Our Home > Renovations > Up We Go!
Our major project for 2005 - indeed the most major project ever on the house - is to raise the house by 2'5" so as to provide a full-height basement. And at the same time fix up our funny old sloping rear porch, get rid of our chimney, and solve a few door and window problems. Sounds like a lot of work, so we had better get started...
Sunday June 26th
For several weekends now, we have been working on clearing all the junk out of the basement...
Glenn taking the roof off the back porch. The old porch is to be demolished, but we are hoping that the roof shingles from here can be reused to patch where the chimney is taken out of the main roof...
Canada Day long weekend
July 1st to 3rd
As we worked on gutting the basement, we found out what had been keeping our basement so warm all these years. The basement was insulated with gyproc wool insulation boxes! That's right, the cardboard boxes were used as insulation, rather than the real insulation that originally came in those boxes... (Wonder where the real insulation went, as there was none in the house when we bought it?)
Down comes the old back porch...
Sunday July 10th
Everything is complete for us, and ready for work to start...
Tuesday June 12th
Work gets underway in earnest today, with the chimney being demolished. We expected this to be the messiest part of the project, but turned out to be the cleanest, with the mortar being in such bad shape that one of the workers just "rode the chimney down", pulling bricks out from under his feet, even leaving the drywall that had been glued to the chimney undisturbed!
Thursday June 14th
Work is progressing well, with materials piling up and the last of our old backyard concrete walkways ripped out...
Friday July 15th - Lifting Day
Today was the day we had been talking about and working towards for five years. No more cracking heads in the basement, today the house is going up!!! We stuck around to watch the action...
By late morning, all the supporting cribs and beams had been assembled in the basement...
the jacks were in place...
and the last of the hydraulics lines were being run...
Then, after a break for early lunch, it was time to lift...
12:20 pm, just about ready to go...
12:25 PM, and we're moving...
After gaining a foot in under a minute, it is time to reposition some of the gear for the next stage.
This doesn't take long...12:53 PM, up another foot...
This time the gear gets moved even faster, and by by 1:07 PM we are all done, having gone up 2'-8"...
Some shots from along the way, with our construction manager, Elton, and Glenn looking pleased with the progress, as daylight is now visible straight under the house...
And the view in the basement when all is complete...
Now comes the job of re-framing the basement walls to extend them 2'-5",
before the house gets lowered 3" back onto its foundation...Monday July 18th
With the house up out of the way, time for foundation work, as all the hard work we put into rebuilding the front porch foundation in 1998 gets blasted away to allow for the living area to extend under the front porch...
Tuesday July 26th
"Houston, we have a problem." The southwest corner of the house settled an inch or two in the days after the lift. Things slowed down while engineers assessed the problem and a final decision was made - the west foundation wall needed to be replaced. Once decided, things got back on the fast track, with Elton and his guys making short work of the old foundation wall down that side of the house...
Saturday July 30th
Meanwhile, while the contractors are hard at work, we are our enjoying having a summer with no hands-on house projects we should be working on! Today we went hiking to a beautiful waterfall at Burke Mountain Provincial Park, in suburban Coquitlam...
Thursday August 4th
Back at the job site, the foundation has now been excavated, formed, and poured, giving us a new, solid west foundation. The new framing on the house can finally begin...
Monday August 8th
Now things are moving quickly again. The structural framing is complete, and the house is back down in place on its foundations...
Tuesday August 9th
By this stage almost 1/2 of the basement slab floor has either had to be broken out, or is cracked and will need to be removed in the future. So, while not originally planned, we just decide to get rid of the last of the old slab and replace it properly...
Saturday August 13th
The excavation is done, and the plumbing, gravel, insulation, plastic and steel are all in, ready for the new slab. We're never going to have to worry about dampness coming up through this floor in the future... Getting plumbing for a new bathroom pre-installed was another bonus of getting the slab done, and one less thing that we will have to deal with later...
Excavations have also started for the footings for our new back porch, with the contractors taking care of both safety and humour...
Sunday August 14th
Meanwhile, we are still enjoying a summer of leisure,
at False Creek, Granville Island and Kits Beach...
Friday August 19th
Wow! What a difference 2-1/2 feet, a new floor, and some window
openings make to our previously dark and dingy basement...
Wednesday August 24th
We are coming round the bend and into the home straight as the new windows go in...
And out back our new main floor window is in (at right) and the back porch is up...
Saturday August 27th
We tidy up the little apartment we had rented on the west-side of Vancouver...
...and enjoy a first gourmet dinner back home on our new back porch...
Labour Day - Monday September 5th
While Glenn starts working on the new front stairs, Theresa works on the siding...
Sunday September 18th
Glenn has the front stairs finished and functional...
(Hand rails will come later!)
Thanksgiving Day - Monday October 10th
Progress has been much slower over the last month, with the construction crew finished and out of here. The weather has also really turned, as Glenn works in heavy rain (and lots of mud) to finalize some of the drainage around the new back basement door...
But on a dry day a few days later, our progress from the long weekend can be seen, with the siding finished, evestrough and downspout finished on the back porch, and at least a start on handrails for the front stairs and back porch...
Saturday October 29th
Another job just about finished, with new drain and irrigation laid and ready to be buried around the back corner of the house...
Saturday November 19th
We had been having problems with incessantly bad weather as we tried to get some final weatherproofing and sealing done around the new vinyl decks, so finally had to bite the bullet and tarp over both the front and back decks...
Of course, within days of doing that, the sun came out, the weather warmed up, and in late November Theresa is sitting out on the back deck (now with partial hand rails) for morning coffee...
Saturday November 26th
As the year goes on and the weather gets colder, Theresa is wise enough to have found indoor projects to work on, using the empty (but heated) basement to refinish our dining room table...
Saturday December 3rd
While Glenn is still working outside trying to get handrails done on our stairs - something that would have been very useful for Vancouver's one-a-year bout of real winter weather...
Sunday December 10th
The days are getting really short, and cold. Working outside till 7pm feels like you are keeping the neighbours up all night. And by now earmuffs are more about keeping the ears warm than hearing protection. But the front porch and stair handrails are done, and we can come and go safely as the spell of cold icy weather continues...
New Year's Long Weekend
Well, only about 6 weeks behind schedule, but we have finally finished everything on the exterior of the house!! Oh, it still needs to be painted, but that will have to wait a month or two until the weather improves, and then we will call our favourite painter...
Now it is time to start work on finishing the new ground floor of our house...
