THEY ARE DONE!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!
The contractors finally completed their work today.
It took twice as long as they said, but there were basically no extra costs.
The longer duration when't really the Contractor's fault, and when they had no road blocks, they were working.

All and all I have to give tow big thumbs up to Bay Concrete!!

I will try and get some pictures posted in the next few days!!

Happy New Years!

Cleanup

So now that the contractors are almost complete, its time for us to start to really get going with our work...
In order to facilitate this we decide to do a little clean up.

We took down our tool lock up, and along with some new framing, this is what the house currently looks like.

Does It Work?

No.

We made our first attempt to pull our cars into the garage this weekend… and it didn’t go to well.
The first attempt we made was with my Dad’s Toyota Highlander, an SVU with plenty of ground clearance that we “knew” wouldn’t have any problems.
Apparently we really don’t “know” anything… Just before the car got to the half way point (the point with the least clearance) the exhaust scrapped the crest of the driveway. Although the car was able to just barely make it in an out, it wasn’t looking good for a regular car.
Next up was my car, a Scion XB. The car made it about 30% of the way over the crest… then bottomed out on the exhaust.
Finally we tried Evan’s Car, an Acura RSX… and again only made it about 30% of the way before it could go no further.

So, we put our heads together and spent the majority of the day designing and creating a “fix” for this unfortunate problem. (Yes, there is a fix!)
The best way we figure to fix the problem will be to pour in concrete two “mini” ramps on the driveway slope. The ramps, placed at the width of the car’s tires will effectively raise the driveway approximately 4” at 60” back from the crest while letting us keep our already low headroom of 6’2” in the center of the driveway.
You can see in the pictures templates of the “mini” ramps we made out of wood.

Almost Done

The bulk of the remaining concrete was poured on Monday

Rebuilding the Ugly Duckling

Off the rear of the house is a small utility room that houses our laundry machines.
These small 6’x7’ rooms have been the “Ugly Duckling” of the house. It was covered in cheep plywood, with some really ugly battens….
The lower room was reframed by our contractors because a new floor was required for the new living room.
There was such an extensive amount of dry rot, they reframed the walls as well.
On top of all this, the upper floor is out of level by almost 2 inches… Although we had no plans to reframe the upper utility room, when we pulled the windows out to keep them from breaking when we tried to level the floor… SURPRISE! More dry rot.
So, we had to reframe the upper room as well.

Up to Day 90

So, there has been a lot of waiting for the city, and for PG&E, and a billion other reason we are past our target date...
But what construction project isn't.

Anyways...
The plumbers came back and continued to work on our new street connection for the sewer...
There is an inspection today, then the street excavation begins!

Getting Closer

Next Up, More concrete, plywood, and my failed attempt at building stairs.