July 2005

Mike spent most of this month working on a salvage job in Washington, PA. While he was hard at work, I created this website and started demolition on two of the bedrooms. We managed to get three footings poured for the lally columns and all lally columns installed. We also installed new stringers for the basement stairs. I have included some photos of the gutted living room and den, as well as some photos of the stairway. The stairs will likely be one of the next major projects since it is missing a stringer and they are completely unlevel.

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Demolition completed by Laura. I did the whole thing with only a hammer and obviously no ladder.

Here is an example of how much trash comes out of one room. I filled four construction bags so far.

I finally got a ladder and completed the rest of the demo. I filled 10 trash bags with plaster.

Here is one of the footings, a form and the jack. The footing is curing now, but will soon have a lally column in place of the jack to suport the main beam of the house.

Here's our first lally column in place.

The footings have set and Mike is making sure that the lally column is level before securing it in place.

Mike finished installing the lally columns in the basement. It's looking pretty good!

We cut out two new stringers for the basement stairs. The old stringers were rotted out where they touched the concrete.

Here's Mike installing the old steps on the new stringers.

Here's the final product. I think it meets Ziggy's approval.

A photo of the wall in the den.

The corner post in the den.

The gutted living room, a.k.a "the shop".

The corner of the living room.

The front of the living room.

The under side of the stairs. Notice the right side of the picture...this is not a real stringer.

Our crooked stairs...the next big project!

Here's a look at our third bedroom. I demolished this by myself and with a ladder. Yep, that's 14 bags of trash!

Here's a look at what used to be the closet. I think this room will be converted into the bathroom of our master suite.

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