Sooooo... I'm not a blogger

Its late and I don't know what to say. Here are some photos.

We did some digging...

We did some more cutting...

...and some more cutting

New sewer line out to the street!

...and new plumbing in the basement.

I thought I'd add a little history. Here are some shots of the house from june 2011.
If you want a closer look just click on any photo to see the details

So you ask,. Why are you doing this? Well... This is how the previous owner explained the problem to me. If you want a closer look just click on any photo to see the details

At some point in the house's past an owner decided to build up the front yard with topsoil that he had access to working for a landscaper. The problem he must have run into was how much dirt to add around the base of the house. He had so much soil in fact that he could have buried the basement windows all together. So he kept the soil just under the height of the existing window well, created by cider blocks around the window closest to the front of the house. (You'll see in the pictures.) The problem was, that 3 ft from the house the dirt was raised higher, creating a hill and forcing water to run toward the house, collecting water at the foundation and eventually in the basement. It had to go.

This is where Dad comes in. My Dad use to run heavy machinery around farms and anywhere else he could get his hands on a dozer, tractor, or anything weighing over eight tons. I think although retired he'd love to continue doing it. He's pretty good too, and I knew that I'd have only a limited time with a backhoe if I rented one. He's efficient and I'd spend the first couple hours just learning how to run it so I called him.  He was happy to do it and I sorted out the best size of machine to fit in the yard and still have the power to move all the dirt, and there is a lot of dirt.

Also on the agenda were 4 tree stumps but I only knew of 3. One had been buried by the dirt and although it hadn't seen the light of day for awhile it had long roots. The two biggest tree stumps were growing against the foundation the largest of which was centered under the front window of the house.
the other on the south side of the house growing its roots nicely tucked under, around and on top of the natural gas line. Happy day! That would require surgery, slow slow surgery.

Hmmmm... who owes me some work. Cheston does. Cheston really does. So he and I spent almost an entire day removing the stump from the front of the house. Cheston kept repeating "Why don't you just call a tree guy to grind the stump out." If it had been a normal tree I might have but it was one of those Chinese Elms that grow all over the valley like weeds. In fact are weeds. I HATE THEM. The worst tree in the world, and if you leave an ounce of root it will grow back so grinding the stump wasn't an option. It must be eradicated completely from the ground.

So thats what we did!

The only casualties of the tree stump removal were Cheston's axe handle, and the water spigot that use to exist in a place protruding from the house between the front window and the north west corner. While cutting at the root I hit it with my axe, sheering the pipe like a hot knife through butter. ...And then came the water.
Running to get a wrench I returned to the valve at the street. (There is no valve in the house yet.)
All was fine and we continued cutting away at the roots until a celebratory picture taking ceremony.

The last discovery was a foundation and two tiers of cinderblock buried under the dirt near the basement window at the back of the house. I thought it was just dirt until we hit it with the bucket of the  backhoe. This might have been the reason for for all the dirt. Who knows? What I do know was how long it took to get it out of there. After breaking away the cinderblock, that was filled with concrete by the way, I had to dig a hole under the foundation big enough to get a 1-1/2 ton jack under it. This way I could hit it with the sledge hammer above the ground allowing the concrete to break apart easier.

Then it all had to go to the dump!  The stumps got mulched and the concrete recycled. It took 4 trips with a 14ft trailer to haul it away. The dirt however is piled in the yard about 8ft high 12ft wide and 25ft long.

So if you need some dirt...

     



       
   

So this is why I don't do Facebook... Because I'll never get around to checking or updating it anyway. I'm making and effort to keep this thing updated and maybe interesting. And I can pretty much say what I want because no one is reading it at this point anyway.  I've decided I should better explain what is going on with the house as it progresses. Or why it isn't.

This couple of photos are what I'm working on this week and i'll show my work at the end... well if your lucky. This is a close up of the adobe brick exposed through a layer of parge, in this case Plaster. I'm concerned that if I don't fill these spots with something like Structolite® that any moisture from humidity that might build up condense or or just get sucked up by the adobe, weakening the wall or just melt away the adobe brick.

The problem I have is the current temperature of the house stays at about 37º degrees. So I'm going to create a plastic tent for keeping the wall warm enough for the new plaster to set up. At least I hope.
Here are some other shots.

What you are looking at is where the wall between the bath room and kitchen will be as soon as this is plaster is fixed. There are two other places exposed like this. They are all created by the ends of old walls that I've removed. only one of these places will be exposed when the house is put back together.

This next pictures are of the wall between the kitchen and bathroom being removed.

    

The Basement

So here are some shots of the basement, although the "now"ones are about a month old. ...You get the idea. Notice the beams are gone!!! Whahooo!

The Kitchen Then and Now

Introduction

To help answer questions about our little house renovation project pouring in from around the world we’ve set up this blog, to be filled with photos, videos and commentary expressing our deepest desires to be finished with the damn thing.

You may be asking yourself why the name “ The House of Potential”.  Well, from the first moment we looked at the house we were saying… “It has potential.” In fact every person who has seen the house and walked under its tall ceilings and tried to make out the graffiti, questioned the loose wiring hanging from the outlets, or choked up at the sight of plumbing running on the exterior of the walls has said, “…Well it has potential.”

So while you’re here try and enjoy or just imagine all the possibilities this little house has to offer, like the chance to see what the dirt looks like under the concrete basement floor, or how gravity affects large heavy metal objects held above your head. It’s a chance to gather some trade skills, like reading a measuring tape. (Those little lines represent 16^th’s of an inch by the way. Who new? ) Don’t miss out on the magical and wondrous phrases created by stepping on a framing nail.

So come along, experience it with us.


J