Construction

I'm barely alive. You see, most of me has been ripped out, leaving only the viable parts of the foundation, the fireplace, some of the metal frame, and the roof. As the workers removed more and more of me, they realized that less and less of what remained could be re-used. A quick rundown of what's been happening:

- Heine has hired workers to finish the demolition and rebuild me. They've taken everything out and as they went ripped out more and more stuff. Now there's not much of the original me left:



- It was discovered that the foundation on the east side was pretty much ruined. They've had to frame out and pour a new foundation:



- They're starting to prepare a new frame, by adding wood on top of the metal that sits on the foundation. Eventually this wood will serve as a frame for the new walls:



- There's a crapload of debris. It's been piled outside by the stoop and the path. Heine and Jamie have been taking some of the metal to the recycling center, but now that the whole metal frame from the floor has been removed, there's too much metal to take it all there. Everything else is going into a dumpster that Heine had delivered:





So there's a lot going on. All the recent pictures are here. Another post soon to talk about the design.

Update 3

So a lot has happened since the last update. Heine finally got around to tearing up the floor in the dining area. He then hired somebody to fix my foundation, which was basically crumbling in a few places. Here's a shot of the new foundation:



Heine's also been experimenting with how to put up new siding. He's come up with a few different ways to attach things to my metal frame. One of them involves screwing 2x4s into the gap between the L shaped pieces. Hard to describe. Here's a picture to show the idea:



In this next picture you can sort of see the trench that was dug all the way around to keep water out:



So things are moving along. I feel much better now that my foundation is fixed (although I still am a little slanted). The next step is to continue ripping out all the wall and ceiling panels near the doorway so Heine can figure out how to attach siding and how to make the siding flush with the roof. There's a lot of demolition to be done (Jamie says feel free to come help any time).

More recent pictures are here.

I'm back

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. Things took some time to get going but there's been some real action recently. Pretty soon I'll have a full status update and new pictures. Stay tuned!

Update 2

Well folks I'm sure you're dieing to know more about the great cottage upgrade! Well Heine got all my insides tested and guess what???? Good news!!! I don't have any STDs! Oh wait, I mean, I don't have any asbestos!!!! So now everyone can feel safe to tear out my walls, ceiling, floor, etc, and only worry about the mold and spiders.

Speaking of Heine, he's gotten back into action and has been continuing to rip up the floor in the back bedroom. Apparently its pretty wet under there which is kind of a concern. Hopefully the big drainage ditch he got those guys of questionable citizenship to dig around me will help prevent that in the future.

In other news Adam and Nick are totally moved out, or at least they live somewhere else now and have taken most of their stuff out. The big question now becomes what to do with all the furniture around here. Toss it? Keep it? Put it in a museum? Not sure yet but I think the big old weird yellow-ish couch is soon to be with us no more. Jamie reportedly has dibs on the coffee table. Let Heine and Janaki know if you want any of the other crap!

For now that's all but if the rumors are true there will be a lot more getting done real soon. Pictures should be up soon also. Until next time, Party On!!!

It Starts

Cottage exterior
Originally uploaded by wjackalope.

Well everyone, my transformation is starting. No, I'm not getting a sex change, hell, I'm a building, I don't have a gender. What I'm talking about is the proposed renovation of me. Yes, my owners, the Costellos, want to remodel me and possibly let Josh and Sadie move in. That's cool. I'm like 60 years old or so and I could use a face lift.

So those punks Adam and Nick finally got a real place and moved out. Now the cleaning out and demolition can begin. Heine already started in the back bedroom by ripping out the beaver board walls and the insulation behind them. It's pretty gross back there. He's getting everything checked for asbestos, and then the destruction will continue.

That's all for now!