Just Moving Some Dirt Around

Well, I do apologize to those who have been checking for new posts, as my regular pattern has been to post on Sundays. It's going to be a big week at work, so I figure I better get you all updated while I have a minute this evening.

I got a lot of responses about the recipe book, both from members of the Johnson family speculating and then confirming its origin as well as from my friends and family expressing excitement over such a find. Ed, one of the Johnson brothers has identified the book as his mother's. Turns out that Aunt Lizzie was one of her aunts who actually lived a street over on Third. Dale stopped by at the house again to drop off some more great pictures for Ryan and he explained that there had been some shelving in the kitchen that his mom kept recipe books on and this small book must have fallen down when the kitchen was rearranged and construction started on the back addition.

The past week was a big one for the basement. If you check out the rest of the photos in our gallery you'll see. Ryan spent quite a few days digging and leveling dirt last week. The basement looks so much larger and tidier even though it is still just dirt. At first he dug down so that the height of both the front and back basement rooms were almost seven feet, a usable space. If you recall, previously the dirt basement only housed the mechanics of the house and one would have to crouch when walking around. At this point it will be a nice dry space for the mechanics as well as storage once the concrete slab is poured. The movement of the basement dirt is the interesting part of the story. The preparations that we did last week for the pouring of the back addition slab were still waiting on about two feet of dirt, so up went the dirt from the basement into the back addition. Ryan constructed a ramp that he planned to push a wheel barrow up full of dirt from the basement to the addition. When this ramp proved too steep with a full wheel barrow, the plan turned to hoisting buckets of the heavy clay soil up from the basement to the back addition. By the way, if this work sounds grueling, it is. Ryan, although a very active athlete before the project, has lost five to seven pounds in the last month of physical labor on the house project! By Wednesday afternoon the basement was cleared out and leveled, but then a hitch...the back addition was not filled. As if not enough dirt had been dug, Ryan ended up having to dig down even deeper in the back part of the basement in order to provide enough dirt for the addition.

The basement was finally cleared and leveled off and the back addition was full. We had a few days of rain last week so some of the outside work preparing the addition went slowly, but it is now fully prepared and ready for the concrete pour this Wednesday when Ryan's dad Mike comes down again to lend a hand. Despite the rain he managed to put down a sheet of vapor barrier and a layer of insulation. Ryan put in 1/2" diameter steel rebar horizontally around the footings that will help stabilize the concrete. On top of the vapor barrier and insulation layers Ryan put down a layer of reinforcement mesh which will also help to stabilize the concrete slab. Apparently the mesh sometimes comes in sheets and is fairly easy to work with, but around here, I found out, that they only sell it in rolls. I managed to stop by the house after work one day at just the time Ryan started battling the huge roll of mesh. This stuff really has a mind of it's own It's about five feet tall and rusty with jagged edges. We finally tamed it enough to cut it into sheets, flatten each curling sheet of vicious metal and lay it flat on top of the insulation.

After writing it down, it doesn't sound like as much got done last week as in previous weeks, but in fact Ryan says it was the toughest, physically, so far and will probably hold the record over the duration of project. The current dumpster has only been out there for a week, but compared to pace we were going through them at first, it feels like forever. Really, though, most of the demolition is done, probably almost ninety percent. What's left is the side porch, which will also be rebuilt at some point. Besides that, nothing else, including exterior brick on the second floor which is getting bumped out for some more upstairs space, can be taken apart without being reinforced first. This week will be filled with pouring the concrete slabs for the basement and back addition and keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't dip below freezing here on Wednesday and Thursday nights after the concrete is poured.

Ryan and I spent yesterday working on the layout. I think we pretty much finished the entire house, even placing appliances in the kitchen and bathrooms and closets upstairs. I hope to be able shrink our drawings, scan them and let you in on the plans soon. In other exciting house news, we just discovered a number of construction and building supply warehouses that sell reclaimed parts and materials that we hope to visit soon. This could be a good find for both our green plan as well as our budget!

And finally, in the work clothes department, as I update the blog, Ryan tames his manly side by countering it with a domestic moment. He is currently lengthening the straps on his work overalls by sewing in elastic extensions to accommodate is 6'5" frame. Who knew he was so multi-talented...I'm sure once the renovations are complete he will be moving onto the upholstery and the window treatments while I continue to help when I can, but mostly just document the process.