Concrete In - Concrete Out

After pouring the footing and stem wall, we needed to carve out a bunch of concrete from the existing slab in the garage, so that we can pour a new, gigantic footing for a support post, and tie it in to existing footings on the perimeter.

Luckily, you can hire people with big diesel powered saws and huge sledge hammers to do this sort of work:




Meanwhile, Pete and Nate peeled the forms off the stemwall, installed the new floor joists, and framed the bumpout wall. All in 100+ degree heat. Lots of water was consumed.




Pete, doing some more framing this morning, is already sweating at 7:15. I'm really glad we put in a/c a few years ago - he can duck in the house when he needs to and cool off.

Unfortunately the forecast calls for "few showers" one day next week. Tarps might make an appearance in this project.

Maybe we need a bigger truck.

Stemwall and Demo

More progress.

Holes in walls, roof gone, footing poured, stem wall forms and poured.

For the footing, Pete had a concrete truck come to the house, and Pete and Nate brought the concrete around to the footing with wheelbarrows. Next they built the forms for the stem wall and tore part of the roof and walls out.

Lots of metal in these forms.



The new view from the front of the house.




For the stemwall, Pete had a concrete truck and a pumper come. Much easier that wheelbarrows... especially for tall forms.




Next they tore the remainder of the roof off the garage. Keeping our fingers crossed that we don't get a freak august rainstorm!

Sylvie thinks this is all great!

Off and running - day one!

Well, that's where we're going to build it. Right on top of that flat roofed garage.





Dirt excavated to make room for the footing.
Forms built for the footing.
Siding torn off the back of the garage.

An exciting day! No turning back now.

The Plan

Well, we decided it's time to do the addition. Currently the garage has a flat roof, and every winter it fills up with water - this year it overflowed and we had some flooding. Also, currently Sylvie is sleeping in our laundry room - converted to a little tiny bedroom. It's nice and convenient that it's across the hall from our room, but it's so small we can't really put a regular twin bed in it - and she's ready to be in a real bed. So, it's time.

We've been working on this design for a while. It'll give us one more bedroom and a master bath. The current teeny tiny room we have upstairs will be converted to hallway/sitting area. Then we're adding regular sized room, a master bedroom with a couple of nice closets, and a big bathroom.

To get the size bedroom/bathroom we wanted, we decided to bump out the back of the garage by 6 feet. Or course, that didn't simplify the project at all, requiring new footings and a stemwall. In addition, we have to carve out a slot in the slab in the garage to add a footing and a grade beam.

Pete submitted plans to the county, and with a litlle negotiation, we now have a permit. He hired Nate, a college freshman interested in construction management, to be a second set of hands, and he's been great.