Cleaning more brick and raising the house off of the foundation-320 Bricks!

Alan busy banding the brick that we worked on!

Dave works hard on adding extra support-this was after the house was moved off of the foundation!

Paul works hard adding wooden supports under the beams....Paul also wants the ladies to know that he is single :-)!

Here is the house after it cleared the foundation!

Saturday....getting ready to move the house....

The last few days have been very busy.  Alan and I chiseled away at more brick for a total of 320 bricks!  This should be enough for the front of the future garage.  We are going to save some more brick in case we decide to do any more projects or need additional brick for any other projects/replacements of broken brick.  Dave and Paul worked diligently on jacking the house off of the foundation and placing additional support/beams underneath.  They also placed sets of small wheels on the top of the beams and gently slid the house off of the foundation area.  Later tonight we went back and noticed that the tires have been put in place....we are getting close!

Preview of Moving the House....

Here is a little preview of the house moving off of the foundation.....

We made our goal of 160 bricks!

Today was very productive....we wanted to have 160 brick cleaned by the end of the day....we have 162!  It isn't hard-just time consuming.  I basically used the hammer to chip off the large pieces and then used the more powerful chisel/air compressor of the two we have to clean off most of the mortar....I then passed it on to Alan who completed the final touches with the smaller chisel.  I found it actually kind of fun and a stress reliever!  We plan on cleaning some more brick this Saturday.  The movers were out today and they added some more support to the house in preparation for the move.  Judy, Todd and Noah stopped out and Judy rummaged through the rubble to collect broken brick to use for a base for her compost bin-she plans on making a mosaic pattern of some sort-I'm glad that she can use it-as much recycling/reuse of materials-the better!  We got home about 7:30 tonight-a shower never felt so good!

Checking for the laterals to "original house"

This afternoon Madson used a mini backhoe to dig on the north side of the lot....they are looking for the connection to the city water and sewer-as Kevin found out that there may have been a house on the lot we have several years ago....

Cleaning Brick...

This afternoon Alan and I worked on cleaning the brick.  I dug through the pile to locate individual bricks that were in good shape.  There are lots of bricks that are connected to one another that we can use as well.  Alan spent most of the time taking his hammer and knocking off the excess mortar and I finished up with the power chisel that was attached to the air compressor.  We finished about 60 bricks in just a couple of hours.....tomorrow our goal is to clean about 90. 

Upstairs Demo

Tom admiring his work...he is standing in the arch of what probably was a nursery.

View;  Looking from the Master Bedroom into the hall....

This is where the chimney went through the entry closet on the first floor....we'll have a larger closet now.

Chimney removed...

Chimney removed....looking up towards the second story....

Master Bedroom....this will all be removed.....

All of this will be removed....future site of laundry room....

The entire upstairs of the house needs to be removed....these pictures show the plaster being removed and general demolition.  Alan's brother Tom helped with demolition and Megan's boyfriend Ari helped to clean up the debris....

Preparing for the Move

Alan boarded up the porch area to provide strength to this area during the move.

Alan's brother Tom provides supervision during the project....

Backfilling Completed

Last week Friday, Madson's backfilled the basement.  The lot is small-which I am excited about....but the front yard actually looks larger than I had anticipated.  There is still quite a pile of dirt in the back which I believe will need to be moved before the house is brought in.  From what I understand, the house will be brought in from the east side of the lot and then slid towards the west and then over the basement (toward the north).

Support beams added today!

Here is the pile of bricks I need to work on....there will be more bricks available once the house is moved off of the foundation as the brick faced the entire house (including the foundation area).  The movers placed several beams to support the house for the move today.  The basement steps have been removed.  Alan worked on placing the form board around the basement at 9th and Pine....

Chimney is falling down......

Lots of work was completed today at the house.  Tom (Alan's brother) worked in the basement to assist with removing some of the heating duct work.  Alan and Tom worked together to remove a large section of the chimney that runs through the center of the house-that will help reduce the amount of weight for the move-and we will not need the chimney.  The brick for the chimney is different than the exterior brick-we won't need to save the chimney brick.  The movers are about ready to place the beams underneath the house.  They will then move it off of the foundation and then Alan will take off the roof....

This picture shows the east side of the house (what will be the east side when it is moved)....you can see that all of the brick has been removed for the placement of the beams.....

Finished Basement?

I had not taken any pictures of the basement before the demo-I wish I had.  It is hard to believe that this old house will have a brand new beautiful block basement.  It looks like a bomb went off in here!  At least it smells better.....

Saving Bricks for the Front Porch

As you can see from the picture-the bricks on either side of the steps had to be removed.  I am hoping that we will be able to rebuild this area with the bricks that I salvage.

Three Little Pigs and a Brick House

Today, Alan and I took a drive out to the house.  I wanted to take some pictures of the demo work inside and to capture some photos from outside.  I have a pile of bricks to work on this week....I'm looking forward to using the air compressor and power chisel!  It looks as though the wolf has blown the bricks down.....but they are hopefully going back up!  I want to salvage enough bricks to rebuild the porch....not all of it can be moved and we also want to save enough brick to face the new attached garage.  Alan says it takes about 2 minutes to clean a brick.....we'll see!

The Movers are Moving In!

The movers have begun removing block from the lower part of the house; this will be the areas where the beams will be located to support the house during the move.

Knocking off the Brick

Alan has completed knocking off all of the brick from the east and west sides of the house.  Next step:  continue with demo inside/upstairs.    Removing the mortar from the brick will also need to be completed so that we can use it to repair the parts of the front porch that can't be moved as well as to face the new garage.

Wow...we are making progress!

There has been a lot going on with the house moving project!  The basement block is completed as far as possible until the house can be moved.  The basement will be back filled this coming week.