My husband has written most of stories so far but he was on a fishing trip for this. Since I had recently torn my knee
up and was awaiting surgery I was off work and able to watch everything. I think this was much to the chagrin of the workers.
I was armed with my camera and shown where to sit and stay out of the way. Our contractor had been warned I may be there often.
He also knew that I would protect the old house like child! Was he really ready?
This is the part that I have been dreading for a long time. I think I've heard so many horror stories about dry laid
foundations collapsing, that a deep hole that close to the old house gives me chills. The ground caved in digging the
drain in the back and in my mind I see the house slowly collapsing into the hole. The main foundation hole will
be about 10' away from the house. I think I made it clear to eveyone to be careful!
The first section was carefully dug. It was only to be a crawspace but the operator Nick really did a good
job. The next area was right in back of the house and was also a crawspace so it wouldn't be that deep. The basement section
would be about twelve feet from the house to hopefully prevent any foundation problems.
Our addition layout was a bit difficult to design because of the way the old house was constructed. We originally wanted
to add a two story ell off the back. We were going to cut a door using the upstairs window. We have metal rods holding the
house together and we found that to add the door. we would have to cut the rods and that wasn't an option, so our
plans changed. We wanted to keep the look of the old house but have a new addition. By extending one room several feet and
adding a "breezeway" our architect was able to come up with a workable plan. Afew changes and we were ready to go.
Floorplan
