Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Equipment Arrival!
Today was a busy day. Started the morning with a visit from a guy that has a portable mill saw. Matt has been talking to him about milling down the elm tree into planks that we could use from flooring or paneling the new he house. He brought his saw by to "crack open" one of the logs. He cut a log onsite into about 7 boards. It was one of the neatest things we've seen, and produced the most beautiful wood! We are going to store them for a month or so to start drying to see how good the wood will be. Since there are not many elm trees around anymore, no one has any idea as to how this wood will react. We sure hope it cures well because it will be so cool to incorporate the tree into the new house.
While the saw was still onsite, our demolition contractor showed out to drop off his excavator. I think this will get the neighbors' attention! After a brief scare with almost taking out the overhead telephone and cable lines, he finally got the machine onto our property. Boy is it going to be a show on Monday! This excavator will swallow the house! And the contractor, Barry, is super nice. We feel that our property will be in good hands.
We spent the rest of the afternoon working further on the hardwood floors. Sara and Monty came over to lend a helping hand and were a big help. Monty spent a few hours pulling nails out the flooring and Sara ran her tail off hauling flooring from upstairs down to the truck so that we could drive it to storage. Gus and Sue also made an appearance. Sue couldn't stay long as she was heading to work, but Gus hung out for awhile. He and Matt are dangerous together, always scheming up something.
We also had several visits from neighbors and friends so that day wasn't quite as productive as we had hoped. We took more flooring up but didn't complete the task. Matt and I will be back at it early again tomorrow as our last day to get things before demo.
Friday, July 16, 2010
More Demo
Spent Friday night back at the house for more demo. We're feeling the pressure now -- demo starts Monday and we still have a lot to do. My friend Dave came over to help and really added the extra punch that we needed. We got a lot done in just a few hours! Dave was tasked with taking down the dental molding in the living room while Matt, Ellen and I worked on hardwood flooring salvage upstairs. We worked until it got dark and capped the night off with a cold beer on the back porch. Back for more in the morning.
Dave working hard on the molding.
Matt spent his time grinding nails off of the flooring.
Piece by piece, the flooring is coming out!
Took a pic of Dave on the stump of the elm tree. This really gives it some perspective on how big this tree was (or how small Dave is??)!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Habitat Work Day
The first half of today was dedicated to Habitat for Humanity. Matt let in a dozen volunteers to tear through the house and salvage anything that they could sell in their reuse shop. They took everything but the kitchen sink -- oh wait, they took that too! We are no longer the owners of: bathtubs, bathroom sinks, medicine cabinets, light fixtures, a fireplace mantle, kitchen sink, shutters, gutters, door/window casings and crown moldings. Following Habitat's departure, I joined in on the fun with Matt and we worked to take out the attic window. Wrapped up the day taking out a little more flooring and the porch glass wall.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Elm Tree Takedown
Matt spent the day Thursday at the house with Tree Tech, the chosen company to take down the huge elm tree between the garage and the house. The 8 man crew spent all day cutting at the tree and made great progress. Matt was giddy all day, calling me with update on their roping techniques and just how impressed that he was with these guys. They did a fantastic job!
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