Foundation finished

Weather permitting, we should be able to start building on Monday.

Back filling and vapor barrier

M.H.T. Excavators of Mattapoisett, MA finished up with the back filling of the foundation yesterday.  We are now waiting for the final concrete slab (sometimes known as a "rat slab") to be poured in what will become the crawl space beneath our addition. 

First addition~1973

Here are a few pictures of the first addition that was added to the east side of the house in about 1973.

 

 Local North Fairhaven contractor Al Rodrigues supervises.

 Framing begins

My sisters Ann and Elizabeth (2 and 4 at the time) watch the front-end loader dig the foundation.  On the right, I discuss the details with my cousin Greg Johnson.

A similar view in 2011.  Somehow, the same birch tree is still standing thirty-eight years later. -mjr

Vintage Corgi House

While we're waiting for the project to resume with some back-filling on Monday, here's a cool picture Matt just had converted from some old slides. This is a picture of our house dating from when Matt's parents originally bought it in 1960:

You can see the old cellar entryway on the east side which is now the 1970's-era addition where currently our home office and workout room are. The front door is all the way over to the right hand side of the porch. Many other changes were made over the years, as you can imagine!  -KAD

The forms are down

The foundation was inspected today.  The inspector advised us to wait until Monday to back fill.  This will give the foundation time to dry out a bit more.  -mjr

Final concrete is poured

Eleven cubic yards of concrete were poured on top of the four cubic yards in the footings.  The concrete doesn't take too long to dry.  The forms will probably be pulled off tomorrow and we will call for an inspection by the Fairhaven  building inspector.  This work is being done by Settipane Foundations of Dartmouth, MA.  You can see the owner Mitch Settipane in the photos.

Appliances

Monday didn't involve much except pumping more ground water from around the forms.  We also ended up purchasing four new GE appliances from Appliance World in Fall River.  We were able to get highly rated items, great prices, and some good rebates.  The new 'fridge and dishwasher will be much more efficient, saving us a lot on electricity and water consumption.  -mjr

Frost Walls

Yesterday, they set up the taller frost wall forms for the rest of the foundation and they will most likely pour the concrete into these on Tuesday.  We are still pumping out water from the pit.  Once the concrete dries and gets inspected, they will back fill with dirt and then pour a four inch slab in the middle.  Not much will happen the next few days.  More on Tuesday. (hopefully)  -mjr

The Footings

Not much to report except the footings (the very bottom forms of the foundation) are now in place and have been poured.  After these dry, they will be extended with up to the level of the first floor of the existing house.  The two additional support pads are for beams that will tie into the main house.

Also, yesterday an old pipe was uncovered, most likely some sort of drainage pipe from a long time ago.  They have decided to just work around it.  Even my Dad did not know that it had been there.  It sits about two feet below the ground level.

And yes, we did have all the dig save people here last week to mark everything off.  The only holdouts were Verizon who have disappointed us for over a month by not coming to remove an old telephone phone wire. Yesterday it was cut and now hangs from the maple tree until Verizon decides it's important enough to remove it. -mjr

Digging the trench

Our project has begun.  The excavation crew has spent the day measuring, pulling out roots and rocks, digging a four foot trench, and carting away a lot of dirt from what used to be our driveway.  Many layers of riverbed stone, gravel, top soil, and clay have been exposed.  This is the beginning of what will be a "perimeter foundation".   This space underneath the addition will have only a small access door from our cellar into a crawl space covered with concrete.  We did not need any additional basement space so we opted for this less invasive method.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the beautiful locust, now at least forty years old will survive this dig and continue to provide natural air conditioning for many more years. -mjr

From Plans to More Plans

Once we had the building plans finished, we were able to get estimates from different contractors, kitchen designers, electricians, wood stove dealers, etc.

It took several weeks to gather up all of the information we needed. We decided to hire Donny Jordan as our contract supervisor for the project. Donny has built hundreds of homes and additions over the last forty years.

For the kitchen cabinets and butcherblock counter tops, we plan to have them made by Leary's Carpentry in Westport. Check out the cabinets and woodwork in Cravings Cafe & Cakery next to the Symphony Shop in Dartmouth to see Mark Leary's excellent carpentry skills.

After the financial plans were done, Matt went to the town hall to get permit, called Dig Safe and tried to get Verizon to cut down an old phone wire. Details, details...

Next, Matt cleared out some shrubs next to the house and moved a really nice pink Mountain Laurel in to the garden for safe keeping. Everything else has gone to garden heaven.

 Side of the house with shrubs removed and stakes for perimeter.

Goodbye, old shrubs.

Trying to keep this pretty Mountain Laurel.

Matt placed some stakes and string framing the area for the foundation, and yesterday Donny did some prep for marking exactly where the foundation to go in. We're hoping to break ground on Monday or Tuesday... -KAD

The Plan

One of the first things we did was interview architects. We spoke with 3 people who each spent about an hour meeting with us about our addition project. They were all excellent, but in the end we chose David Silveira of South Coast Architecture.  A few weeks later, we had all of the plans we needed to get permits and build our addition.

This is a drawing made by David that shows basically what the outside of the house will look like when done.

Here's a floor plan showing what the inside will look like:

-KAD

The Corgi House Project Begins!

Here's what our house looks like right now. We'll be adding a 16 x 24 foot addition onto the driveway side of our house starting next week. More on that later!...

Here's the outside of our house:

 

Here's the kitchen...

and the living room...

-KAD