09/28/10

consensus is not reached

So we had a third estimate for our foundation this morning. It seems that no one can agree on how to best fix it! Meanwhile, we (the non-experts) are left trying to sort through which company we believe the most.

The problem: In the back corner (underneath the closet at the back of our carport), the footing is completely cracked through. It is sinking in the ground, coming apart from the wall of the house. This has caused the entire back half of the main level of our house to dip – there is about 3″ from the center of that level to the back. The cause is most likely water flow – there is some debate about whether we have water issues in our crawlspace or not. I don’t think there is standing water, but maybe it comes in when it’s raining? I don’t know. I should take some pictures from inside the crawlspace about what’s going on.

Back before we bought the house – July 2009 – Foundation Repair Company A came and gave us an estimate – 6 piers would fix the problem, $5400. Based on this estimate, we decided to move forward with the house. (If we had known then what we know now, we would have walked away.)

Almost a year later, we finally have the money and get ready to solve the foundation problems. I call Foundation Repair and Waterproofing Company B. They come by and look at the crawlspace and say that piers are not going to solve the problem, that it’s an issue with the joist and we need a general contractor who works with wood. The fact that he said that to a potential client really resonated with me.

After that, we take down the porch that was on the back of our house and discover how bad the back corner really is.

Enter Foundation Repair Company C, who gave us a discouraging report about the problem and the cost to fix. Out of everyone I’ve met with so far, he impressed me the most – though he was also likely the most expensive (haven’t gotten official estimate yet). He spent a long time in the crawlspace, taking pictures that he then showed me. He pointed out that the footing is cracked all the way through, and we would need to rebuild the footing and then use the piers to jack the house back up to its proper position. To put the piers in, he would need to take out part of the carport floor and also remove the floor of the closet which is directly over the cracked footing. He also said there was evidence of water and erosion in the crawlspace, so he would waterproof the walls and put in a sump pump. Total cost was between $10,000 and $20,000 – he would speak with a structural engineer and get a more precise estimate.

Then we come back to Foundation Repair Company A. I called them again and explained that removing the sun porch revealed more damage, and I would like a new estimate. This guy came out last week and went through the crawlspace and took pictures to show me. He agreed that there was more damage than the initial estimate. He talked about piers, and said that he would need to remove the stoop outside our sliding glass door in order to put in the piers. I asked about the footing being broken, and he simply said, “It won’t move.” Tomorrow, he is coming back with a structural engineer to look again and then will give me the official estimate.

Today, I met with Foundation Repair Company D. He came and I showed him the back corner, where the most visible damage is. He looked at it and also peeked into the crawlspace and said that he didn’t think piers would solve my problem. He said we need a masonry specialist to rebuild the footing, which is something that their company didn’t do. He referred me to a guy he recommended. I mentioned what Company A told me, and he said that the piers would make it not move, but it wouldn’t be fixed correctly. He didn’t elaborate, so I’m not sure exactly what that means.

I intend to contact the masonry guy and get his opinion. The fact that two pier companies have said that they couldn’t solve it means a lot to me. Maybe I should do some reading about foundations and see if I can make a more educated decision, when the time comes. (Our goal is to get this taken care of before it gets too cold, so we can put the insulation back into the crawl space.)

09/26/10

foyer beautification

We have a little “foyer” of sorts right by the front door, created by a half wall and our couch. We currently have our bookcase there, and it has also become a catch-all for miscellaneous junk we aren’t sure what to do with. I keep telling myself I need to make places for the junk, clean up the foyer, so it is a nice “first impression” for guests.

Since our only closets are in the bedrooms, we need somewhere on the main level to put our coats. We had a coat rack, but some of the pegs had broken off and it was hard to find coats and jackets on it. So, we went to Ikea and bought some hooks to put in the wall. We haven’t started using them yet since it’s still warm out, but I am excited. Already I think it looks cleaner.

Now to get the rest of the foyer cleaned up…

09/24/10

a few baby-related changes…

The one negative thing about having a split level and a baby is the fact that there are two sets of stairs we need to protect. Savannah isn’t climbing up stairs yet, but we did have to go out and buy gates for the top of the stairs. For the top of stairs, it is recommended to have baby gates that mount on the wall (instead of the kind you can step over). After Savannah fell down the stairs and broke her leg, we realized that we needed to take care of it ASAP. So over the past few weeks we picked up two baby gates for our house.

For the stairway going down to the den…

And at the top of the stairs by the bedrooms…

So far they’re working out pretty well. I’m not a big fan of the one by the bedrooms, but it does its job. It’s just not very pretty. :-)

09/24/10

Inspirational website

A long time ago, someone sent me a link to a website called Young House Love. It’s about a couple our age who bought a 54 year old house, and in the past 4 years have updated and renovated it to create a beautiful, stylish home for their family. I love reading their website, and at the time it inspired me to start this blog.

I had lost the link until today, when Joanna linked to it on Twitter. I was very excited! I spent part of the evening reading through it again, and getting inspired.

It’s easy to get discouraged about our house because the projects seem so expensive. We don’t *have* $15,000 to fix our foundation. We probably will never have the money to do all the things I want, like tear out all the paneling and put in drywall. I’m trying to be content with what we have.

If you want to get inspired, take a poke around Young House Love, especially their before/after pictures. Hopefully our house will look just as beautiful someday. :-)

09/23/10

discouraging news about the foundation

A few months ago, we had a guy come out to give us a quote on our foundation problem. At the time, I thought he was so nice and helpful. He told us his company’s solutions would be overkill for our problem, and I just needed a general contractor. We didn’t get any more estimates at the time because weren’t sure how to proceed. I couldn’t imagine why the guy wouldn’t have been honest with us. Paul then pointed out something. “It could be that the job was too small for them.” That was a valid reason, and gave me the motivation to make the necessary calls and schedule estimates.

So, I called 3 other companies and have estimates this and next week. The first one was today, and it was discouraging.

With the porch gone, you can see the foundation issues much more clearly. The biggest problem is this wall right here:

The far right of the wall goes to a closet at the back of our carport. Next to it is the dining room, and on the far left of that level is the kitchen. Underneath all those is a crawlspace.

Here is basically what I was told today. The back half of the main level of our house has sunk about 3 inches (measuring inside the house). The main culprit is the foundation wall in the back corner (see picture above). The guy wasn’t positive – he wanted to show it to a structural engineer – but he was pretty sure that the wall can’t be fixed, and would need to be replaced. This is just the foundation wall that runs along the back of the closet by the carport. Once replaced, about 6 helical piles would be needed to jack up the house to its correct position. Unfortunately, part of the carport floor will need to be removed to put the piles in. I was also told there is a lot of water damage in the crawlspace, which may have been caused or worsened by the floods from last year (a year ago, it rained heavily for 8 days straight). If that’s true, then that would explain why the estimate that we got 14 months ago didn’t reflect this extent of damage.

He also said something about waterproofing the entire crawlspace and putting in a sump pump. He showed me pictures of how the ground is all eroded under there. I asked him for ballpark estimate, and he said it would be more than $10,000 and probably less than $20,000. He will get a more specific estimate back to me in the next few days.

Whew, this is a lot to take in and we’ll need to figure out what to do. We obviously don’t have the cash on hand for that, and it concerns me to wait too long to deal with this problem – saving up $10-20,000 will be very difficult to do quickly. I am eager to hear what the other two engineering companies have to say, to see how their estimates compare.

I will keep you updated!

09/3/10

things I love about our house

I complain a lot about our house, but really I need to focus on the positives. So here are some things I love.

1) I love our neighborhood. I initially refused to look here, and only consented because it was the only affordable thing we could find, but I’ve been surprised at how much I like it. It’s a pleasant neighborhood with lots of trees, no HOA, very close to the train station, we’re a block away from the bus stop, and we’re only a mile each from 2 major highways. We can get downtown in about 15 or 20 minutes, which I love. We’re technically in the suburbs, but we’re closer to the city than to the real outlying suburbs.
2) I love the bay window. It’s so pleasant and lets in so much light.
3) I really like the yellow we painted all the walls. I wanted to get something light and neutral to start, and this is perfect I think.
4) I like the original hardwood floors. We had them cleaned before moving in and they turned out beautiful! They’re in great condition too for being 50 years old.
5) I love our stove/oven. It came with the house, and I assumed it would be cheap or old, but I have been pleasantly surprised. I love cooking on gas.
6) Now that we have the den fixed up, I really like having that space down there to put all of Savannah’s toys. I think it will be especially useful when we have more than one!
7) I like the split-level layout. It’s more interesting, in my opinion. I like that our house is not too big, but big enough that we could raise a family here if we wanted.
8) I like the size of the bedrooms. Some of the houses we looked at had big master bedrooms and teeny-tiny other bedrooms. Our room is about the same size as the guest room, and they are both a good size I think. Savannah’s room is smaller, but still definitely big enough for her.
9) I like that we have a utility room big enough to put shelves for storage. It’s a good size, and I prefer storing things indoors if possible. It’s also small enough to keep us from going crazy, hanging onto things we don’t need.
10) I am grateful for central air. I doubt there was central air when this house was built, so I am grateful that a previous owner added that.
11) I am glad there is a half bath in addition to the full bath – I hated living in a place with only one bathroom, especially when we had guests.
12) I like having a yard big enough to do something like have a garage sale if I want to. Or have a slip & slide. Or a kiddie pool.

08/31/10

one year anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of closing on our house! Our closing went really well, for which I was grateful. It wasn’t until after it was over and we said goodbye to our realtor that I finally breathed a sigh of relief and admitted to myself that we actually WERE going to own a house!

I thought our journey was over, but really it had just begun! I have learned SO much this past year. It has been a real struggle for me to find pride in our house, and not focus on all the work that still needs to be done. I think this blog helps a bit with that – trying to channel the “adventure” aspect instead of the “burden” aspect.

I think if I could pass on advice to others, here’s what I would say:
1) Don’t move into a house and have a baby at the same time, if you can help it. Give yourself time to enjoy your baby. It’s okay that you don’t have a house yet – your baby won’t notice. :-)
2) Be willing to walk away from a house, especially if you start seeing red flags. There are others out there. I wanted this neighborhood so badly and I thought this house was the only way to live here, but in the past year there have been several other houses on the market which may have served us just as well. (Or maybe not, but still…)
3) Houses built before 1978 have really high labor costs (if you get a contractor) because of a new law passed last April that require contractors to take certain hazard precautions. Unless you’re willing to do everything yourself or it has already been done by previous owners, think hard and seriously before buying an older house.
4) Fixer uppers are great, but only if you have the money. Going from two incomes to one at the same time as having a baby, may not be the BEST time to buy a fixer-upper. Make sure you have a lot in savings.
5) There will ALWAYS be more “wrong” with the house that you discover later!! So if you barely have enough to fix the problems that you see at first, then maybe you should walk away.

I think overall my advice is… patience, young grasshopper. Or maybe that’s just what I’m lacking myself. :-)

08/17/10

no more porch!

I was going to wait until the backyard was completely done to show pictures, but I’m worried that we’re not going to be able to finish it anytime soon because of a lack of money. So I’ll go ahead and put up the pictures now, and do a big before/after post later. :-)

The side of our house, with the porch gone!

Removing the structure revealed some of the foundation issues we’re having.

What the back of our house looks like now. You can see the cement stoop that was originally there.

We would like to make this into a nice little patio area, by using patio stones and/or gravel. We’d like to have a place for a table and chairs and also a grill. I’m even thinking of that marking off the area with some sort of pergola and lighting would be really nice!

Underneath the deck we found some containers that were full of water. Once we got rid of them, the mosquito problem was a lot less. However, it’s not completely gone. We are also having a wasp problem – we found 3 nests in the roof of the sunporch, so they are flying around trying to find new a nest. This makes it still hard to be outside.

I’m also unsure about what to do with the fence. Ideally, I’d love to take down that section and put a new one in that follows the property line. I did some research, and it seems that with chain-link, just “moving” it over a few feet is not easy at all. Some of the research I’ve done says that it’s very worth it hiring a professional, versus DYI. Hmm, more money. Not sure.

Paul thinks we should just leave as is. I am thinking of squatter’s rights laws, and I think that it’s important to have a fence on the boundaries of your property – for both you and your neighbor, and also for future owners of either house. If it was just crooked, I wouldn’t worry about it, but the whole jutting in thing makes a different in my opinion. Maybe we could just replace that section of the fence, though that might not be an option. Still thinking about it.

Next up (as much as we have money…):
1) Fix house foundation
2) Replace insulation in crawlspace
3) Grade & sod backyard

08/6/10

a map!

I got a digital copy of our land from the survey company, and I thought I’d share it here (with identifying features and measurements removed). The first is the map of our house on our property with the sun porch and deck, and the second is with them removed (since they are now gone!!!).

Also, the grey line with the x’s is the chain-link fence, so you can see how the fence deviates from the property. I hope this makes more sense… I feel like it’s really difficult to explain how our house sits on our property (and how close we are to the neighbor’s!). Click on the picture to see it bigger.

If you’re ever building a house… please stop and think about where it sits on the property, and don’t try to get all cute by angling it.

By the way, there is 8 ft. from the top left corner of our house to the edge of our property. I’m pretty sure that violates current setback laws!

07/27/10

Savannah’s room, updated

I posted some pictures of Savannah’s bedroom a while back. It didn’t change too much from when we moved in, except for the paint. At the time, the only thing we kept in her room was a changing table and her clothes. Now, we have a crib and she sleeps in there. (We keep most of the toys in the playroom downstairs.) Also, I organized her clothes last January and never took a picture! So here it is finally. :-)

Savannah’s room. I really, really want a glider so I can rock her! I have been scouring Craigslist but have not been very satisfied with the prices.

The changing table & dresser of sorts

Savannah’s closet. In January I got that bookshelf and that has been PERFECT! I really like having it. I also got some rubbermaid containers for her clothes that she’s outgrown. I put all the “outgrown” stuff on the top shelf of the closet.

Savannah’s crib (Ebony is demonstrating where Savannah sleeps)

From Hovel to Home

Our journey fixing up our 56 year old house

Author Archives: Ashley