Popcorn

After Christmas, we started the first bit of house modification to our home. Because the house was built in 1970, we suspected that the popcorn ceilings contained asbestos. Our suspicions were confirmed when we sent a sample to the lab for testing. Due to state laws, the two options we had were to either hire a certified asbestos abatement contractor or do it ourselves. The procedure for removing the ceiling may be found here. We performed all the prep work and started removing the popcorn ceilings from the Family Room on Wednesday. We finished removing the popcorn in the Living Room, Dining Room, and Hall on Thursday, December 27. While these are the only areas where the ceilings must be removed, we plan on taking the popcorn ceilings out of the bedrooms this coming week.

Moving Out

The Family left our house on Saturday Night, December 15. With the great help of Bill, Sasha, Marcos and Auntie, we loaded up the moving truck with all our furniture and made the mile long trip from "Home" to "The Rental".

The rental is a little larger than our home. It is also 20 years older, has a leaky roof, and there is no door between the garage and the house. While it is OK, we can't wait to move back into our home.

Water, Water, Everywhere

4 AM Monday morning, we woke up to the sound of the water alarm going off under our house. 3 years ago we installed a system called "Clean Space" in our crawl space to get rid of the standing water we had down there about six to eight months out of the year.

We had installed a drainage system and gravity drain in our crawl space. The entire crawl space was then sealed off with thick plastic to prevent any moisture left in the ground from entering the air in the crawl space. Any water that did enter the crawl space was quickly drained off preventing any significant accumulation under the plastic layer and no water above the plastic barrier. The system had worked very well since it was installed, and kept our crawl space dry through several severe storms. We had become so confident in it that we used part of it for storage.

Then early Monday morning, during our heavy rain, water flowed in so quickly that the gravity drain could not keep up. The water flooded the crawl space and soaked everything down there. After spending the next couple hours pulling everything out of the 18" of standing water under our house, it was time for OHM's Dad to go to work. OHM was quite surprised to see the river of water flowing through the yard before going to the babysitter. OHM's Mom decided to stay home on Monday to sort through the now soaked pictures, letters, keepsakes, and off season clothing.

Throughout the day, the water flow around the house got worse and worse. There was a stream flowing through our driveway with the water run off from our neighbors, and our neighbor's neighbors, and their neighbors. This flowed into the little steam that goes around the front and side of our house.

The picture above shows the water draining from our back and side yard into the stream. I circled the gravity drain working away trying to empty the crawl space. The water level peaked around 11 AM, and most of the water had drained out from under the house by 5 PM. Something tells me a new sump pump will be installed before we are finished with our home renovation.

The Rental House

We got the keys to our rental house today. We plan on moving in two weeks. It is a nice older home with a good sized yard for our son. We like our current home better though. If all goes to plan, we will be moving back into our home in May.

Since the previous tenant moved out yesterday, the owner hadn't looked over the place yet. A man and his wife had lived there the past 5 years. The wife had moved to another area while the husband was left behind to do all of the packing, cleaning, and moving... The owner will be cleaning the house again before we move in. Our socks stuck to a few spots on the kitchen floor.

When we got the landlord's address for mailing the rent , we discovered that he lives two houses down from our current home. I guess we might be walking some of our rent checks over to him.

Reactions from Others

"You are moving out during construction, aren't you?" (Just about everyone with any experience in major remodeling asks us this first thing when they hear our renovation plans.)

OK, OK, we give up. Yes. We're moving out. We found a rental house just a mile away, so we can easily check in on our house. It was tempting to try to save money by camping out at home somehow. (We even considered literally camping in an RV since we have an RV parking spot.) But, with a son who'll be 2 in Feb. we realized it would probably make us all crazy. We hope to be able to move back in before all the finishing work is done.

Aside from the "moving out" question, the most common response is laughter, followed by horror stories. So far the only people who have been fairly positive about the idea are the people we're hiring. Hmmm. We're sure there will be stress involved, but we certainly hope this blog will not become just a chronicle of more horror stories.

The Timeline (so far)

March, 2007
The first step of the process was a meeting with Mark at UBuildIt to get an estimate of probable cost. He came to the house, looked at what we currently have, and discussed what we wanted to add. A couple of weeks later he gave us a line item estimate with a range of values for each item.

July, 2007
We finally decided to go ahead with the adventure. The next step was to get an official design. We met with Ken at KP Designs to start the design process. In the next couple of months we had 2 or 3 more meetings with Ken to finalize the plans.

September, 2007
After finalizing the plans, we met with Mark at UBuildIt to go over specifications. He went through a list of general materials and finishes with us (e.g. type of flooring, siding, roofing, light fixtures). The goal was to make the general choices, but not to select specific materials yet (e.g. we decided on carpet, but haven't chosen the specific carpet).

Mark is getting bids from subcontractors and when he is done, he will prepare a detailed Cost Review. Then we'll see how well we're doing with our budget!

October, 2007
The permit ready plans were completed and submitted to the city. We should get the permits by the beginning of December.

December, 2007
We plan to move to the rental house mid- to late December. We know, our timing isn't the best. It will likely be a bit crazy.

January, 2007
We hope to start demolition in early Jan.

The Grand Plan

We decided that we would like a bigger house, and we also decided that we really don't want to move, so the next option was to add on to our house. We are going to add a second story. We are not changing the current floor plan except to add stairs, and add a bay window in the living room. Our new 2nd floor will have a family/play room, 3/4 bathroom, bedrooom, and storage room. There will also be a hobby sink, and lots of closet space.

We are going to be our own general contractor, but we will have an experienced contractor as a consultant. We are working with a company called UBuildIt. They go through initial cost estimates and specifications with us, collect bids from subcontractors (although we can get additional bids if we want to), go through a detailed cost review with us, work with us to generate a very detailed list of specifications, and give us a construction sequence. Throughout construction they will have additional planning meetings with us, and will come out for site visits, as well as being available for phone consultation.



Demolition should start near the beginning of Janaury. We hope to be done by fall at the latest. You'll have to check back in to see how quickly work is progressing.