June 2018

Calling in reinforcements

June was a big month. We finally had enough money to get the house structurally reinforced. I never measured it, but the house seemed to be sinking every time I visited. A slow anxiety was creeping over me, like some undiagnosed lump getting bigger and bigger due to lack of health insurance. We hired structural carpenter extraordinaire Joe for the job.  He is the guy who replaced the rotted out exterior corner of the house as well as replace some rotted clapboard for us previously.

This process is not without an element of danger. Filed under ironic disasters, New York City's  architectural salvage store Irreplaceable Artifacts collapsed in 2000 in the East Village. Construction crews defied a Department of Buildings stop work order, then the top two floors collapsed. The DOB then ordered the entire building razed, with all of its contents still inside. You can read the horror story here and here.

Structures sink for a variety of reasons; termites, water, rust, we had them all!  When we bought the house it was being held up with rotten beams and rusty lally columns.

These are photos of the main support beam, the beam that runs from front to back, taken right after closing in January 2014.  Those veiny looking lines are the mud trail interstate termites travel through. Joe replaced the two beams and concrete footings were poured. It makes me sweaty and nervous  just writing about it.

I'm not sure if this column was actually structural. Maybe the previous owner kept a pet beaver in the basement. It was only loosely dangling from the floor joists above it. We removed it in September 2014.

We noticed this collapsed concrete pad in June 2016. That's when I really started paying attention to the sinking first and second floor. 

The house sank nearly 5 inches. Pete thinks this happened over the houses 128 year history, but I think that was just his mind blocking out the inevitable.



Pre-prep for this job included making the house lighter and more pliable by removing all the plaster and lathe from the first and second floor along the center of the house. Luckily most of that was already done. Unfortunately Pete had to move a lot of the maple floor boards we recently got from Craigslist.

 All that wood in front of him had to be moved yet again!

With all that cleared away Joe started work in mid-June.
The first step was to install these temporary lally columns.

One of my peeves is having to do something twice. Pete cut notches out of these joists to accommodate the electrical service line, only to have them all removed and replaced. Its like baking a cake only to have someone step on it.

This wood framing was installed before the real scary part.

AHHHHHH!

One of the beams cut, ready to be removed.

 This is the beam that ran from front to back of the house being lowered to the ground with ropes. 

A moment of silence was observed for the old beam. Don't fret, old girl, you served this house well in its 128 years.

This is where things got messy, digging channels for the new footings. 

An old steel water line was found during the excavation.

Steel rebar was then placed in the channels.

Here's the new concrete curing. There are no photographs of the concrete being poured.  The concrete truck driver was really cranky because there is a narrow window of time to get the concrete out of the truck before it cures. Joe said all of those drivers are kinda bitchy. I would be too if there was always the possibility of chiseling concrete out of the truck because some dork didn't hustle. So if one of these guys cuts you off on the highway just let it go.   

Because of the fast curing issue when concrete is ordered the customer has to take all of it. Joe kindly repaired the basement stairs for us with some of the extra....

.......while Pete took the opportunity to create coffin shaped stepping stones.

Here's the money shot, the house getting jacked up. Pete called this guy David Lee Rollins behind his back. He's the perfect hybrid of David Lee Roth and Henry Rollins. 

Its a good thing that column wasnt the only thing holding up the house!

Whoa, the house is really heavy!

Hearing protection is worn, but hard hats are suspiciously absent.

Here's the wood for the new beams. Three very long 2x10s were glued and bolted together. Getting wood cut that was the original beam thickness would have cost more and been a lot more difficult to transport and install.

The light coming through the window is quite the metaphor for this job.

Here's the first 2x10s getting hammered into place. 

New beams in place!

I wouldn't have believed the triple beam sandwich technique was legit if I didn't see it on This Old House.

Checking to see if the beams are level. It was at this point that Pete called me. "It's completely level!!!" He told me. I was surprised at how excited he was. Because of the anticipated cost of this project I didn't think it would ever get done. When we had some money saved I began planning the job covertly before I brought it up to Pete. 

This photo isn't level but the house is!

Ye old marble test was conducted on the second floor.

The new beams were then cemented into the foundation.  

Industrial strength rivets secure the posts to the concrete pad.  

Here's an overall view of the completed work! Getting that pile of dirt on the left out of the house is gonna be painful.

Here's a vertigo inducing photo of the work from the second floor

Shower power

Pete used some left over PEX tubing to create a ring to hold the shower curtain. Plumbing is a real game changer. We now have the basic conveniences covered. 

Flora and Fauna

Pete purchased weeping willow saplings online-three of them. I was confused as to why he would buy three, then I thought I'd better start contributing some solid landscaping ideas before he really goes nuts. 

I think he realized it was a little much because he gave one to our neighbor.

Maybe the tree will offset the cigarette smoke.

David Lee Rollins gave us some tomato and pepperoncini plants from his garden. Well see how they do in our absence.....

This deadly looking spider was spotted on our driveway gate

Naturally formed heart shaped moss.

Morning glories decided to grace our yard this summer.

Bunny on the moon

I don't know why this picture is so grainy. It reminds me of those low res photos of distant planets released by NASA in the 1980s.

The rabbits let people get close before bolting.

Our house is a hot commodity

We got this letter mailed to our New York City address, which is kinda creepy, because we never registered that address with the county where the house is. I know its easy enough to find where people live, but someone went out of his way to find us. Someone with no access to Microsoft word and a limited understanding of how to write a business letter.

Pete also received a call from a real estate agent who wants to buy our house. I'm guessing its the land they are really interested in.

Things left behind

We are finding less and less in the walls. Pete found this tag for electrical wiring. 

Inspiration

There are many houses that have inspired and motivated us to move forward with this project. Starting with this post, I'll be writing about some of the structures, companies,and stories that have driven us forward.

Kooky Victorian house in Staten Island

I found this fantastic beauty on Edison Street and Lincoln Ave in Staten Island. Unfortunately I have no information about its history or owners.

 Pete's academic reading on the bus ride back to New York.

Poetry Corner

I'm gonna bring it down a bit, this one gets a PG13 rating from me.

note to new readers: I found a stack of pornographic, sometimes sappy poetry in the house left by the previous owner, I post one in every entry since discovering them.