Home sweet home

One of the things we discovered last spring wast that there is no footer at all under the front porch. This wouldn’t be “too” terrible if it were a small porch tied in to the house. But this is a massive concrete porch that runs nearly half the length of the house. This spring it finally started to settle. In the span of a couple months it dropped over and inch and a half away from the bottom of the front door creating this gap between the wall and the porch and a little step that was going to catch someone sooner or later.

But how do you fix something like this without tearing the whole thing down and doing it all over? I took the economical way out and gave the guys at 3d Structural Solutions a call. For about $700 they said that they could stabilize the porch and lift it back up in to place with  process call mud jacking. Basically they drill a few holes and inject a concrete /epoxy mix under the concrete until it lifts back in place.

Porch separating from the house

The guys that came out to do the mud jacking, the first time, appeared to have it all under control so I took off and left them to do their work. When I checked in before they left we had a problem. Not only had the porch not lifted up to where it belonged, It had actually pushed away from the house about an inch. I had gone from not great to wow, that pretty much sucks. Having been a business owner for most of my adult life I decided to not freak out on the guys doing the work and called the owner to have a chat. He impressed me by coming out to the house himself to see what happened.

Dan was great. He took one look at the porch and said that he would have his guys back out to do it right. Apparently how much the person doing the work weighs is a factor in how well mud jacking works. A one inch hole is drilled through the concrete, a hose is inserted in to the hole and the operator stands on a step built in to the pipe. Then they pump until the concrete lifts or the operated is shot up in to the air like a pogo stick. For heavy objects there is a different technique that requires more holes and a few jacks to take up the load while the mud is pumped under the concrete.

Look, it's fixed!

The second attempt went great and I am thrilled with the final results. Far cheaper and easier than tearing out the porch and building a new one. Most importantly to me, however, was how well the guys at 3d dealt with a problem when it landed in their lap. They could have easily thrown their hands up and said that’s how these things go some times, and I have deal with contractors like that, but they chose to stand behind their work and their product. And that means more to me than getting right the first time.

Now all I need to do is find the time to grind it all down a bit and put a new skim coat on top to make it look like new.

After a lot of work, several weeks worth, we’ve managed to finish the kitchen, mostly.

Appliances are in new locations to make the kitchen more functional, new porcelain tile has been laid, and our new granite counter tops are in and level. Right now I’m thinking I don’t want to do this again, but I also know than in a few months we will start in on the master bathroom. Actually thinking about taking the tub out entirely since no one ever uses it. But that may get the room declared a half bath instead of a full bath.

In either case, here are a couple pictures of the finished kitchen.

The New Layout

Granite

The remodel is going slow. We picked a great week to start this with the 4H fair going on, but we have gotten a lot done. The floor is in, most of the cabinets have been rehung, all we are waiting for now is for the new granite counter tops to arrive. Those should be here on Friday. In the mean time, take a look at how far we have gotten.

Valyn testing the first couple rows of tile	getting close	The supervisor approves
Kitchen floor and cabinets	Kitchen floor is done

I really should resize these images before posting them.. Oh well, maybe next time..

It’s finally time to remodel the kitchen. We’ve been planning on doing this for a few years now and just never found the time to get it done. The main reason for the remodel is the terrible placement of the refrigerator and the sagging floor. We decided to do a total tear out all the way to the walls, level the floor, screw down all the squeaking boards, and then put down porcelain tile.

When tearing things out we discovered a few minor issues with the original construction and dealt with those as well. Why can’t people just do things the right way the first time?

The kitchen

Tear Out

Supervisor taking a break

Floor leveled and backer board going down

Malcolm Wells was an early supporter of taking architecture into a more green way of thinking.. Starting back in the 60′s he experimented with various ways of building without harming the surrounding world.. From energy conservation to soil preservation to water conservation.. His book, Gentle Architecture (1984) Powell’s Books, was something that I picked up when I was studying Architecture at the University of New Mexico.. (BA Architecture 1994)..

I picked the up the book again because it has been a long time since I’ve done anything with my degree and we’ve been talking about building a new house.. And if I am going to build a new house I want to do everything I can to make it the best house I can in every way possible..

I was surprised at how little I remembered from reading this book more than 12 years ago.. A lot of it seems like common sense today, but so much more of it seems like we have made almost no progress in that time.. From massive paving projects to green spaces that aren’t really green at all, we seem to have been stagnant in the field of architecture on any grand scale.. Yes, the tree huggers are going to say, See, I told you so, but there has always been the need to strike a balance between conservation and use.. And while I like a lot of what Malcom has to say, I find a lot of it preachy at best..

It is possible to be environmentally considerate without being an extremist.. I just wonder how much of this I can put into effect on our house project..

~Fey