Turns out that wider is better

Cribber guy did show up as promised, but back hoe guy didn't leave enough space around the edges for cribber guy to do his footings properly. With one phone call we got back hoe guy back in a flash with a bobcat - now affectionately known as bobcat guy. He made a wider hole and cribber guy came back yesterday and started banging the forms together IN THE POURING RAIN.
The new hole is looking somewhat like a swimming pool. Needless-to-say, cribber guy wasn't thrilled about working in the muck. God love him. He should be back in the next day or so (when things dry up a bit) to pour the footings.

More than a money pit

The back hoe makes quick and easy work of digging a hole. Grassy backyard when I left for work and ginormous hole in the backyard when I get home.

Sounds like the cribber is going to stop by in the next few day (there's that range of dates again) to see if the hole is to his liking. Fingers crossed.

What a difference a day makes

Things are cooking now. Tuesday was a big day -- four guys arrived in the morning and went to town on the old garage. They filled two bins with the bones of the garage. Bye bye bye. This afternoon I returned home from work to discover a back hoe sitting on the open pad of the old garage.

Word has it that said back hoe will dig the hole for the addition. I look toward the sky to see if the planets are aligned.

Garage be gone

I'm fairly positive that we are the only house of our size in neighbourhood with garage space for three cars. This isn't by choice.

When our humble house was built in the 40s, they built an equally humble detached, single-car garage. A very small garage by today's standards.

In October 2005, we built a new, two-car garage. We weren't in a hurry to tear-down the old garage because it was on different part of the backyard -- a portion of the backyard that we wouldn't need until we start the renovation. That would be NOW.

Our backyard is starting to look very much like, ummm, hmmm, (no easy way to say it), a dump. The old garage is in pretty rough shape. The new garage is rather large by comparison, but we decided not to finish it (inside or out) until we brought in the crew to complete the addition. May as well get them to do it all at once, rather than bringing them in twice.

The guys who built our new garage suggested that we advertise the old garage for sale in the Bargain Finder. They said that people who live out-of-town often buy them for sheds/storage. Saying that such people would just come by, hoist it off the pad and drive it away on the back of a large flatbed truck. I was skeptical, but considered that it would be nice to have someone pay to take it, rather than for us to pay to have it torn down and hauled away.

Well, now we are very close to having the excavation crew come and do their hole digging, and the old garage is in the way.

Given my skepticism I thought it would be just easier to have it torn down rather than go through the hassle of offering it up for sale. We changed our minds pretty damn quick when we got a quote of $4,500 to demolish and remove the rubble. Not bloody likely. Ring, Ring. "Hello? Bargain Finder? I have a garage for sale."

We didn't hear anything from potential buyers so I contemplated using the garage demolition as a bonding opportunity with the boy. He was pumped to get a sledgehammer and begin. Not so quick. We decided to get another quote -- $1,500. Much better! So much for bonding. The new-quote-guy tells us that he would come some day this past week to knock it down. No sooner do we make that deal, we get two calls from potential buyers. We tell them "too late" because the knock-down guy could come any day. Well, it's Friday night and we still have the old garage.

Note to self: don't let trades get away with giving a range of dates for an activity.

Bigger basement anyone?

Geez. Things seem to be moving along at a good pace. The guy who will do our excavation came over last week (exactly when he said he was going to come) and gave us a quote. With him, was the guy who is going to do the concrete work. Getting these guys lined up is the key to getting things going. Well, I guess getting the approved permit from the city is needed but that seems to be a formality at this point. Excavation guy and concrete guy have said they can come over when we give the word. Music to our ears.

Our initial plan was only to put a frost wall in for the addition and heat the space to ensure that the floor above (our bedroom and bathroom) stayed warm in the winter. That requires going four feet below grade. Since our main floor is three feet above grade, that would mean a six-foot foundation wall. Both of these guys strongly suggested that we add another two feet and create a full basement below the addition - citing that we would regret not having the extra space later on. The cost for the two extra feet is minimal.

Following that suggestion, we had to look in the basement to see where we would put the access door to this new 500 square-foot space; Spencer's bedroom is the only option since it is the wall in his room that will be adjacent to the new space. It requires a reconfiguration of his room. What's a little renovation if you don't have some scope-creep before you even put a hole in the ground.

We aren't doing anything spectacular with that new basement space. It won't have windows, and we don't plan to finish it. It will be for storage (at this point) and will be home to the furnace and hot water tank for the back part of the house.

Here we go again. Over the last few years we have tackled major renovations: gutting and rebuilding the basement; upstairs included gutting and redesigning an open concept kitchen and living room. Now, with nothing left to spruce up we will add on. An additional 500+ square feet. That means growing our small bungalow by roughly half.

With development permit in hand, we now are waiting for the building permit. Could we only be weeks away from getting a hole in the ground? If additions are anything like renos, time and deadlines are the biggest unknown factors. Hence this blog.

Will everything go according to plan? (there is a plan, right?) If so, I'm sure that will make for some dull reading. If things tend to veer of the rails, as I anticipate they might, this blog may get a bit exciting at times and may actually be useful to help any future relationship counsellor determine where things went astray.

Enough, blog blabbery and on with the show. If you haven't figured it out, the image on the right is the floor plan or our house. The top part shows the addition and the light grey lines show existing walls that we're toasting.

Stay tuned for pictures of the back of the house. Not a pretty sight. As the guy who built our garage said, "it looks like a tear-down." Let's hope with the money we are putting into this puppy that he's wrong.