The first stretch of dry weather is finally here. The last 2 1/2 weeks have been nothing but rain, about 10 inches worth. The outside trenches have water in them but on the other hand, the demo guys are having a field day. There are now 10 guys working on the site. Five of them are under the house digging a massive trench for the foundation reinforcement. Things should happen quickly now.

With all of the cutting away of the floor for the foundation reinforcement and the rain we have been having, today we decided that it is more trouble than it's worth to save the hardwood floor in the living room. This is 2 1/4" quartersawn oak at about $12/sq ft installed. With all of the holes in it, it would be very hard to match new to existing wood without seeing where it was patched. Also, the wood is only 1/2" thick instead of the standard 3/4". This just complicated the problem.

The middle of my living room floor is being cut so the foundation can be reinforced.

With our temporary demo permit in place, we can start demolition. Now we aren't planning on tearing the entire house down but rather save as much as we can and do a minimal amount of changes. A full set of pictures with captions can be seen in the Photo Gallery.

Fireplace Demolition

Well we got a permit to allow for a partial demolition. The Art Jury is holding this up saying that they want to see some details on the plans.