The move out is COMPLETE! - July 24th

Well almost.  There's only a garden hose and some wood to move and then we will be fully moved out of our High Tower house.  Unfortunately, we haven't closed on it and we still do not know when we will.  Apparently the buyers mortgage company can't get their act together so every day we wait.

In the meantime we have been packing a bunch. The final count on boxes is 206!  Never knew we could have so much stuff.  I am determined to de-clutter our lives as we go through the unpacking process.  We won't have as much room for it all so more will have to go and that is a good thing.

We moved into a hotel in Eden Prairie and boy is 824 SQFT small for 4 people and a dog.  If we don't kill each other we will be much closer at the end of this experience.  It's all part of the adventure.

In between all the trips to the airport hanger, my mother's house, my brother's house and the Comet Circle house t move all the stuff, a bit of progress has continued on the house.

Mark has been working to correct the sag in the framing between the dining area and living room.  Using a jack and a beam he is able to shim up the sagging floor.  It sure doesn't inspire confidence in the structure of the living room floor when you see this holding the house up:

It makes me afraid to stand on the floor but Mark assures me it won't fall down.  Once he put the shims in under the joists the jack came down.  The architect didn't think it was a good idea for the building inspector to see that so it was finished quickly.

The water damaged floor boards were also torn up.  As has been par for the course, we are discovering "hidden features" of this house every step of the way.  As Mark and Tim were taking off the last section of damaged flooring they found this:

Apparently one end of the living room used to be sunken a second step down (there is one step down from the dining area into the  back end of the living room).  There is no plywood under the sub-flooring so we will have to make special accommodations for that to get the floor level when we are putting it back together.  In the meantime, watch where you walk so you don't take the "express way" to the basement.

And finally, the other big progress we made since I last posted was an amazing amount of tear out in the basement.  I forgot the camera on Saturday so I didn't get any in process photos but the end result is awesome.  Adam Huss (friend of Emily's) and Matt used sledge hammers, picks and a 6 foot pry bar with a deadly point on one end to tear up the tile floor.  Mass destruction seems to suit them but they weren't so happy when they picked up the toilet to carry it out to the dumpster and it leaked water all over their feet.  Not to worry, it was clean water but still the concept is kinda gross.

While they toiled away and Mark supervised them, Emily and I were washing mold off the framing on the load bearing wall.  It was great fun and we all looked great wearing those silly protective masks.  I guess that is better than breathing in the nasty air.  Here's what it looks like now:

Skeleton Bathroom 

Future Family Room

The fun will continue tomorrow.

Framing repair and dumpster filling - July 19th

After we got over the disappointment of not closing on our High Tower house yesterday, we dug into the challenge of filling the dumpster as absolutely full as we could get it and putting up new ledger boards in the back of the house that will eventually hold the new deck.  They will also help support the living room and dining room floors that are currently sagging (more on that in the next post).

While Mark and Tim put in the ledger boards:

 I loaded the dumpster with the decking that was previously ripped off.

But I didn't do it all by myself.  I had a super happy helper, my nephew Bennett:

He was having a blast seeing if he could move more pieces than me. It was a little unfair because he could carry 10 of his pieces as once and I could hardly carry more than 3.

I also had a less than thrilled Emily helping.  After working her warehouse job all day she dove in and helped get the dumpster loaded.  I don't think it was how she planned to spend her Friday evening but she was a trooper none the less.

Just when we thought we were done because we couldn't fit any more into the dumpster, Matt showed up and was happy to get on the top of the pile (with Mark) and saw things apart so we could fit more:

While all this was going on Dixie observed from her favorite spot on a hot day:

And my other nephew, Gavin, played while Grandma kept him company (and pulled weeds because she wanted to be "doing something"):

Deck Destruction

Today's project was taking off the deck.  First came the railing.  I wasn't there to watch it but I am sure it only took one kick and it was down.  When we were removing the siding last night, I had to be careful not to lean on the railing or I would end up doing a belly flop on the pile below. I am sure there are a few of you who would like to see that but I will just let you imagine it instead.

Once the railing was off, the deck boards came up:

It didn't take much to get these off as many were barely attached.  It's a wonder it didn't just collapse.  Once the deck boards were off, Mark and Tim were able to better see what was going on with the bowing windows and floor.  They were able to see that the windows are supported by a piece of plywood without any framing.  It is actually possible to see down to the ground from inside the house as there is just nothing there.  Or rather as Mark said "It's supported by cobwebs".  And perhaps a few million ants.  Tim shared with me that every time they removed a board the found ants that "picked up an egg and ran into the house".  You can guess who I will be calling -  Plunketts to the rescue! Or if any one has a recommendation for an exterminator, please leave me a comment here. 

Matt got in on the action today too!  He's been going to work at 6am this week for his landscaping job and getting done by Noon since it is so hot.  Lucky for him, he gets to work his second, unpaid job.  What could be better than spending quality time with your dad and uncle???

I saved the best for last today.  I look forward to hearing the stories of what happens when I am not at the house.  But today I got to witness the action firsthand via a video Tim took while Mark removed the  corner post.  There is excellent commentary from Tim and Matt. Enjoy.

It's not a problem.  We have to replace all the windows anyway so a broken one here or there won't matter!

Tomorrow's big job will be getting as much decking and siding into the dumpster so that we can fill it, get this one hauled away and a new one delivered.  I am sure our neighbor, Bob, will appreciate that as he commented to Mark the other day about how the mold smell has moved from inside the house to out in the front yard.  Sorry, Bob.

Fireplace, Living Room Floor and Siding Removal

While I was occupied at High Tower, Mark and my brother, Tim, made great progress on the demo.  First came the fireplace.  Mark was determined to get the surround off.  It was a bear but he did it.

 Next came work on the floor in the living room.

The floor is quite warped and there is mold damage on the top layer of particle board (or whatever it is called) so we have to tear it up.  It is really a pain because it breaks apart instead of coming up in big sheets. When Mark doesn't have anything else to do or if he doesn't have a helper for the 2 person jobs he will plug away at getting these boards up.  Also, when he does get them loose they are super heavy so the hauling to the dumpster is a pain too!

Desiring a little time outside in the 90+ degree weather we decide to take the siding off the back.  Really what needs to be done is for the deck to come down so that the floor problem - it very slanted and uneven - can be corrected.  But we want to take the siding off while the deck is still there so we can stand on it instead of giant ladders.  Thus, Wednesday night (7/17) I took a break from my packing and the air conditioning to help tear off the siding on the back of the house.  It was actually a lot fun as it came off pretty easily and in long strips with many connected so we could see great progress very quickly.

Removing the First Section

The only problem was working around the "death trap" tree.  You see it in the picture above but what you can't see is:

the gaping hole that a human can fall through.  I gave a yank on the siding and stepped back just catching the edge and missing the hole!  It appears that a limb was trimmed and nothing was done about the space that the limb used to take up so if you want an "express" exit to the ground, you just have to jump.  I don't really recommend it!  I am lobbying for the tree to be cut down so we don't have to deal with it for the new deck.

Here's how it looked when we called it a night:

We didn't clean up the mess.  That is what kids are for.  We have a bit of room left in the dumpster which will be filled with this siding as well as the deck.

See the next posting for deck removal!

A lot has happened in the last week - mostly moving out of High Tower

Sorry I have been a little quite the past 7 days.

Today we were supposed to close on our High Tower house so I have been frantically packing, throwing out, donating, packing, wondering why we have so much stuff, throwing out and packing!  165 boxes so far.  Super duper important possessions were carted to my mom's house, boxes and boxes and boxes have been moved to our airport hanger at the Crystal Airport, the "things we can't do without" are in the garage at Comet Circle and eventually our beds will go to my brother's garage - he's my only relative with any space left to allocate to storage for me!

I was looking forward to an eventful day on July 18th and I have to admit it was that and more.... but not for the reasons I thought it would be.  I envisioned checking into our temporary "home" (the Residence Inn in Eden Prairie), showing up at the title company, signing some papers and no longer owning this house.

Well, we found out late Tuesday night that our buyers did not get their mortgage paperwork in order (go figure -  mortgage companies are actually checking into people's finances before they loan them boat loads of money) so we were forced to delay by a WEEK!  Yep an entire week.  It sure would have been nice to know that before we had help all day Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with packing and moving.  We couldn't have done what we did (almost empty this house) without the help of Randy Thompson, Art Felgate, Tim Shannon, Bennett Jasmine, Andrew Glover, Nancy Olene and of course, our children.  It was a huge undertaking so THANK YOU to each of you.

I am glad that we got so much done over the weekend and early part of the week so the POD that has been in our driveway since Saturday could be taken away.  That is where today's excitement comes into play.

I spent about 40 minutes on the phone last night with POD customer service explaining that our driveway is "kinda steep".  She assured me that she would put in detailed pick up instructions so we would get an experienced driver that could handle the job.

It all started when the driver that dropped the POD off said "Don't let the pick up driver drive the truck up the driveway and load it at the top. Have him leave the truck in the street and only use the lift."   I was feeling pretty confident that the driver would get the message from all that she was saying to me on the phone.

Our pick up time was between Noon and 3pm.  I was watching for his arrival but missed it.  Looking out the window I see him in the street and he is moving the lift up the driveway.  "Great", I think to myself, "He got the message"  and I go out to greet him.  What I missed was his attempt at backing his truck up the driveway.  He made it about a foot before the bottom of the truck dug in and he damaged the driveway!

He was damaging it further with the lift because he was too far to the right - the steeper side.  I proceeded to greet him and explain that the driveway wasn't as steep on the left and that if he positions the lift "like this" (and I point out the proper angle to him), he will be more successful in getting up the driveway.  He re-positions and has little trouble getting to the top.  I am sure he loved having a "house wife" tell him how to do his job.

He gets the POD loaded and heads down the driveway with this enormously heavy contraption.  Again I explained that he needed to keep to the left side which was not easy as he had to run the controls from that side too.

He was squeezing by the tree and maneuvering down the steep part when I yelled "Stop, Stop Stop".  He was too wide and ended up sliding off the right side of the driveway so he now had the back right wheels (each corner has 2 wheels close together like the back of a semi but they are small wheels) in the landscaping rocks and they turned sideways so they were skidding.  He examined it, thought about what to do and went back to the controls.  With a bit more damage to the driveway, he got the back wheels back on the driveway and the front wheels almost down to the street then SNAP! The front tire on the right side BROKE OFF.  The chain was just hanging there and the POD was smack in my driveway.  

I figured he would be there for hours now.  I went into the house to call Mark to tell him I couldn't bring him lunch as I was trapped behind a stranded POD.  The driver went to his truck to call the office to ask for another truck and lift to come help him.  As I was talking to Mark on the phone, the driver went back to the controls.  I was guessing that the dispatcher gave him some advice on what to do.  I'm talking and watching and the next thing I see is the back of the POD careening sideways down the driveway.  He just missed taking out the rock wall. The front wheels could not hold the weight with only one working wheel.  I thought the driver was trapped as the front went right at him and the rock wall was behind him.  I ran out to check on him.  He was getting up off the ground just as I came down the driveway.  He fell into the rocks on his shoulder but at least he got out of the way!  YIKES!  He was shaken up but tried to play it off.

He got the POD loaded on the trailer without too much additional trouble (only a little rolling backwards and sideways sliding because of the broken wheel), loaded the broken wheel into the cab of the truck, took pictures of the driveway damage and was on his way - to the nearest bar I am sure.  He needed a drink after that adventure.  He told me he has been doing this job for 9 years and has never had a lift break.  Leave it to this house! I think it is possessed.

July 11th (Day 2) - The dumpster is not quite full

Today started with the goal of having the cleanest garage on Comet Circle.  All the "nice" things left to us by the previous owners - washer, dryer, Entertainment Center, fake wood, shelves, dead tree, "Matt's Painting", sheetrock and who knows what else all went into the dumpster today.  Now the garage is ready to store some of our belongings from our current house.  You are probably wondering what "Matt's Painting" is/was.  There was a 4 foot by 6 foot painted "thing" in the garage. Yesterday Matt said he wanted it.  Today I threw it away.  After he finished cleaning out the garage he said "mom, where is my painting"   Ooops I thought he was joking.  Unfortunately it was buried in the dumpster and not salvageable.  But I did capture it in the before picture.

You can't see the full "beauty" of Matt's Art but you get the drift.  It was ugly! 

It's all gone now.

The neighbor of the day today was David.  He lives two doors down from us with his wife.  He referred to himself as the "old timer on the block".  He has a daughter who lives on Williston just down the hill from our Hightower house.  What a small world.

Today was another day of demo too.  Today's area of destruction centered around the fireplace and Master Bedroom.  We have never seen an uglier fireplace so we started tearing it out.  "Uncle Art" Mark's best friend since 6th grade was our helper in the morning.

Only Art has a hard hat in his car.

Who installs a fireplace hearth over carpeting.  Apparently it can be done

It was really nice carpeting!

It all went well until we ran into giant screws that will take some effort to remove.  So we took a lunch break and then moved on to the Master Bedroom.  The closet was almost the same size as the bedroom and there were double sinks out in the main part of the bedroom that had to go.  We are relocating the closet into space over the garage so we can add a window for more light. 

It was a really nice blue but not for MY bedroom.  Mark is in the closet.

Matt aka "Tetanus Cheeks" was happy to help destroy something.

He should have been a little more careful when he fell onto the pile of debris so that he didn't drive a nail into his butt cheek.   If you see him favoring the left side, you will know why.

Nothing will stop him with a power tool in his hand.

First the closet was removed.... 

Isn't that vanity just lovely! NOT

 then the vanity and sinks.

It was great fun sawing it apart.

As the boys destroyed I carried the fruits of their labor to the dumpster.  It is taller than me so after a short bit it was getting hard to toss the stuff up over the side.  If only I was taller, I thought to myself.  So I found a milk crate to stand on.  It was so much easier being a foot taller.  

We only had two other injuries today.  Matt attempted to throw the towel rack onto the pile but hit Mark in the head instead.  Luckily no blood.  Mark didn't want me to feel left off the injury list so he dropped the wrecking bar just close enough to me to land on my ankle. Man that hurt.  The marriage-o-meter took a momentary plunge down to 37 but he helped me move the piles out so we are back in the upper 90's (I do have a scab where he made me bleed so we can't get back to 100 yet!)

All done for today. Just taking out a couple remaining screws.

After we got these sinks out we realized that the plumbing running through the kitchen sofit was for these sinks that we are removing so we won't need to move them.  More demo!

We locked the house all up and were heading back to Hightower but first we had to look a the roof one more time.  We are deciding if the addition for the master bath and new closet will be able to be completed within the existing roof or if we will add dormers or some other structure to the garage roof to bring in some light.  While we were looking a cute squirrel scampered across the garage.  He hesitated a bit about half way across and then continued on (away from the trees towards the 2 story drop off).  We watched him and wondered where he was going.  Much to our amazement he climbed up the  chimney and crawled into the hole in the siding near the top.  We waited.... and waited.... and waited but he didn't come out.  We decide he can "stay with us" till we re-do the siding then we will have to evict him.

for those of you wondering about yesterday's ant here's a couple pictures:

Mark killed and cleaned up most of them yesterday.  This is what was left this morning.  Some were alive so we sprayed again early in the day then cleaned all the dead ones up right before we left tonight.   We will see if any survive until tomorrow.  Wonder which of God's creations will be found in the house tomorrow?

July 10th - Closing Day

Today it became real.  Mark and I bought a "fixer upper".

Well, what we really bought was a really nice frame, excellent vinyl siding that we don't like, and a lot of interior that needs to be thrown away.  We didn't waste any time getting started.  As of quitting time tonight, the kitchen with all it's mold covered walls is in the dumpster, the nasty appliances are in the front yard (next to the dumpster) which I am sure the neighbors just love.

Speaking of neighbors many noticed the activity at the house and stopped to introduce themselves.  We met Bob and Laurie, the empty-nesters next door who's grandchildren were playing in the street (we are moving to another nice cul-de-sac).  Huge thanks to Bob for loaning us some wrenches so Mark and Tim (my younger brother - he will be in many of my postings) could remove the kitchen sink (yep... it's also in the front yard).  Another Laurie from around the corner also stopped as she was walking her lab.  Dixie really liked that.  Rose, a woman who used to live in the house, drove by to check on the house.  She was surprised to see us there.  She will be reporting back to the previous owners who are of Brazilian descent and have moved to South Africa. Emily met our other next door neighbor (didn't get a name) who has four daughters under age 8.  Should be fun watching them grow up over the next 10 years.

When we weren't in the yard talking to everyone who stopped to chat we were filling the dumpster, cleaning the one bathroom that we will use while the other 3 are renovated, and sweeping up what looked like "blue sawdust".  Eventually Mark figured out what it really was - foam insulation that had been eaten by ants, "hundreds of thousands of them" as Emily reported.  I had to leave to go to a hair appointment so I missed all the excitement. Mark pulled a piece of moldy insulation down from where the stove used to be and behind it was an ant nest with tons of larva - quite a "nice ant family".  Matt said "it was more like a kingdom".   I can't wait to see the pile of dead ants tomorrow.  Hopefully the ant spray is working.  Yuck!

My "new" kitchen

The only thing we are keeping in the house if the refrigerator but I have to clean every inch of it.

Our one usable room in the house

If you need any appliances they are free for the taking

After Day 1 - still room for more

Mark suggested that we put a "marriage-o-meter" on this site to track that "progress" too.  I am happy to report that we started the day at 100% and ended it in the same spot.  (At least I think we did.  I didn't ask his opinion).