BACK AT IT

After taking a few months off from house work it's about that time again. About 3 weeks ago Erin and I started planning the kitchen renovation. I have been working on the drawings and details. We have also been picking out finishes, fixtures and appliances. Here are two quick shot from the computer model:

 This project rivals the size of the basement project, but being the kitchen much more to consider. Since we will have to live through it, I have decided to hire a general contractor to do most of it. So far I have interviewed 3.

Before we can get there we need to do a lot of planning. The design really revolves around the removal of what used to be the rear exterior wall of the original house. An addition was put on in 1980. The floor structure runs front to back so not only is this wall a double wythe masonry wall but it also supports the whole house. In the views above you'll see a big steel beam going across where the wall used to be. Before we can finish any of the planning we need to figure out what we can do with the wall. The biggest question is what does the foundation look like?

Here goes...

Time to start digging... It can't be that deep...

Kona wants to see what is going on. She helped me by eating some rocks.

The hole kept getting deeper... still no signs of a foundation. The wall kept going. I had to go get Jason's post hole digger because I couldn't reach any further.

I'm now 53" deep and still no signs of the bottom of the wall or a foundation.

I'm about 2' below the foundation of the 1980 addition. This project is not off to a good start. Let's see what a structural engineer has to say about it.