Foundations!!

Ross and I spent finally began constructing this week after months of demolition. On Thursday , Ross worked with the excavator to dig out our foundation and build our new driveway.

This picture is taken from the side door of the existing building. The footings are poured and Ross is placing rebar in the bench footing. It looks like Ross might have the start of a smile on his face....he's so excited about all the work we have ahead of ourselves. (written sarcastically)

The foundation walls are not done until Tuesday because of the long weekend, so we are back to working on.....demolition. Under the oak strip floor is maple hardwood. We are lifting both floors and eventually will replace the hardwood later. The old square head nails are into the tongue every 2'. They are coming out relatively easy thank goodness for me since I get the glorious job.

This is Chris and this is Chris's tool. It works on C02 cartilages. Ross has to attach his to a compressor. He probably has tool envy. (BTW Chris...that bald spot is looking a lit bit larger.) The next picture stars Spencer, our godson who so generously helped me de-nail the floor boards. Notice the left foot cast. (he broke his foot walking backwards...ha ha)Notice the fridge....guess what's in there....your right. I'd also like to thank Dianna for making Ross a fantastic grill cheese sandwhich for lunch. She is such a wonderful cook.

Tuesday morning 7am. We have forms up.

This is the bench footing looking striaght down from the old schoolhouse. It is there because the old basement is a foot and a half higher then the new one. This will shore up the old foundation wall.



Finishing the forming and pouring the concrete.

We Have Permits!!

Finally, we have our permits and are a go ahead. So while we wait for the excavator to schedual us in, we had more demolition to finish. Taking down the lathe and plaster involved Ross climbing into the attic and sledge hammering it from above. It took about a half hour on each side...quick but it produced clouds of dust that billowed out the windows.


This is about a third of the lathe. We spent two twelve hour days burning the stuff. It kinda looks like a beaver dam.

This is the mess inside.

And this is the schoolhouse with everything removed from the main room. The ceiling joists are 30 feet long and 9"x3". The wall studs are all pegged and notched into a 9"x9" beam that sits on a 2' thick rubble foundation wall. They don't build them like this anymore...I'm not quite sure if that is good or bad.

Insulation Free

Christina and Shawn joined us at the schoolhouse to finish up the insulation removal (we filled a 20 yard bin) and smash some walls. We burned alot of lathe and crap wood. Shawn didn't shower for a whole two days....disgusting ....ha ha. I learned to play hearts and whipped their asses....yumm yummm yum!!!

The majority of the plaster was removed. The window wall , a small section of the back wall and the ceiling is left to finish. We should have it done next week.








Under the maple strip flooring is 3"x
1" solid maple. It looks in great shape with tight joints.






The front section of the schoolhouse appears to have been built after the main building. The front section is double bricked unlike the main building which is only single bricked. It could be the schoolhouse was of timber construction prior to it's numerous renovations. we do know that the brick existed prior to 1897. We also found a wood strip ceiling and wood strip walls in this area.


Ross and Shawn took down the Elmgrove Community sign down. Behind the sign, we found a birds nest (40 years in the making) about 3' x 6' x 2". Unfortunately there was 6 eggs at the top of the nest (we transferred to the nearest tree). So imagine how many individual straws/sticks were carried over the years to construct it.("minus the shite" says Ross)

Where's Rossco?

Hope you didn't look too long...sorry he's not there.