Basement Retrospective, Part 1
My computer and camera are still not on speaking terms with each other. I have a new laptop ordered, but it's apparently taking the slow boat from India. Or somewhere.
So I started going through old photographs, and realized that 4 years ago this week work started on our new basement. It was an interesting process so I thought I'd share a few pictures here.
Various opinions peg this house at between 100 to 125 years old. The farm itself was the first land claim made in Mitchell County, in the year 1851. A log cabin stood somewhere on the farm prior to this house being built. It is a balloon frame construction.
The foundation was limestone that had been foamed over at some point. There was only basement under half the house - which included a tree limb as one of the support posts and a large old tree stump that was presumably a chopping block. The other half of the house was dirt crawl space, and a popular entry point into the house for very. large. rats. Yikes.
This is the north end of the house where they started digging.
The first task was to dig out underneath the house so that it could be jacked up and supports put in place.
By noon the first day they had a pretty significant hole going.
A steel support beam arrived.
And Rafe was only this big (almost 17 months).
So I started going through old photographs, and realized that 4 years ago this week work started on our new basement. It was an interesting process so I thought I'd share a few pictures here.
Various opinions peg this house at between 100 to 125 years old. The farm itself was the first land claim made in Mitchell County, in the year 1851. A log cabin stood somewhere on the farm prior to this house being built. It is a balloon frame construction.
The foundation was limestone that had been foamed over at some point. There was only basement under half the house - which included a tree limb as one of the support posts and a large old tree stump that was presumably a chopping block. The other half of the house was dirt crawl space, and a popular entry point into the house for very. large. rats. Yikes.
This is the north end of the house where they started digging.
The first task was to dig out underneath the house so that it could be jacked up and supports put in place.
By noon the first day they had a pretty significant hole going.
A steel support beam arrived.
And Rafe was only this big (almost 17 months).
posted by sugarcreekfarm at Tuesday, August 07, 2007
7 Comments:
excellent post. our camera and computer were most recently in the bickering stage. they have just stopped talking directly to each other. the slow usb cable liaison is currently their only approved method of conversation. computers are such a love hate kinda thing.
Hey no fair! I want to see the ENTIRE project and completed pics. LOL
How exciting! For some reason, this basement renovation has me on the edge of my seat. I can't wait for the next installment! And I wouldn't have been able to call in the heavy machinery fast enough if I saw giant rats!
Hope it all went well - I'll check in to find out more!
:)
Mary
http://newrustic.typepad.com
I always forget to take "before" pics! fun to look back at something that is just part of the family now! super cute cutie, too!
Hey there, I too want to see some more of how this project developed. Your house looks very charming and I'm guessing 100+ years old? Please fill us in on the history - you must have uncovered some interesting bits during the excavation??
Duh, I'm sorry, I just re-read the post and saw you gave us the history! It's been a looong day. At least I guessed the date pretty well. :-)
Karl - tell me about it, I'm not sure how I ended up a software developer.
Lisa - patience, dear girl :)
Mary - oh, the rat tales I could tell. And maybe I will before this little retrospective is over.
stacie - I'm glad to have the pictures I do, but over the life of the project I was very sporadic about taking them.
BW - you're good! Pretty much dead on :)
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