House

House

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

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

Friday, October 10, 2014

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.