Who doesn't love a good trench?

During the end of July and first part of August, there really wasn't much going on at the house.  We were waiting to get the engineering back so that we could move forward with framing.  We planned on removing some of the old walls and putting up a new beam to support the roof.  In the mean time we continued to remove flooring from the back section of the house and did yard work.  

We received the engineering for the new beam and changes to the roof during the first full week of August.  We also got our first supply of lumber on the 7th.  

The old clay pipe sewer line was dug up and replaced with a new pvc sewer line.  We discovered an old septic tank buried in the back yard that had to be drained and filled in.

Victoria, my bestie, came over and was able to help me take apart the old stove that has been in the basement for forever.  We were able to break it down to a point that Vic, Clay and I were able to lift it up the stairs and out onto the driveway... and there it sits.  I want to put it back together and put it in the garden, but then, I would have to have a garden to put it in.  Hopefully, next summer.

Clay was able to remove the sinks from what must have been the old laundry room in the basement. 

 And... We got some new, temporary walls built to help support the roof while we remove the old walls.  Yeah, now we are putting our home back together! 

Week 9 and 10

Week 9 was the second week of July.  We started removing flooring this week.  We pulled up the teal carpet from the breakfast room and under that the linoleum.  We scraped it all up and also removed all of the staples.  We also started removing the wood flooring from the kitchen, southwest bedroom, the phone room and tile from the inglenook.  

This week we also met with the HVAC guys from Freemont HVAC to plan for how we are going to heat and cool the house.  I've been somewhat torn because I would love to reuse the old radiators, but I don't think that is going to work for us.  Especially because the back section of the house has no radiators in it.  A few years back, the owners put a furnace in the attic, a monstrous beast that is covered in box elder bugs.  We have talked about reusing it, but we would like to relocate it from being dead center in the middle of the attic.  We have talked about using the attic space as a bonus room, and would like to get the old furnace out of the way.  After talking to the HVAC installer, we decided we would replace the old furnace with a new, high efficiency one and move it to the east side of the attic.  We need to place some return air vents in different locations around the house so we discussed this as well.  A few of them will be located in closets, and a few others will be placed in the columns entering the family room. 

Week 10 was a continuation of removing the flooring.  We tried very hard to pull out all the nails and not break the tongue or groove of the planks.  This was a tricky task considering the wood is 94 years old.  The kids were great help removing the nails that we didn't get.  All of the flooring from the center of the house and the back area got removed and stacked out in the garage.  

We spent time cleaning up the yard again this weekend.  It's amazing how fast everything grows.  We raked, trimmed edged and mowed the lawn.  We were also able to sell the range this week which is awesome.  Love getting appliances off the driveway.

BTW... we got our building permit from the city this week. YEAH!!

 OK Kayden... we get it already. You have biceps.

Week 7 and 8

This week we finished taking down the main fireplace to below the floor level.  We removed more lath and plaster from the wall between the future kitchen and dining room, and from the North wall of the front room.  When we removed the wood trim in the front room, we could see that the wall paper was behind it, which leads us to believe that the wall paper in the front room is original.  I wish it was in better condition.  I've put pictures up before, but it is really cool stuff.  I throw some more on here.  

We have completed most of the ceiling and wall demoltion for the main floor at this point, and so we decided to tackle some of the work in the basement.  Clay was able to take apart the old boiler for the radiators that was in the basement and remove it.  We turned off the gas and began removing the pipes in the basement.  Pretty much all the pipes in the basement were hung below the ceiling, but I plan on pullling down the lath and plaster on the ceiling in the basement and getting everything that has to be ran new, up in the ceiling.  We also disconnected the water heater and stored in the extra storage room in the basement. 

Out on the porch, Kayden and I had pulled off all the lath and plaster ceiling, the wood soffit, and wood trim.  Everywhere we pulled down the lath and plaster, it leaves the little nails in the joists and they have to be removed, too.  The kids have always like pulling the nails, because it goes pretty quick and it's easy. This weekend, I had a couple of my nephews (11 yrs. old) at the house, and they loved pulling all the nails out of the porch lid.  They did a great job. 

Week 8 we continued all the odd and end cleaning up that needed to be done to complete the demo.  Removing more nails where the lath and plaster had been, and of course, constantly sweeping up the fine dust.  With no soffit on the house, the wind blows right through the attic and stirs it up.  I sweep the floor continually trying to keep up with it as much as possible. 

We finished removing all the pipes in the basement this week as well.  

We also sold the old refrigerator to a neighbor and the dishwasher off of KSL.  It was nice to get them off the driveway.  The gas range is still out there, though.