reactor.orgthe personal blog of trevor spicer
Now that’s a skylight!By trevor on July 3, 2018 
Our neighbor sent us this while we were on vacation! Bye bye roof!
While we were on vacation the roof came off, the plaster came down, and our house is even more in the thick of it! Prior to this there was no real exterior evidence of construction other than the presence of workers and a dumpster. Not shown in these images but now visible from the street is the strategic removal of some stucco down each side of the house. These will receive reinforced shear wall updates to help brace the walls once the 2nd story goes up. This should be the final stage of demolition after which framing should start and we will begin to see the shape and volume of the new home layout.
Danielle and I are very excited to see the framing start. Demolition is filthy and full of unknowns. Framing is relatively clean and (in my opinion) quite satisfying.
Living room looking toward the dining room and former breakfast nook. Plywood on the right is protecting the existing gas fireplace and mantle.
Roughly speaking, the schedule of the project has things occurring in the following order: demo, concrete, framing, plumbing & electrical, HVAC, siding/stucco, roofing, paint, windows, insulation, flooring and finish work. These are very high-level placeholders, with many more details and much more crossover than is listed. Once framing is complete we should start seeing multiple trades onsite with some work proceeding concurrently.
The bags are insulation that has been retained. The HVAC for this section os the house has been bypassed so we can continue to use it in the back of the house.
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Foundation excavationBy trevor on June 4, 2018 
For the past week workers have been cutting holes in the floor at strategic locations around the house. There currently 10 of them each a little over 5 feet deep as measured from the floor. Into each of these holes will go foundations for the second story.
Hello darkness…
With an ~18 inch crawlspace that means that the workers have excavated an additional 3 feet below grade. They’ve then removed the dirt by hand out the front door and into a 20 yard roll off in our driveway.
Sorry neighbors!
Thomas was a good sport and helped me snap a picture to show the the scale of the depth. He is not kneeling here but rather standing straight up!
He’s also a ham!
Of course at this time none of this affects us too greatly; our glorious temporary wall separates us from the construction!
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We’ve got studs!By trevor on May 24, 2018 
Day two of demo yields plenty of studs! Most of what you see in these pics will eventually go away as the bottom floor gets reconfigured. Nevertheless it is fun to see the layers get peeled back.
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House RemodelBy trevor on May 24, 2018 
We are embarking on a 6-8 month remodel to add a 2nd s