Day 3 - 9/10/2010

Day 3 started off with the first real demo of the project - the patio.

The concrete sub is handling the demo of the patio in prep for pouring the foundation for the new extension.  They guys showed up bright and early and immediately tore into pergola which came down pretty quickly.  After the pergola was down, they started cutting down and digging up the bushes from around the patio.  It was interesting to see a circular saw being used to cut bushes. 

The ornamental tree was particularly nasty to get out for several reasons.  This tree was probably close to 20 years old and had deep roots.  The limbs had grown around things like the gutter downspout, the support pole for the pergola and the iron fence.  It also yielded a surprise... a big ole' wasp nest.  YIKES!  It was sadistically humorous as the workers tried to kill them with the only insecticide the we had... ant killer.  It only pissed them off and about twenty wasps went flying and diving in all directions while the workers scattered.  Joseph and Andy took the cowards way out and retreated to the safety of the house and watched the spectacle through the patio doors.  But the humans perservered, the wasps went away somewhere and the ornamental tree with the former wasp condo was hauled away.  Then it took them a good long time to dig up the stump of this tree.  We're glad it's gone!  The patio looks so much larger without the bushes... and that will be a nice-sized sunroom in about 2 months.

The afternoon became a little noisy as they started to demo the concrete.  They first took a small pneumatic hammer to the brick steps.  Then they got serious breaking out the saw and jack hammer for the concrete.  Man, that's a lot of work.

This is the patio at the end of Day 3.  The cut going left to right will be the edge of the new addition.

The sprinkler guy came and capped off the irrigation pipes from around the patio and modified the zone around the driveway in preparation for it's widening.  Pat and Joseph spent some time in the house sealing off the war zone from what is left of actual living area.  This consisted of putting plastic sheeting over doorways.  Two of these have zippers and flaps to facilitate our traversal of the house. 

One of the zippered barriers we have to negotiate.

The animals are quite confused with these plastic barriers.  The cats are beginning to figure it out but Giselle, the dog, hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  These barriers will hopefully minimize the dust and dirt getting into the living areas.  We'll see.

Ryan, our architect, worked on some new rear elevation ideas so we can meet the silly city rule to have 75% brick on the rear elevation.  He even called the city to clarify the requirement and to see if there is a way around it.  The only way around is to petition the city council for a variance.  The council only meets once a month and there is no guarantee that they would approve a variance.  So, we pretty much have to add the expense of additional brick instead of good ole' hardie board.  Ryan looked at various options, like placing brick only on the lower level but that didn't get us to the required percentage so it looks like we will have to brick the entire real elevation. Waiting for the AWA from Joseph: $$ kaching $$

The new rear elevation using brick for the new addition.

UPS brought us our new kitchen faucet.  It is one of those Delta Touch 2O faucets that you, in theory, can just touch to turn on and off.  We also ordered the kitchen sink and a few things for the master bath project that Andy is doing.. yea, not enough havoc with one construction project, Andy has to have another going on concurrently...well, actually it has been going on for quite a while.  He's cheap labor but he is really slow.  We ordered new sinks, faucets and mirrors for the master bathroom.