It is the day before Thanksgiving and two significant events are happening.

First, the two steel beams are arriving so the existing east and west walls can be supported during the excavation of the basement.  It is critical to keep these walls in place safely, so people on the job site are safe.  The beams arrive at 8:30 am!

Keeping the Truck Clean

Second, is to collate the sheets that make up my building plan submission.  With almost 50 sheets, some of which are 30 inches by 42 inches, this is a non-trivial exercise.  However, the City of Monte Sereno was kind and allowed me to spread out the plans in the Council Chambers so I could collate the submission.  I was reminded that they needed a complete set of plans to approve.  Consequently, this became a high-priority item for me.

Collating plans in Council Chambers

Swimming Pool Permit in Hand!

The City of Monte Sereno issued the permit to complete the swimming pool today.

It was 24 hours since we submitted the application for the pool permit.

Yippee!

Full Drilling Process

One cannot appreciate the complexity and coordination required to drill 30 ft deep holes with the last 10 feet of that drilling in water.  The photos below illustrate the process.

First, the hole is drilled to the full depth (30 ft in our case), with the 20 inch casing in the hole as it is being drilled.

One drilled to depth and confirmed by the soils engineer, the driller sets the bit aside and puts the 30 ft. rebar cage into the hole, inside the casing.  The structural engineer confirms the positioning of the rebar cage in the hole and gives approval to proceed.  At this point, the pumper truck operator raises the 30 ft tremie and prepares to lower it into the hole.

Tremie at the end of the concrete pumper truck boom, with the 30 ft mark in red.

You can see the operator in the photo below, and the red mark showing the 30 ft length.  Everyone had to be careful to reach maximum depth and not get the tremie snagged on the rebar cage.

Tremie being lowered into hole (6 ft to go).

At this point, the operator calls for concrete from the mixer and starts pumping concrete into the hole.

Ready to start pumping concrete through the tremie into the hole.

As the concrete is poured, the operator raises the tremie, making sure that the tremie is always under the water and immersed in concrete.  The water rises above the concrete.

Raising tremie as concrete is being poured.

When the concrete has been poured to approximately 15 ft (half of the 30 ft), the operator stops pumping and removes the tremie from the hole.

Preparing to remove the tremie, and then the casing.

The driller then raises the casing and removes it from the hole.

Casing being removed from the hole.

Casing coming out ...

The casing is 20 ft long, and here it comes!

Casing being removed (note tremie in background).

And over the wall it goes, safely out of the way.

Over the wall and positioned for the next hole.

The casing is gone and everyone gets back into position to lower the tremie into the hole.

Ready to put tremie into the hole (note auger bit and wet cuttings to the left of the operator).

With the casing removed, the pump operator then lowers the tremie back into the hole and continues pumping.

Tremie goes back into the hole.

Again, the operator raises the tremie as the concrete is poured, ensuring the tremie is under the concrete at all times and the water rises above the concrete.

Raising the tremie as the concrete is pumped into the hole.

On our job site, the water would start pouring out of the hole during the last 8 to 10 ft.  It gets a bit more than messy at this point!

Water emerges as the concrete completely fills the hole.

The second reading of the amendment to ordinance 10.06.110 regarding projections into yards was passed by Monte Sereno’s City Council tonight.

Thus, this ordinance becomes effective in 30 days.

And then, we’ll be able to get our building permit.

Yippee!

Today was a big day. First, Bryan returned from Argentina and started to realize the carnage left behind by the financial meltdown in the equity markets (our financing plans may change now). Second, the deconstruction has progressed nicely and needs to be completed now. Finally, there was a City Council meeting tonight and it will be the public hearing to amend the ordinance so our window well can go into the setback.

A big day …

Deconstruction

The glass has been removed from the house and is stacked at the back of the property. This is a temporary location for a couple months. All the windows will need to be cleaned and ‘refinished’ but they will be reused in the remodeled structure.

Double-glazed Low-E Windows

There is now quite a pile of wood in the driveway. Each board will be reviewed with a metal detector to identify nails and screws, which must be removed prior to milling.

Boards Ready for Metal Detector

Here is one of the last views of our pool, before it is re-shaped into a rectangle. This is the view from the former Master Bedroom (which will be Kate’s bedroom in the remodeled structure).

View from Master Bedroom of Pool

Public Hearing to Amend Ordinance 10.06.110

With the public hearing tonight to change the ordinance, we rallied a couple key people in Monte Sereno to attend the public hearing and speak in favor of the amended ordinance.

Bob Karski, from Via Sereno, spoke in favor of the ordinance again (he also spoke on September 2).

As well, Betty Kunz attended the meeting and spoke in favor of the ordinance. Betty is a long-time resident of Monte Sereno and we have known her for some time. She made an interesting point – changing the ordinance will allow young families to expand their homes and stay in the area. She explained that young families should be encouraged to stay in Monte Sereno to help maintain a community.

Betty was excellent.

The vote? 5-0 in favor of amending the ordinance.

Yippee!

As part of the ‘decoupling’ of the various permits to renovate our house and build the lower level, we applied for a building permit to construct the shoring piers both below grade and above grade to support the east and west walls.

Jo-Anne filed the application for the shoring piers and it was issued today.

Yes, another milestone achieved.

I still have my eye on the building permit …

In order to move forward, we separated the ‘deconstruction’ from the building permit.

We applied for a permit to deconstruct the roof and center of the house, in order to continue with our project while the ordinance regarding projections into setbacks (for our window well in the front of the house) is being developed.

The permit was issued today and we can now move forward.

Yes, another milestone in our saga.