Week 1: Turns out there is a lot of deconstruction to do

 
 

The first week of the Little Tree Tops renovation project has come to an end. The walls, cabinets, and plumbing fixtures are all out of the main living area. We filled two big dumpsters with debris and will likely fill a few more before construction begins. Overall, the bones of the house look good. I did find a colony of carpenter ants on the front wall but that wall has to be taken out for the new front entrance anyway. The structural engineer was not satisfied with the current framing of the existing roof on the back addition so that will need to be reinforced before we put on the second floor. The worry is mostly about snow loading in the winter.

 
 

My big task at the moment is to continue to remove the cement shingle siding off the house. The siding is 50 years old and it has held up incredibly well. Because of the dust from the shingles I am wearing a respirator and googles and a full Tyvek suit. I feel like an alien. I'm definitely amusing the neighbors! It will take me a couple of weeks to get it all off but I have time because it will take a few weeks before the roof trusses show up.

Deconstruction

 

Deconstruction at Little Tree Tops is underway. We are filling up trash bins faster than they can be delivered! The inside walls have been stripped down to the studs. Some of the walls have been taken down completely and it is becoming clearer what the space will be like when the construction is complete. Yesterday the "dog house" on the front was removed. The electrician (Paul) was at the house last night setting up the temporary electrical service. I've been busy removing the exterior shingles and will likely spend most of Saturday on this project. It isn't that difficult to do but the shingles are made of a cement and so are very heavy.

Project Money Pit!

I finally have my building permit in hand and we are gearing up to start the renovations on Little Tree Tops.

The first review of the plans by the code enforcement officer revealed that I didn't have windows on the second floor that met the building code for fire emergencies. So back to the drawing board we went and the architect came up with a new window design.

The second review brought up a new issue that I couldn't do the renovation project if I was within 75 feet of a stream. Fortunately I'm more than 150 feet from the nearest stream.

Just when I thought I had cleared all of the hurdles and had the remodeling contractor all lined up and ready to go I got an email from the code enforcement officer that it looked like the house didn't have the right set back distances from the property lines! Fortunately it looks like that was just a problem with the scale of the drawing she was using to estimate the distances. The next morning I went out and measured everything...twice!

So now we are official and ready to go. All of the staging materials and the dumpster will be on site tomorrow. The next adventure will be to find out what is actually behind the walls...the house hasn't been updated since 1959 so I'm sure we'll find some interesting things as we go along.