Plan:
- remove 2 wood beams and replace with 2 steel beams
- remove downstairs sliding door and windows
- insert new French doors and insert 2 windows(re-using the ones from upstairs)
- remove sliding doors from upstairs level and insert new French door
- clean up the basement and take all garbage to dump
- burn all the junk wood from the new house that has been collected
- drive to buffalo 1.5 hrs. each way and order windows from Home Depot(yes I know this sounds crazy but we are saving around $2500.00) since we don't pay for gas and drive on vegetable oil it is totally worth it!
DO YOU THINK WE GOT IT ALL DONE???
READ MORE TO FIND OUT :)
The beams we were installing were 300lb beams replacing the old sagging wood beams. There were 3 of us. Let me repeat 3 of us....1,2,3 not 4 or 5 like I think we should have had.
Old Beam 1:
New Beam 1:
Beam 2:
Branko who is 6'3 and very strong, his friend who I believe is 5'9 and pretty strong, and then me(extra help just in case) 5'7 and not so strong(that's an exaggeration...I am pretty strong but not compared to those boys). Attempt 1 failed we couldn't get it above our waists and the height that we needed to reach was about 6'2. Attempt 2 was also a fail and had me in a state of fear where I was sure the beam was going to come crashing down on my head. I'm sure I over exaggerated my fear because I am a worrier but none the less I was almost in tears. Our 3rd attempt was a success. After taking a break to breath and think about a better strategy we finally got that sucker in its place.
PHEW right we are done!!!
Not so much....we have one more longer more heavier beam to install. The second beam went much smoother with some pre-game plan ideas, it was up in no time.
Next up remove the sliding door and windows which was a pretty easy task build a new frame for the door since the old one was rotted out. By 10pm at night Branko and I finally finished up our day.
A view of the upper level and lower level:
We were able to finish installing the French doors downstairs, remove the windows from upstairs and relocate them to the downstairs spot where we wanted them. These windows were fairly new so we didn't want to just junk them. Since we were ordering all new windows for the upper level we decided that we could re-use those 2 windows for the lower level. The walk-out from the upper deck and the walk-out from the lower level are identical. So we were able to use the windows which was great! $400 in savings! :)
While the guys were removing the sliding door downstairs I was able to clean out most of the basement. We had at least 2 truck loads of stuff that was left from the previous owners that we needed to clean out. So I kept myself busy piling up the garbage bags and loading up the the truck.
On Sunday we made our trip to Buffalo with a stop at my parents for breakfast! It was nice to see them chit chat for a bit and then head over the border. We only needed to go to 3 stores(autozone, wal-mart, and home depot). Once we were done at Home Depot around 1pm we headed back home. Another stop at my parents to pick up some stuff(YAY for fresh eggs and brand new tri-pod for my camera) and then home bound. We arrived home around 4:30pm and of course headed over to the new house. We knew we had a few more things we wanted to get done before the weekend was over. We were able to finish burning almost all of the wood, fully installing the windows downstairs and levelling them off properly and also making an action plan for the week ahead of us. I usually get home around 5pm and Branko around 5:30pm. This allows us to eat a quick dinner and head over to the new house for a couple of hours each night.
Our new windows will be here in 2 weeks time so we have a lot of work we need to get done before they arrive.
So for the final results:
Plan:
- remove 2 wood beams and replace with 2 steel beams
- remove downstairs sliding door and windows
- insert new French doors and insert 2 windows(re-using the ones from upstairs)
- remove sliding doors from upstairs level and insert new French door
- clean up the basement and take all garbage to dump (well we finished 1/2 of this job still have about another truck load of garbage)
- burn all the junk wood from the new house that has been collected (another small fire will be needed tonight to finish this off) being the paranoid person that I am I didn't want to leave the house with the fire burning at all so we stopped to let the fire die down)
- drive to buffalo hrs. each way and order windows from Home Depot(yes I know this sounds crazy but we are saving around $2500.00) since we don't pay for gas and drive on vegetable oil it is totally worth it!
I am so excited the windows are ordered!!! They are going to be stunning and make such a drastic difference to the house. The 2 week count down is on until they arrive and we get to install them. Until then we plan to remove the rest of the garbage and install the French doors on the upper level. In the next 2 weeks we also plan to remove all of the old windows(6 of them) and frame everything for the new windows. Almost all of the windows are going to be larger so we have to build new frames. We will just put some plastic wrap in the empty spots for now and seal the open windows until the new ones arrive. This way we will be prepared and window installing will be able to be completed in one day!
On a side note we had a visitor this weekend as well:
She had a field day playing around the creek in our backyard at the old house:
I also did some more organizing with the mason jars I found at our new house:
This weekend is Mother's Day so Sunday will be spent with my little sister and mom. We are taking her to the Cheesecake Factory in Buffalo!
Looking forward to the week ahead of us and the work we have planned!!
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