And he is back like thunder, or at least October rain

Well I am back working on the project after a vacation, injury to my hand and general laziness. However, work proceeded thanks to my main contractor (Doug) who has voluntarily and graciously taken roughly two+ hours out of his day for the past three months to make sure that things didn't stall in my absence. I have decided to take a modular approach to the gutting the remainder of the house in order to keep focused on the ultimate goal. It will proceed room by room now and the next space wont be tackled until everything is cleared, clean, and torn out of the previous. Hopefully this will allow me to see measurable progress as more and more rooms become finished. Finally, There is a new milestone which falls somewhere between hopefully and maybe as far as being met. The goal is to have the whole house cleaned, gutted and prepped for reconstruction by the end of October...

Dust My Broom

Today ended up being a pretty productive Sunday with no injuries despite the book of OSHA violations that happened. The trough connecting the second story to the dumpster started the day lying sort of close to the dumpster. Though extremely well built lightness was really not part of the design. So in a DeLind manner It was a few hours of Dave vs. 300lbs of plywood. I would like to say that I beat it, almost single handedly without dropping it on myself or falling out a second story window. I will take this point to dust off my sholders both proverbably and of plaster residue. I think the morning could be summed up when I was hanging out a window holding onto a rope hooked through rafters with a slip knot around one end of the trough winching the whole system up with a highly technical and professional piece of galvanized pipe. This was the point one of the neighbors walking his dog stopped by and decided whether or not I wanted it (I clearly had the situation under controll) he was going lend a hand. So with that and a lot of manly swearing it got nailed in place providing a successful shute to a 22cy dumpster. From that point about 65 bags of plaster enjoyed their makeshift slide as well as the majority of the second floor's carpet, cabinets, lath (I know that I talk about "lath" in most postings, but words really don't illustrate how prevasive and pain in the ass the stuff is so everytime it gets, torn out, burned, or thrown away I feel accomoplished)... Doug made his way out around three in the afternood and we tackeled most of the remaining rooms. It seems doable at this point to have everything out before I leave the country. With that said, today was a day of progress and I am off to have a beer get ready for the next week.

The Week of 7/13-7/20

Let me start off by thanking all of my friends and family who came out to help when they could over the last week and a special thanks to Shawn who on his own free will is pulling 6-8 hour days. The past week hit some major milestones in the progress sense of the word though there is one major setback which needs to be worked through carefully. Victories include the 90% gutting of the upstairs including plumbing, electrical, ceilings, walls, and the bathroom. Very little remains except clear out of the rubble and detail work really as far as tearing things out is concerned. In the next few days there will probably be a construction dumpster added to the landscape to dispose of everything in one swoop (carpet, plaster, wood, old insulation, lath, as well as the people who I don't really like). It is a bit pricey, but I think that in order to not get bogged down that everything just needs to get dumped out.
The project is far, very far, from being over but the light at the end of the tunnel for stage one. Its about time too...I mean as much fun as it is ripping things apart I really do enjoy putting them back together more.
I decided that the addition of the house had ceilings that were too low for the space so they proceeded to get kicked out in order to be lofted. Once the space was opened up I notice the first major problem with the house structurally. After taking measurements and running some analysis on the trusses and how they are tied together I found they don't meet the criteria for a "stable" structure as is defined by current codes. It worries me a little since this is a major section of the house, so the first order of business after tear out is done is to double the truss thickness, add cross bracing between the trusses, put in various bracing in both directions . So the game is now figuring out how to put in support columns and cross bracing in such a way that provides an aesthetically pleasing space as well as a sound set of rooms while keeping the existing structure standing. I guess its a good think I know a pretty good and partially licensed civil engineer...

The story of the past week to match these will be posted tonight!

Sorry for slacking in posting

Well the title is not a missnomer. I should have been posting for a few days now since there has been miles of progress made and a few marathon days put in as well as some new developments, but it will have to wait for tomorrow I am very tired and sadly have no pictures yet but in the next day or so should have a solid update.

Here is the weekend in recap!

The other weekend post was to waylay all my avid followers... I was really too tired to type anything of merit though. So brace yourself for here comes: the weekend in retrospect.
As mentioned previously Shawn and Hunter came to town to give me slightly more than a helping hand with gutting. Shawn and I started the day at about 9 in the morning after finishing a cup of coffee. By noon I had two car fulls of scrap wood carted to East Lansing for burning, furthermore we had the ceiling torn out as well as the walls. The excitement of the morning came when I had the brilliant idea of trying to pull the sink unit out without disconnecting the garbage disposal electrical (I thought the breaker was off in all fairness). Needless to say there was some sparking and in the end the breaker may have gone off on its own, but it takes more than a shorting circuit to stop the likes of us.
When Hunter showed up we had progressed to the last standing plaster walls on the first floor which were located in the living room. The first crowbar swing of any project is truly one to be remembered, though Hunter decided to take this to a slightly more intense level and accidentally jack his leg with it. We ended the day with cleanup, dinner, beer, and a bonfire of the torn out wood (which is the only way I have figured out how to work beer and socializing on a couch into a claim that I'm actually working on the house all night...)
So there is a real account of the weekend, everyone can stop holding their breath now. A few day break is in order now to get East Lansing cleaned and kept up with and the next round should probably start thursdayish.