So, you'll never guess what happened.

It has been over a year since our last post. We have finished the house and moved in but it wasn't quick or easy. Shortly after the previous post, we had a major "accident". It was a textbook case. I had read all about what happens when trying to underpin an old foundation, but it happened to us in spite of that. Basically, the entire wall of the house nearly collapsed, and the entire side wall and corners had be demolished and rebuilt on new footers from below grade to the roof. I have some pictures but they don't really do it justice. It took 4 months to sort out the mess (no insurance paid a dime!) and 3 months to put back the wall and do the underpinning and pour the basement floor. The floor was poured on Thanksgiving. Then we could proceed. I'll tell more of the story and show more pictures of the whole process , but here are some shots of the interior now that we are living here.

Basement Permit, FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!

What a process it has been! We submitted in December 2008 the request for a building permit for making the basement deeper (changing its cieling height from 6' to 8'). We finally got the permit YESTERDAY, April 10th. In Februray 2009, the request was sent back to us for some more technical information. We promptly put it together and waited, waited...neither one of us is known for abundance of patience, so this was a real test. As early as Monday Will and his guys will start working on the basement, yeah!

In the meantime, we have been working on the main and 2nd floors. As much as we could do without messing with the basement. The HVAC ducts are now in, plumbing work including gas lines is nearly complete. We have been shopping for tiles, countertop materials, kitchen cabinets, bathroom fans, plumbing fixtures (tubs, faucets, bulbs, and all the other "invisible" parts necessary to make bathrooms and kitchen function). Most of these items have been picked and some have been ordered.

The big Japanese-style soak tub has been put in its place. Now it is possible to envision what it's like to be in this bathroom when it's done!

AC ducts, plumbing and electric

Don and Richard have been progressing in their respective areas - HVAC and plumbing -this week. It feels good to see those mechanical parts in what used to be simply a big chunk of bricks. Today our electrician Dave and we did a walk-through so that he knows every detail of the electric plan. We have made some changes to the original lighting plan. Lighting can be very tricky but fun!!!

Some progress since last post

Since our Feb. 17 post, some progress has been made. Both of our digital cameras are misbehaving, which caused technical problems in posting pictures. So we have decided to mobilize M's old single relfex lens camera. OK, where are we now? Due to the fact that the basement underpinning permit is taking so long to come out (we are still working on it as of now), we are forced to work in areas other than that. Will got enough framing done that we got an additional draw on our loan; that got Don the HVAC guy and Richard the plumber started. The French door got installed (yay - light) and the wood historical replication windows have been delivered. Don has cut holes in floors, removed some brickes in the basement and put in some rigid and some flexibe ducts and several of the air outlets. The flexible ducts are snaking around loose in the ceiling area in a rather cool manner. The plumber has placed the all-important waste drain pipes from the second floor down, including the toilet flange in the MBA. OK, these are the things that are being done by our "guys". What are we doing?

We prepared the window frames for the new wood windows. We scraped 130 years of paint off of the 130-year old yellow pine frames, which are still smooth as can be in most places. We had to fill some gouges made by the masons grinders when they were removing the old mortar. Then we caulked the joint between the the frame and the bricks and put on primer. All this was pretty easy becasuse we could remove the plywood and stand in the window without a ladder. Real windows soon!

With some misgivings (by E) we decided to expose the bricks along the staircase in the first and second floors, and in the powder room. We chiseled the plaster off the brick; first by hand in the powder room, then using Will's hammer drill (the "Boschammer") for the larger areas along the stairs. The hammer drill is faster. After the plaster is off the tedious work of cleaning each brick with wire brushes began. It is slow but is looking great. We will have pix of that after the dust settles! We also painted a test area of bricks with clear satin polyurethane, which we will apply to keep the old mortar from crumbling forever. The polyurethane darkens the brick a little and makes the mortar more yellow, but it doesn't look like plastic. It will probably take us 20 hours or more to clean and protect the bricks. Fortunately, the mortar is good enough that we don't need to patch it. One cool thing is that we found little clumps of horsehair mixed into the plaster. This was the way the old guys added strength to the plaster and kept it from cracking.

New openings for doors/windows!

Brick work is complete. As seen in the pictures, new openings for the doors and windows have been made. It really helps us envision the final finish of the house. It also has become possible to experience how light the house will be. With the four skylights, all the windows and full-light doors, the house will have plenty of natural light. This will make us (particularly M, who craves for light, warmth and airy feeling all the year round) very happy since it is one of the main reasons why we decided to move to begin with. (Our current residence is north-facing and its light situation is not very good.) The door to the Juliette balcony (to be installed on the side of the house) is in.

New framing in, repointing almost over

Framing of the second floor is almost complete. We can "feel" the size and extent of each room. All the skylights are in: two in the master bedroom, one in master bathroom, and one above the staircase. Will has done the "angled" framing around the skylight so that the light will be spread around as much as possible. In the meantime, the repointing of the bricks for the entire house is almost over. New openings for the windows and french door have been made.

Skylights in, some framing done

Pictures not uploaded yet (coming soon), but Will has put the two skylights for the master bedroom. All of a sudden much more light is coming in! It's amazing! He also started framing for the walls in the same room. After looking at the framing, we have decided that the room is too small and the closet too big, so Will and we have decided to move the wall into the closet for 1 and half feet.