Remodeling Our Hut Part 12: Cement demolition

 Right after I'd seen my first home makeover show years ago, I remember turning to Carl and saying, "I find it hard to believe remodeling a house is so messy.  C'mon, they don't really take sledgehammers to walls and smash everything to smithereens; that must be for the drama and ratings."  

Well, I stand corrected.  It is pretty much just like what you see on TV, except the house is not finished in a week.  Not by a long shot.  It is emotional seeing your house gutted and having oodles of strangers roaming around in what was once your private home with all of your private junk hidden from prying eyes.  

Contractors, electricians, plumbers, energy specialists, insulators, floor installers, cabinet makers, inspectors, delivery personnel, truss experts, power company employees, any or all of these people are at any given time in the basement (which we never did get completely cleared out) or in the attic or one of the three bedrooms that we were told we could leave some belongings in.  

It's mid-October now, and I'm finally getting used to seeing people scamper around the place, but it's taken me some time to reach this state of 'what the heck-ness'.  

For me it was similar to pregnancy, in the first trimester, there's a bit of privacy, there's no outward signs the general public can spot.  The physical exams aren't too invasive just yet and there's some dignity left.

Then by the second trimester, things start to show and people are congratulatory and you think, ok, this is really happening, but it's fine, right?  People say you're glowing, you look great, but the physical exams are a little more involved.  However, you can still get out of a chair without a crane.

 Then by late in the third trimester, you hear people snicker as you sweatily waddle to the bathroom and say, 'Tsk, tsk, I bet you didn't think about what the temperature was going to be in late June, now did you?  Poor planning on your part, all my babies were born in the winter.'

'Ha ha, yes, you're so right!' you reply as you secretly squelch the urge to grab a nearby stapler and bounce it off their head. You waddle on by, longing for the day when this is all over.  At the doctor's office the sheet doesn't cover up even half of your real estate and you truly don't care anymore.  Everyone and their brother has poked, prodded and peered at you in all the most formerly private areas of your person and there's not a shred of dignity left. 

Well, remodeling is about the same. 

 At first it isn't too obvious what is happening, but then things start to get really gnarly and before anything gets better, it looks far worse and more people peer in and walk around and poke about and examine the nooks and crannies and it rains almost every day and soon you discover that no one makes a tarp big enough to hide your real estate, either.

  People drive by very slowly and stare and acquaintances ask you what you were thinking and you hear, 'It's been raining so much and you STILL don't have a roof on your house?  Looks like poor planning on your part.'  

So, right about now, we're in what I liken to be the third trimester of the remodel.  The shock of 'this is really happening' has worn off, we're exhausted most of the time, I no longer care who is in what part of my house and I'm very ready to waddle on by and get it over with. Really, really ready.  

Our contractor thought it would be possible we could be back in our home by the end of September, or the first of October.  Now it's looking more like Thanksgiving, but I think that's a stretch, too.  Looks like we'll be waddling for a long time yet. 




 So, anyway.......I'm going to go back to describing more of the process as it unfolded:  

As soon as the walls were poured for the front porch, our next step was to remove the old front porch slab.   Our old dining room wall was to be bumped out to take advantage of the full basement that was under the original porch, gaining us an area 4' deep by 10' long.  We added a new porch that was 8' deep by 50' long, but before the contractors could do any work, the old slab had to go.

 

The original front porch was recessed, which was nice.  I did love sitting there in the summer when it rained, but it was very small.

We put some boards down to protect the new porch foundation so the tractor could be driven over it to reach the slab.

We had help; Joel on the tractor, Cody and Dale were on hand, too.

Joel, Carl, Cody and Dale working on the slab removal

   We hoped if we got the forklift teeth under it, the 574 could simply lift the slab, but it was much heavier than we thought.  The tractor's front wheels were off the ground due to the weight of the concrete.

Adjustments were made to the angle of the forklift teeth for a different slant.

When that proved to be of no help, the men had to come up with different plans.

The slab was now lifted on the front of the porch, but the tractor's front tires are completely airborne and the slab is refusing to let go of the house. 

  

We were afraid the entire slab would simply slip off the tractor and end up in the basement, so our next step was to lighten the load, take a sledgehammer and, you guessed it, smash it to smithereens, just like the dramatic home remodeling shows.

  

 

  

Carl and Joel took turns whacking the concrete.  The broken hunks ended up in the fruit cellar basement for the most part.  We were able to take about half of the slab off and haul it out back.  

The next day, Carl shoveled the broken cement into five gallon pails and handed them up to me from the basement as I went to and fro between the house and the dumpster.  

While we were demolishing the front porch, the contractors were busy building the new mudroom floor addition.

 

It was exciting at the time to walk on the new floor.  It was the last day of July, summer stretched out on the horizon with long days to come and with a little luck, maybe the rain would only fall when we really needed it.  

Mother Nature had other plans.  

Up next: Framing begins