One Sixty: Jess Dirt

Well, with the house securely in the sky, we finished digging out last weekend with the help of our old friend and landscaper/contractor/dude with machinery Nick Mitchell. He brought Dusty and a small CAT to the house on Saturday around 8am. By 5pm, the digging was finished. Mike and I hung out all day to take pics, help Dusty, burn some junk wood, and provide pizza and CocaCola.

I'm thinking I may write a press release and attach some of the pics and send it out to the local papers. Nothin' like a good 'ol fashion house raisin' here on Cape Cod... I know it happens all the time, but I've never seen one pictured in the paper. Might be a good story.

Anyway, the foundation guy Ernie from All Cape Foundations is out at the house today. (I passed his trucks on the way to work, isn't that cool?) He gave me a price of $10,900 yesterday, which was perfectly on point with my budget. I'm so excited. He didn't tell me how long it would take, but Nick estimated that if all went well, we'd have a foundation by Friday or early next week. Too cool. You can already tell how awesome it will be by standing under the house.

So cool. here's some more pics. I'll write more details despues de trabajar today... yes my spanish is bad, I know.

Blog Story

My now husband Mike and I purchased this quaint home back in spring of 2004 - our first home - and, being the handy folks we are, expected to have the entire thing renovated in about a year or so.

And here we still are... renovating away.

This house needed a complete overhaul. Its plaster walls were uninsulated, its attic floor covered in 2" of bat guano, its basement - dirt and snakes, its exterior - asbestos siding, and lead paint windows in every room. The electric had not been updated and light sockets hung bare from the ceiling. Plumbing featured cast iron radiators - and only one for the entire upstairs.

We began by gutting almost the entire house from top to bottom. (sans bathroom - we needed to pee) We rebuilt the entire upstairs, with a new floor (not new carpet or wood - the once unstable framing underneath) and turned 3 small rooms into two. We reinvented the downstairs by turning a closet into a hallway and eliminating interior exterior windows and doors from old half-assed additions.

New insulation, windows, electrical wiring (including phone and CAT-5 internet), plumbing and baseboards, and drywall were all added.

We purchased kitchen cabinets from a yard sale. (None existed previously.) Our families helped us replace and purchase new appliances including the once also missing washer & dryer.

Then we had the entire house lifted - straight into the air - dug out the dirt, and had a real basement foundation poured. We updated our oil tank and burner and created heating zones.

Outside, we took down trees and planted grass. We dug out an awkward hill to create a 2nd part to the driveway and used the rocks our house once sat on as a retaining wall. We electrified and repainted the garage.

And of course, we spent many an hour on finish work like paint, trim, closet doors, lighting fixtures, hardwood floors, curtain rods, dimmer switches, and many other things everyone else takes for granted. We are still working to complete all this final finishing, but happy to report that we are FINALLY nearing completion of all little things in all rooms!

In 2008 we began overhauling the exterior by creating a new french door entryway and building a farmer's porch and garage addition. We replaced our roof and then stripped off our siding and replaced with new clapboards. We then planted two new flowering trees and a maple in the front yard - our first major landscape purchases. I'm happy to report that here in 2011, the porch is nearing completion and the back yard is on the road to recovery with some new loam and grass. More plantings soon to come!

In 2012 we plan to attack the last MAJOR (emphasis on major) job in the house - the dreaded BATHROOM! We plan to first add a second bathroom in the basement. Then, demolish our current bathroom and rebuild it, adding a second bathroom on top for the upstairs.

And that pretty much brings you up to date. The battle continues day to day as we try and complete everything.

One Sixty

Jess Dirt

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