Month: April 2007

Looks pretty much the same as yesterday. The workers spent the day working on assembling the steel in the trench in the garage. I think they are pretty much finished with it. I want to pull up the boards this weekend and take some pictures of it.

It doesn’t look much different from the outside, but progress was made today. They plumber put in a drain to the sewer line. This pipe will eventually be inside the garage wall.

They also worked on assembling the steel in the trench in the garage. Once they finish this, it will have to be inspected before the concrete can be poured.

This is the start of day 3 of our construction. I am only going to count days where work was actually done. There was no work on the house yesterday because they had to order steel. The steel goes into a trench in the garage that was created by all the jackhammering two days ago. After they get all the steel in place they will pour concrete over it. Not just any concrete mind you, some sort of special grade concrete that has to be tested to make sure it is the right grade by a city inspector when it is poured. (Yes, this means it is very expensive concrete.)

Here’s a picture of the steel they will be putting into the trench.

Here’s a picture of the trench.

Because of all the structural work going on in the garage. They had to add extra bracing to keep it from falling down. This bracing is right by the front door and the screen door can only open a little bit before hitting it. I can barely fit through the space while holding Falyn. Talia has to turn her backpack sideways to get it out the door. Here’s a picture of it.

Today was a very loud day around here. They jackhammered part of the driveway and the garage. They had to make a huge trench in the garage where they have to put a special structural support and pour special grade concrete over it. This is due to the strict California earthquake codes. All the walls that were taken off where done so they can put in shear panel, also due to the earthquake codes. They also completely removed the balcony floor today. This has to be totally redone when they do the framing. Which they might start on tomorrow.

We’ve been getting a lot of lookie-loos. They drive by and stop and stare. Some sit there for several minutes. A few pull over and park and just watch for a while. It is kind of funny to watch them watching!

Here’s pictures of what it looks like today after the workers left.

View of the front of the house.

View of the old bonus room.

View of the garage.

Here’s what the house looks like now.

Here’s what the house looked like when the workers took their lunch break.

Construction has finally started! Here’s what the house looked like before the demo started.

They have already taken off the railing, and ripped off the stucco on the front of the house. I’ll take another picture this afternoon after they finish for the day. I plan to take a picture each day to chronical the progress. The majority of the weekend was spent clearning out the rests of the garage and bonus room.

Here’s what the garage looked like this morning.

The bonus room.

Here’s what the room looked like before we cleared it out.

The boys have been glued to the front window watching all the activity.

I’m so excited that the construction has finally started! It will be so nice once it is done. Although it will be a big pain while the work is going on.