Stones

December 27 - Today was frustrating.  Berne had asked the excavator to set aside some large stones that he unearthed.  Alyssa had gone out one cold night and with much difficulty dug out some large stones by hand and set them aside with some other large stones dug up by the excavator.  Well, they are all gone, except three small ones Alyssa dug up (below).  Alyssa had landscaping plans for the stones, and saw the stones as a kind of compensation for the destruction of our side garden.  Stones like that are very expensive to buy, and it is difficult to find ones that match the stones we have dug up and used elsewhere in our garden. 

Our large hydrangea and spirea shrubs as well as other perennials are decimated.  Our second hydrangea (and many of the lilacs) has damage to it's branches, but it should recover.  We'll see what might have survived come spring. 

Boxing Day Back Fill

These guys are hard workers.  You can see the paint on the foundation walls that Berne's brother painted on Christmas Eve.  The excavating sub contractor was here this morning, back filling around the foundation walls as well as filling in the interior of the foundation with stone.  I feel a bit bad for our neighbors hoping for a quiet Boxing Day.  You can see it better from the upstairs window (below).  Here they are also laying the drainage around the foundation.  Hopefully this will help with some of our basement water issues.

Say a little prayer for the garden.  Alyssa was able to move some of the plants but most remain.  (She was sick most of October with bad colds and then winter came early.)  We could see roots when they were digging today.

Here is what it looks like in early summer.

Here is a video of some of what has been happening the past couple of days.  Alistair took some of the video too.

Day of Rest

It is Sunday.  The last Sunday in Advent, and a day of rest on the construction site.  All is quiet.  The blue tarp is covering the playroom window, casting a strange blue light in the room.  The blue tarp is also covering the window by our Christmas tree.

Removing the Concrete Forms

This morning Paul and his guys cleaned up the basement and removed all the concrete forms inside and out.  It rained all day, but the tarp Berne and Justin put on yesterday kept the water out.

Foundation Walls

Our yard was full of pick up trucks again today.  When Berne measured again this morning, he discovered that the wall between the living room and playroom is not square to the exterior wall.  In a 150 year old house, this is not surprising.  He is going to construct the new wall square and tweak the existing wall with tapered framing to make it less noticeable.  Paul and his team built the foundation wall framing before lunch.

The concrete delivery was a couple of hours late.  If it had only been ten minutes later, Alistair and Charlotte could have seen them pour the foundation walls, but they just saw the very end.

 (and Evelyn and I missed it since we were at the bus stop picking up Alistair and Charlotte)

Alistair did get to watch Paul's guys fill the low knee walls and attempt to inject concrete in the forms along the brick foundation walls.  (He took some of these pictures as well as some video.)  There was concrete everywhere, but Paul said that it would clean up easily tomorrow.

Concrete Footings

Today was another big day.  With so much happening, it's difficult to believe that this is only day two.  This morning they took some detailed measurements (through the open windows, which amused Evelyn) and built the forms for the concrete footings.  Berne used our old fence (that he had already repurposed to hold down the tarp) to create a safety fence of sorts.  Evelyn waited patiently for the cement mixer to come.

Evelyn loved watching the guys spray, shovel and smooth the concrete.  She thought it looked kind of gross when it first came out of the hose.  They guys put rebar in the finished concrete and then covered it up with blankets.

Digging Day

And so it begins.  By eight o'clock this morning at least five pick up trucks had descended on our front yard, and soon a large group of Carhart wearing workmen were banging away in our basement and digging outside.  The digging went fairly smoothly (it seems that the urban myth that our side yard was a gully filled in with soil from across the street might be true based on the sandy, relatively rock free soil).  The main issue was that our sewer pipe is exactly where the footing was supposed to be.  The decision was made to have the footing six inches above the pipe.

In the basement, the men built forms up against the brick foundation.  Because we only have a single layer of 150 year old brick holding up our house, the structural engineer recommended that the foundation wall be reinforced with concrete.  The new concrete slab will also be exerting a lateral force up against the wall.  While they are down there pouring concrete, we also asked that they create a small knee wall.  It turns out that our basement floor is four to six inches below the bottom of the boulder foundation.  They also demolished buried cinder blocks that held up the oil tanks we removed last year.

An Excavator Appears

Yesterday, the City of Lebanon issued our building permit, and today an excavator magically appeared in our front yard.  How I didn't hear it while I was wrapping presents, I'm not sure.

It's hard to believe that this is happening.  Time to finish emptying out the basement for some concrete work.

A Little Snow and Rain

Well, this was the side yard this morning.  A thin blanket of snow and rain that has not let up all day.  Tomorrow, the high is going to be 28 F.  So yes, the hay was a good idea.

And so it Begins - Laying Hay

The weather forecast for tonight is a wintry mix with around an inch of accumulation.  We are still a couple of weeks away from digging the foundation, so Berne came around to spread some hay and lay a tarp to prevent the ground from freezing.  Alistair helped Alyssa quickly clear the sight.  They emptied the sandbox, moved the slide and relocated some plants.

Berne came with a dozen bales of hay, which Alistair was more than happy to help spread around.

Alistair persuaded Charlotte and Evelyn to come out to help too.

The old fence came in handy to weigh down the tarp.

Charlotte Rose Flower

We have some of our first blooms on the Charlotte Rose, and it is a beautiful flower.  Charlotte thinks it's very funny that the rose is called Charlotte. She has been "Checking on Charlotte" or "Watering Charlotte".  It is a lovely flower.  Now, hopefully it will survive the winter...

Leak is Fixed

Pete the plumber came back out today and fixed the leak.  Yeah!  Because the leak was on the cold supply line, we haven't been able to use the toilet upstairs since we got back from England.  

A Hole in the Ceiling

Yesterday morning the plumber (Pete) came out to look at the leak.  He couldn't find it, but suggested that we make an exploratory hole in the dining room ceiling. Ugh.  We were so proud of our fancy, sound insulated ceiling.  It doesn't seem that long ago that we were there, with our rented drywall lifter, attaching the drywall to the insulating clips. We were reluctant to make a big mess in our living room right now.

When Colin returned from his doctor's appointment, he had another look and found the leak on the cold water supply line.  The plumber came back out again but said that he couldn't solder the copper pipe in such a confined space.  Fair enough.  So today Colin cut into our beautiful ceiling.  I was hoping we could delay taking down the ceiling, but the drywall below the tub was disgusting.  It's going to have to come down sooner than later.  There was still more water sitting up there too.

Colin found the hole in the cold supply line right before it bends upwards.  The water was spraying horizontally.  The plumber was off today getting new glasses, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

After cutting away a section of the ceiling directly below the box around the bathroom drain, Colin found the hole in the cold water supply line.  Thank goodness we shut the water off while we were gone.  The drywall we have taken down is disgusting and damp.  The drywall still up there is probably a mold factory.

A Waterfall

We have been enjoying eating dinner outside on the back porch, but last night we had dinner inside, at the dining room table.  After dinner, Colin noticed a large paint blister on the ceiling.  It was pretty late, so we moved the dining room table, chairs, and mahogany sideboard as a precaution and went to bed.  This morning we poked a hole in the paint to let it drain out.  We have a leak somewhere.  We tightened the tub drain when we did the ceiling ten plus years ago, so at first we went with that hypothesis.  We were literally leaving for England at noon today, so we thought, not a problem, no one is going to be taking a shower or bath in the tub.  Since we are going to be gone so long, Colin decided to poke a hole in the drywall.  So sad.  We worked hard on installing that ceiling.  Anyway, when he did, it was a waterfall of water.

We were still going on the assumption that it was the drain, but just as we were leaving, I went to get a toiletry out of the cupboard behind the shower and I could hear a hissing noise.  Maybe it is a supply line.  We decided to shut off the water to the whole house (the valves to the upstairs don't seem to be working), put down some plastic sheeting and buckets and hope for the best.

Charlotte's Rose

Dorothy loved roses.  On Park Road, she had many varieties or roses, many of them climbing up trellises that she had made.  She had nearly thirty different varieties of roses on Windermere Drive as well.  Sadly, roses aren't has hardy here in New England as they are in England.  But there are some.  One that is hardy here that Dorothy had on Windermere Drive is David Austin's Shropshire Lad.  We talked about it, including my wanting to plant it.  That was of course more than seven years ago.  I want to have Shropshire Lad climb up the pergola that is not yet built (along with clematis, which Dorothy also grew).  I love roses too, so I thought I would try to grow some of the hardy shrub roses offered by David Austin.  One of them is named Charlotte, how could I resist that?  The other one (which is pink) is called Gertrude Jekyll.  (What a terrible name!  I don't like the name Gertrude and Jekyll just makes me think of Jekyll and Hyde.)  I ordered bare root roses on their own root stock.  Here is Evelyn and Charlotte getting them ready for planting.