Remodel Day 57 - 3/31/2011

Here is the front of the house before the exterior demo. The prior posts have been devoted to the demo of the inside of the house. This post will cover the demo of the outside of the house. It was pretty exciting and was the most dramatic change so far. AND it was definitely the LOUDEST. Lots of banging, lots of advil and earplugs to deal with my headache.


So our contractor Rob explained the process for me. Apparently they have to "peel" off layers of the house in order to maintain it's structural integrity. If they just started hacking away the whole house could collapse. So the peeling involved meant chipping off the exterior stucco and getting down to the studs of the house.




Here is a close up of the "peeled" house.










After the "peeling" the studs started coming down. I have to admit I don't have the pictures in mid demo. It was too loud and I needed to get out of the house for a while. Here is what I returned to. See the wooden floor and the studs? That is where the old bedroom was.


Here is another shot of the whole front of the house. It looks huge. What was 4 smaller areas (kitchen, living room, hallway and bedrooms) is now totally gutted and is one very large space. Plus the addition makes the area look so big (where we expanded and pushed out into the front yard). It looks like a massive space to me right now, but I'm sure it will look more realistic when the walls start going up.



Another shot of the front. Jess is standing in the middle of it. She looks like she is lost in the desert.






Here are a few things I found in the rubble. OK, not really. But it's a cute shot of the kids in a wheel barrow.



And at the end of the day, here is what the house looks like. The house gets "tented" so to speak to cover the exposed areas. Also to keep the crawl space in the ceiling dry. The kids think it looks like we are living in a sailboat. It does kind of look that way, especially when the wind is blowing.

More soon......the adventure continues.

Remodel Day 45 thru 49 Bathroom demo - (3/19/2011 thru 3/23/2011)

Bathroom going.......

Going.....

Gone!

Remodel Day 45 thru 49 Living Room demo - (3/19/2011 thru 3/23/2011)

OK - another one that's not very exciting. But the front demo is coming! Hang on!!! Here is the living room BEFORE.

And here is the living room being stripped down to the studs.

Remodel Day 45 thru 49 Hallway demo - (3/19/2011 thru 3/23/2011)

Decidely not one of the more exciting posts, but nonetheless
important. The hallway and closets are being demo'd (is that a word) and being re-constructed the the right of where it was (i.e. closer to the kitchen). This will make more room for the bedrooms.




Here is the hallway after. See that piece of wood at the end of the hallway. That is sealing off the middle bedroom from the front of the house that will soon be ripped off. All 4 kids will be sleeping in that room during the demo. We've set up 2 bunk beds and they will all be in there together. The whole reason we are adding another bedroom is so that Emily and Henry will have their own rooms since right now they are sharing. An almost 11 year old girl and her pesky 4 year old brother have not made for good roommates. Jessie and Catie will still share a room. They are not interested in being apart. I guess that is a twin thing.

Here's how the middle bedroom looks. Say a prayer for us. Hopefully they will survive the remodel......and each other!

Remodel Day 45 thru 49 Kids' bedroom demo - (3/19/2011 thru 3/23/2011)

Here is Jessie and Catie's bedroom. The whole "train" of bedrooms are being reconfigured. We are adding one additional bedroom and then redistributing the existing space (including a small bathroom) to make room for the extra room.




BEFORE




AFTER
Here is the room mid-demo where the closets are being removed.










Here is a picture of the room from the front of the house. The kids' bedroom is on the right side of the house. The upcoming posts will show the whole front of the house being removed. Yikes!

Remodel Day 45 thru 49 Kitchen demo - (3/19/2011 thru 3/23/2011)

Days 45 through 49 have been the demolition days. So instead of showing each day, I'm devoting each post to one room. You can see the rooms disappear. This is one room that I'm VERY happy to see disappear. After 10 years of cooking in a very small galley kitchen we are tearing down walls and expanding it. I'm not sorry to say goodbye to the circa 1970s gold appliances and chipped grout/tile counter tops. Going, going, gone....









The BEFORE picture.

Removing the upper cabinets.








Pulling out the old appliances.







Good bye old cabinets and floors!!










The gutted shell.







And here's a picture from a different view. This is from the old living room looking into the old kitchen area. That wall (which is only the vertical beams now) will be removed and will be replaced with a NINE FOOT ISLAND!!! Woo hoo!!!

Remodel Day 44 - 3/18/2011

It's officially moving day. We are moving out of the front of the house into the back of the house. And....the demolition of the interior will begin. I'm scared. But for now I'll show you our new temporary digs.

Our new multi-purpose room that will serve as the kitchen/dining room/family room. See the wall with writing on it? That is the temp wall that separates the front of the house where all the construction is happening from the back of the house where we are now living. Our contractor brought the kids some markers and told us to "have fun" with the wall and let the kids use it for their art work. They had a ball drawing pictures and scribbling today.

Note to self: Make it very clear to the kids that any and all "wall writing" can take place during the remodel and must cease and desist as soon as the construction is over.

Here are a few more shots of the room. Who knew one room could serve so many purposes? Here's the entertainment section. If you need a little nosh while you're watching TV you don't even have to get up!

The pantry of course.....

And welcome to the Art Gallery.

Remodel Day 43 - 3/16/2011

The demo continues onto the right side of the house.

Remodel Day 43 - 3/17/2011

The PODS have arrived.....beware.

We've been packing all week. And living with boxes and piles of "stuff" all over the house. Clutter makes me tense. I'm a self proclaimed OCD neat freak. I feel that having a not-so-organized husband, 4 kids and a dog is a test of my mettle to see how much I can handle. Some days I do well......and other days I don't. This week I was not doing so well. It was overwhelming living in the disarray and on top of it having the kids home for spring break. I thought I was going to break. OK - enough complaining.

BUT........ today was a good day.

The PODS people arrived.

They delivered a 16' x 8' x 8' storage unit.

(2 hours late I might add!)

We thought it would fit in our driveway. We were wrong.

So instead it was deposited on our front lawn. I apologize to our extremely patient and supportive neighbors for tolerating this eyesore. But we had no choice. We'll make it up to you all this summer with multiple pool parties.......we promise.

Back to the story ....... so today we loaded up the POD with all of the boxes and "stuff" that was cluttering up our house. As of tomorrow we will have to be completely out of the front part of the house since the demolition of the interior will begin. If you have a minute, say a prayer for us. We could use it.

Remodel Day 42 - 3/15/2011

The exterior demolition started today. The contractor described it as "peeling" off parts of the house rather than demolition. He said if he just started knocking down walls it would destabilize the structure of the house.

Ummmmm.....ok.......sounds good to me.

They started knocking off the stucco on the house by banging and hammering and banging. All day long. Here is what the house looked like at the end of a long and very NOISY day.

Remodel Day 41 - 3/14/2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today the subflooring was added. This is the plywood floor that will be under the hardwood floors.

BUT.....the more exciting thing I want you to look at is those long metal posts coming up out of the floor.
(See the big red arrow ..... as if it wasn't obvious enough on its own). Those are part of the house bolting process.

Yes indeed. Anything that is going to help my house from rocking and rolling in an earthquake - I'm all for it. I'm a Jersey girl. Me no likey earthquakes.

When the contractor asked us if we wanted to have the house bolted down I didn't wait and consult with Tom - I gave him a resounding YES and let him have at it.

Remodel Day 39 - 3/12/2011

Adding insulation to the flooring. That's it. Sorry for the boring post. I was out of town so I'm not sure how the day went.

Remodel Day 38 - 3/11/2011

After a few more rain days, the work continues.

The concrete is set and the wooden molds around the concrete were removed.

These are floor joists. These will form the basis for the floors. I had to look up the term for these again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joist

Tom took these pictures. He is a much better photographer than I am. I like how the lines of the joists lead your eye - it has movement. What do you think Linda?

Remodel Day 35 - 3/08/2011

Today was a very exciting day for us. Well......I should say it was kind of exciting for us but it was REALLY, REALLY exciting for Henry. Check out his face. It's a pretty cute face, wouldn't you say? Well I would - but then again I'm his mother and being that I made that face and all, I think it's pretty cute.





OK - back to the main story line.....he is smiling because he was waiting for a real live concrete mixer truck to come to our house for a LOOOONG time (his words) and it has finally arrived. The workers were very nice and let him sit in the truck and even hold the hose while they were pouring in the concrete (well, sort of hold it.)






Remember those wooden molds that were built in the front yard? Well that's where the concrete gets poured into and will form the foundation for the addition. Here....check it out.

Remodel Day 34 - 3/7/2011

AND...... we're back!

We seem to be experiencing the "delays" that everyone has warned us about.

Such as......

1. Rain, rain and more rain.

2. A movie called "Welcome to People" decided to shoot on our block. We had to shut down construction during the filming.

3. Waiting for the permit to be approved. The work done up to the last post was done prior to the final permit. According to the city of Burbank you can do anything you want to the front yard - this explains why all of the demo and digging could be done. BUT.....if we wanted to pour concrete and begin the "real" work of the room addition we needed the finalized permit.

So without further ado ......... drum roll please........heeeeeeere's the PERMIT!!!