Centennial update

In the midst of all this remodeling and the ever growing boundaries of the project we realized that the house will be 100 years old next year and this will be the centennial update that it deserves to both bring out its history and make it more functional in this modern world. Seems easier to justify the scope of the work we are doing knowing this bit of information. We plan on a centennial celebration when the whole deal is finished so everyone can see the final product.

In uncovering the Douglas fir wood floors, we decided to keep and refinish them rather than install new bamboo floors in the spirit of doing this as green as possible and bringing the house's history into plain view. They seem in pretty good shape overall. A few variations in color from years of use, but it all just adds character, eh?

Brown teepee on the walls ready for the cabinets.

BAM! Cabinets delivered.

Who stole the kitchen?

Having spent hours working out all the cabinet details with Erin (cabinet specialist at Lowes), we ordered a set of cherry cabinets about 4 weeks ago. Well, time passes and 4 weeks quickly go by and before we know it, we only just have enough time to remove the existing cabinets, tile and subfloor, and appliances, AND paint the walls before accepting delivery of the new cabinets. Rina assures me that the last few days have been the 'low point' in the upstairs remodel, as we are now using the bathroom sink for both hygenic and not so hygenic applications, due to lack of water in the kitchen. Here are a few photos of our bare bones kitchen.

View from the back of the house to the front door with cabinets and appliances removed, tile and subfloor removed. As we demolish the house in stages we are also learning more about its history. You can see where there was a rug nailed to the wood floor with the floor painted around it (in the middle of the house). Also there is evidence on the floor of the location of the old kitchen walls and old doorway to the kitchen.

View into the kitchen. Who stole the cabinets? What's up with the camouflage paint job? We decided on 'brown teepee' to the right of the doorway. The electrician's input swayed the final decision.

Oh, there they are, in the living room - naturally. We managed to sell these on craigslist in less than 24 hours!

Call the cath lab!

We are in the process of moving to the next step and finding someone to finish the basement once the digging has been completed. Funny how it seems fairly simple on paper and in our heads, but once you start talking to these contractors, there are a lot of little (or not so little) things that come to light and need to be addressed. For instance, the plumbing for the basement either has to be evacuated via a sewage ejector that is recessed in the basement floor and pumped up to the main drain, OR the main drain needs to be dug out and relocated a few feet lower all the way out to the city sewer. Take a peek at the cross section of the small section of pipe that Ivo cut out while excavating. Based on this nearly compete obstruction, we are wanting to replace the main drain line rather than go with a sewer ejector. We patiently await a bid to see how much this will cost. If these were coronary arteries a CABG would be in order.

Left drain pipe - what should be a patent center is crammed with, well sewage, I guess.
Center pipe - you can see a lot of roots obstructing the pipe. The creamy center is where the remaining 2-3 inches of space was draining the waste from the house.

The day Mike and Jen posted their kitchen color dilemma, we ran into the same problem. Now I am voting for sticking with the camouflage look. It is hard to predict what the color will look like on the wall with the cabinets installed . It's easy to see why people play it safe and go with white or some variation of very light tan.

Neffs Canyon Hike

Lucy, Rina and I went for a beautiful fall hike in Neffs Canyon the other day. All the leaves had turned and most had fallen already. It is a steep hike, which means that you climb out of the inverted smoggy air quickly. the view down into Salt Lake gives you a good perspective, but makes you realize how bad the air can get in the valley during the winter.

Rina and myself at the meadow just below the Big Cottonwood ridgeline.

Good girl Lucy!

View down the canyon to smoggy SLC.

Rina and the alpenglow.

One tired doggie.

Come Lucy!

Archeologic discovery

The basement excavation continues to move ahead as expected. Over 8 Mack truck loads of earth has been relocated to the landfill, leaving the furnace and water heater stranded in the middle of the basement. The majority of the walls have been underpinned, and there has only been a few minor cracks here and there. Today, Ivo knocked on the door to show us that he uncovered an old well under the bedroom.

Airing out the dirt from under the house.

The furnace and water heater shored up as the earth around them are removed bit by bit.

The view from the new front window (to-be).

The south wall underpinned with new concrete footings and wall.
Pretty straight considering the age of the existing walls.

A 6 foot deep piece of history.
We can only presume this is the remnant of a well or outhouse from when the house was built in 1908!
It's under the addition on the back of the house.

Las Vegas and back

Last week Rina and I drove down to Las Vegas for a CME conference where we met up with Sam and Megan and their crew. En route we camped for a night at Zion National Park and went for a short hike. It was the first time either of us had been there, and we were duly impressed by the canyon and surrounding rock formations. We are definitely going back for some real exploring.

Fall

As it was, even with a brief hike the morning that the conference started, we rushed to get to Las Vegas, cutting it down to the wire, checking in all sweaty, plopped down in our seats waiting for everything to get started only to realize that something wasn't right. There were only 10 people in this vast lecture hall, and no one seemed in a rush to get started. It wasn't until about 30 minutes of waiting that we realized there was an hour time difference between Utah and Nevada, so although we thought we got there right on time, we were actually an hour early! Much to Rina's relief.

Excavation continues

Ivo, our basement digger and neighbor.

Not even a month into our basement excavation, and things are moving along nicely. Ivo projects that most of his work will be done before Thanksgiving, and based on his projections so far we have little reason to doubt that. It has been noisy, and dusty, and some days it is more comforting to be out of the house so you can hear yourself think and ignore the little voice in the back of your head that says 'I hope the place doesn't collapse'. Ivo has already dug out under most of the existing foundation and poured a new concrete foundation underneath. It is so exciting to see all this new space moving toward being usable.

2 sections of wall under our existing foundation that have been dug out. You may wonder what's holding up the house.

Phew! Thanks Rina.

Ivo poured new footings and walls in sections to give Rina a break.

The rebar for the footing and wall. It is dowelled into the existing footing above and into the new walls on either side.