check off the list.

This is kind of a mess

More mess...

Much better

We may even be able to find our tools now!

   

It's a jungle out there

We're still here, lack of recent blog posts notwithstanding!  We've unpacked and settled in and are hard at work on developing construction plans.  We're tentatively planning to add another level and might put an addition on the back as well but we have to see how the plans, and the budget, look before we make a final decision on scope of the project.  In the meantime, we've been tackling the backyard.  The prior owners clearly loved gardening and the yard is chock-full of hostas, azeleas, holly bushes, along with plenty of other flowers and shrubs I can't even identify.  We'll keep a good deal of the existing landscaping and move some of the plants around but we also want to add in more grass and reclaim some usable space.  So, it was back to our old friend Craigslist and we were happy to find plenty of people willing to come over and dig up many of the plants and take them to new homes.  We were less happy, however, to discover just how thoroughly the ivy and other weeds had dominated the back quarter of the lot.  We knew it was very overgrown but wading in and starting to clear out the area was still daunting!  We bought a new toy to help out - a brush cutter attachment - and it's been indispensable in cutting through the thick undergrowth.  But, a good deal still has to be done by hand, plus our chain saw has been getting a workout cutting down some of the larger scrub trees.  We're making progress now, though, and will keep on with work.  We need to beat back that ivy, move some shrubs and plants around, and eventually we'll put in sod and probably some garden beds too.  We'll reclaim this yard yet!

Before picture - hard to even see into the back corner!

After picture - still work to be done but much improved!

Before close-up...and this is even after a couple weekends of work on the ivy (note the brown spots)
but there's still plenty there.

Close-up after 

It was almost impossible to even get into the side of the garage before work

Not pretty yet, but at least we can walk back here now

And so it begins

We've moved!  We're unpacking and settling into the new house...and getting started on planning our eventual renovation/reconstruction!  I already had my first run-in with 1950s power supply when I plugged a hot water kettle and a toaster oven into the same outlet and promptly blew the circuit.  Apparently I hadn't realized how spoiled I'd gotten with the old upgraded house!  A couple of nice things about the new house, though - it's so much bigger than our old house was when we first moved in.  We have two decently sized bedrooms on the first floor and two bathrooms, plus a whole lot more square footage, including several closets, overall.  There's also a partially finished basement with another bathroom that will come in very handy when construction starts, since we may move downstairs while we work on the first floor and planned second floor.  So the living conditions are already better from the start.  And, this house appears to have been maintained well, which is always helpful.  For the most part, appliances seem to work, we don't appear to have drainage problems, etc.  Of course, we're only 48 hours into living here so I may be speaking too soon, but I'm hopeful that for the most part, it's a good, solid house.

As with the last house, there are design and other challenges ahead but we're excited about it.  But first, some "before" pictures...and we'll get to work on updating the blog intro and everything else soon too!

Living room - a good size with a big fireplace

Not a bad bathroom but I already miss our big master bath...

I am a seriously bad photographer...but this is a sunroom off the kitchen.  And you can see the existing two car garage in the backyard.

Hello tiny kitchen!

"Master" bedroom

The best part of the house - large, flat, private lot.  We'll be spending some serious time out here working on the landscaping but I already love it!

Moving on

No pictures today, but we do have a status update...we're moving tomorrow!  Time to say goodbye to this house and head off to a new project.  There are so many things I'll miss about this house - the spacious master bath, the kitchen with its island and Wolf range, the fire pit and grill in the backyard, the great neighbors on our street...and at the same time, we're excited to get started on a new project.  In my mind (if not in reality), this house has been finished for awhile - design choices had been made, construction largely completed, and we were just executing our vision.  So I'm looking forward to getting back to asking the big open questions - what size addition, what style house, how to execute construction, etc.  I'm sure the new house will involve new questions and problems and we'll have to figure things out on the fly...and at the same time, we've learned so much from this house - about construction, planning, and how much chaos we can or can't take at any given moment - that we will, hopefully, be a little wiser as we start the next one.  Pictures of the new place to follow soon and it'll come as no surprise that it's another fixer-upper.  Stay tuned!

Aaaaaaaaaand Done!

As of Sunday afternoon the house is officially done! Our Realtor sent over an amazing photographer and we will be listing the house today. All the below photos are from Jodi May at http://places.jodimay.com/. Hopefully it sells fast and we can find our next project!