Woodlawn Remodel Update, month 2

We’ve been told there’s a certain “ebb and flow” to construction. Where some days it feels like things are speeding by and they’ll be done tomorrow and other days were you think “what exactly happened?” Since we last checked in, the entire back half of the house’s foundation was torn out, which revealed a sneaky old 14 ft deep incinerator, 8 ft of ash and a dozen or so gorgeous early 20th century bottles. There was also some repair work that needed to be done to the existing foundation given it is literally stacked stone from 1879. What we are sure about is this is a solid house and it’s bones are strong! The digging of the footings for the foundation took awhile because we are building right on the property line and that required some precise calculations so as to not get 5 months in and be told we are in violation of the town set back requirements.

Once the footings were dug, the initial foundation was poured quickly. The men came back a few days later and set up these huge forms to make the 8+ ft high walls of the basement. This part was so fascinating to me. There must have been 7 or 8 cement trucks backing into the driveway over a few day period to make those big walls.

We had to wait for some before Christmas snow to melt a bit so they could paint on the waterproofing of the new basement walls. Once that was done they backfilled the foundation, meaning the excavator came back (bringing much rejoicing among the little boys) and filled in all the holes with dirt from the Mount Everest we had in the backyard from the initial footing digs.

Right before Christmas they started framing with the floor. We’ve been told that it is a quick sprint to finish framing the structure. And the the team is still hoping to have the addition framed and watertight in early January before winter is really kicking into high gear.

Meanwhile I’ve had several design meetings with the team to finalize the kitchen cabinetry, stairway millwork and bathroom fixtures. We were initially way over on the plumbing budget but we’ve gotten those numbers down significantly and that’s with keeping my dream tub. Oh just wait friends, it’s a beauty and I didn’t want to say goodbye to it. Such is design, where you are over in one spot you shift others to make up the budget, and we do have a tight budget. This is the fun side of the project and makes my heart leap. Every little design detail is thrilling and essentially an inspired work of art. The architects at Cutting Edge Design have done a spectacular job. I can’t wait to watch all these dreamed-about ideas come to fruition. I’ll be sharing our mood boards over the next few weeks so stay tuned. This is the fun part, in my humble opinion but my little boys would disagree. Cement trucks are apparently the coolest things ever.