The Foundation

"Beams" Through the Fill Dirt

Once the rain finally stopped and the ground dried up a bit, the Martinez Brothers were finally able to get back to work on building the foundation for the new addition.

Plumbing Rough In

The plumber had to do his "rough in" work as well. He installed the sewer lines from the sinks, the shower and the toilet and tied them into the main line. Once the rough in is complete, the City has to inspect and approve the rough in before the work can continue.

The concrete company installs the steel rebar throughout the slab area and in the beams (the deep trenches where the concrete will be poured). Once again, when everything is ready for concrete, the City has to inspect the foundation and the rebar and sign off before the concrete can be ordered.

The black plastic keeps the ground from pulling water out of the wet concrete too fast while it is curing. It also prevents water from seeping up through the cured concrete from the ground in the future.

The entire slab, beams, stem wall and porch are poured at once in what is called a "monolithic pour". This provides added strength to the foundation.

Concrete Truck and Concrete Pump

Since you can't drive a concrete truck into the back yard, you have to use a "concrete pump". The pump has a hopper into which the wet concrete can be poured and a long pipe through which the concrete is pumped to where you need it.

Concrete Being Pumped to the Foundation

After all the concrete is pumped into the forms and worked down into all the beams, the finishing work begins.

Smoothing Everything Out

They make several passes over the concrete ensuring everything is smooth and level.

Finishing Touches

After a long day, they pop off all the rest of the forms and finish it up. In a couple of days the concrete will be cured enough for the carpenters to start their framing work.

Foundation is Done

Onward and upward.

Making Hay While the Sun Isn't Shining

The "Old" Shed (Before Repainting)

During the few days of sunshine in between the on again and off again rain, I began working on painting the shed.

Working on the Shed

My helper (Nutmeg) took frequent breaks, as you see in the picture above. We are painting the shed the same grey color as the house.

Painting the Shed Roof

...and the roof the same black color as the house trim.

 One of the other things the shed needed was the door to be rebuilt. It was falling apart. Luckily I could remove the door and do a lot of that work under the car port and inside the house while it was raining.

Re-skinning and Painting the Shed Door

I painted the shed door the blue color that Zita picked for the exterior doors to the main house.

The Repainted and Refurbished Shed

I installed a deadbolt lock and new handles on the door. Then I rehung the refurbished door on the shed. Now, I can actually move a lot of my tools and materials into the shed, since I can lock it.

It came out looking pretty good.

Ready, Set, Go! ...then Stop.

The Martinez Brothers Leveling the Site

We finally got our building permit approved by the City of Denton on February 5th. Yay!

The Martinez Brothers (concrete contractor that is building the foundation) got started leveling the site and bringing in fill dirt on Monday, February 12th.

Fill Dirt

 Of course, as luck would have it, not long after the Martinez Brothers brought in the fill dirt, it started to rain. In fact, we had A LOT of rain. It rained for about 10 days on and off and we got something like 12 inches of rain.

Turns out that getting rain right at this point of time in the construction is a mixed blessing. Although it brought everything to a halt until the rain stopped, all that rain helped to compact the fill dirt, which is good for ensuring that you don't have problems with your foundation later on.

So, although it was frustrating to have to go into wait mode again, right after we finally got started, I guess we'll try to look on the bright side.

Drawings for the Building Permit

Engineering Drawing

After we signed the contract (and made the first payment) on December 6th, the general contractor (TriStar) contacted the engineering company that they use.

The engineer (Bob) made a site visit, then took the hand drawings that our interior designer had helped us put together and turned them into detailed architectural drawings that are required in order to obtain a building permit.

This is a sampling of the drawings that Bob put together. There were about six different drawings in all including the building plans, plot plans, elevations, wall and slab plans, roofing and joists, and electrical plans. It took several weeks for Bob to get the drawings completed.

The drawings were finally submitted to the City in early January. TriStar warned us that it could take at least two to three weeks to get the building permit approved.

Hurry up and wait.

Elevations and Wall Section

What Sand Paper and Paint Have Wrought

The Front Porch Wrought Iron - Before

The fixer upper has some cool wrought iron on the front porch, on the car port, and on the back porch. Unfortunately, time and weather has taken a toll.

However, with a little time, sand paper, black paint, and rather tedious effort, you can bring the wrought iron back to life. I took advantage of a few nice weather days in December to work on the wrought iron in the front. The back porch will have to wait for another day.

After (Roses on Front Porch)

After (Front Porch)

After (Car Port)

Toys in the Attic

Homemade Cornhole Game

One of the things I discovered in the attic pull was a homemade "cornhole" game. It even had the bean bags in an old picnic basket. With a little clean up, maybe some paint and a few stitches on the bean bags ...the game may even be usable.

New Decking in the Attic

One of the other tasks on which I worked while the weather was still cold and damp in December, was to add new decking up in the attic. Since we will be significantly "downsizing" our space when we move into the fixer upper, storage space will be very important. We'll likely need all the usable space in the attic that we can get.

Little Pink Bathrooms, for You and Me

The little pink bathroom

The weather turned cold and wet in mid December. I couldn't make much progress on painting the outside of the house,so I turned my attention to the little half bathroom off of the back bedroom. The cool retro pink tile in there has led us to call this the "little pink bathroom".

There were several things that needed to be done in this bathroom.

1. The walls and trim needed to be painted.
2. The light fixture needed to be replaced.
3. A combination light switch/plug installed (there is no plug in the bathroom)
4. The toilet needed a new flush kit 
5. The faucet needed to be replaced
6. Cutoffs needed to be added to the faucet (you had to shut the water off to the entire house to replace the faucet)
7. The old linoleum floor needed to come up.
8. The concrete floor under the linoleum scraped and painted before putting down new individual linoleum peel and stick tiles (for now).
9. New bathroom door handle

Painting the bathroom vanity drawers

New Cutoffs

New Faucet

Scraping off the old linoleum

New peal and stick linoleum floor

Although plumbing is my least favorite (and probably my least skilled) remodeling activity, I struggled through. Getting the darn cutoffs not to drip was very frustrating (!) and required multiple trips to the water meter to turn the water on and off to the house.

However, once it was done, the little pink bathroom looked pretty darn good and will be quite serviceable, at least for now.