LEVELING THE FOUNDATION - PART 2

Ok, I'm back for Part 2. The first thing the crew leader did was to review what the other guy had proposed. Then I showed him all the cracks and gaps and doors. He took lots of measurements with a neat little gadget that shows how much difference there is in elevation for the different areas of the house. After much looking and measuring, a decision was made to put three piers on the kitchen through 2 holes, the same in my bedroom with one in the hall. They also needed an outside pier, just past the front door. Three piers under the wall between the garage and house needed to be shimmed up, too. One of the "big guys" with the company also came by and agreed with the proposed work. He also kept saying that the house was in bad shape. I wanted to tell him to can it, but I also wanted a good job done, so I kept my mouth shut.

The first thing they have to do to dig the holes is to jackhammer away the concrete. That was the most fun (not) of the whole deal. Luckily the workers knew what they were doing and got the job done pretty quickly. And there wasn't nearly as much dust generated as I had expected. I had put a new filter in the A/C and had to change it again the next day when they were finished. Wow!

After opening up the concrete, they have to dig the holes by hand. Yes, by hand!!! And once they got past the top layer, the soil was very hard and it took them a long, long time to get it all dug out. Of course on a couple of the holes they had to go in two directions for the two piers. They did get a couple of other crews out there late in the day, but it was too crowded for them to help out much.

So the day ended with deep holes in the kitchen, bedroom and hall that they covered with big pieces of plywood so I wouldn't fall into one and break my leg as I was told another customer had done.

This is in the kitchen where they are breaking up the concrete.

This is looking down the hall into the bedroom .

This is in the kitchen where they've started digging the dirt out.

This is in the bedroom showing one of the plywood sheets they use to cover the holes.

You can see in the pictures that they covered the walls and cabinets with brown paper to protect them. It seemed to work as the only mishap was a bit of mud on the dryer where they were coming in and out of the door from the kitchen to the garage. No holes in the wall, no dings on the doors. And it was tight with those wheelbarrows!! And they covered the kitchen floor with heavy plastic sheets and only cut out where they needed to dig.

Tomorrow - the real work. I'll post pictures of the workers down in those holes driving the piers. Really cool!

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM

Today is Day 2 of "after the work." Things are beginning to get back to normal, whatever that is. I walked to the grocery store yesterday for some things to tide me over until I can drive again. Despite it being a bit warm, it was a nice walk. The frozen items in my handmade grocery tote that I carried over one shoulder kept me cool on the return trip.

I've done a once-over with the vacuum and replaced some of the flooring. The crew was able to get the hall flooring up in one big piece. The bedroom, however, will be like a jigsaw puzzle. I've done a few small repairs. One baseboard in the bedroom got popped off when some debris that was under the wall got pushed out. That's been fixed. I also got the folding door between the kitchen and dining room back on track. Also got one strike plate reset, but have a couple more to do. Still lots of stuff to do like caulking and patching, but that needs to wait about 60 days for everything to settle. No problem!!! Actually, once I get the flooring relaid in the bedroom, the only real evidence of the work will be the two concrete patches in the kitchen surrounded by neatly cut out linoleum. Maybe the look will catch on with the HGTV set?

I'll be working on pictures today and hope to start posting them by tomorrow with a full documentation of the process. Meanwhile, I want to thank all those who sent messages of support while I was enduring this process. It really means a lot to me to know that my cyberfriends are there for me.

LEVELING OF THE HOUSE

Well, we are on the second day of the adventure I call "The Leveling of the House". I'll do the full story in a few days, complete with pictures. Needless to say it's been a real experience for me and the kitties. Having a house filled with men, dust, dirt and flies hasn't been fun, but the crew has been gracious and very helpful and all my many questions have been answered to my satisfaction. At about 10:15 today the house was pronounced level. The vast majority of the cracks are now closed and all but one door closes properly. That one just needs to be lowered a bit because the frame itself is out of whack. The crew should be out of my hair and my house early this afternoon and then the clean-up begins. Since the cost of this repair has depleted my vacation funds, I'll spend my time patching cracks and getting the house back to normal.

To compound things, my refrigerator went out on Wednesday. I ran out to Sears and purchased a new one which will be delivered today. Hopefully they will be able to get in the kitchen to hook it up. I thought the foundation crew would be done yesterday, but . . .

I'll be back with lots of pictures as I wanted to document this process. It's interesting and lots of very hard, physical work for the crew.