Busted!

I should have known! All was progressing too well and too efficiently, and of course, an OSHA inspector, who happened to be in the neighborhood looking at an entirely different project, decided to take an interest in our little project and with a stroke of a pen, shut us down.

It seems that OSHA took a dim view of what they consider an open pit mine being dug in the backyard of the little house. So the project is now in excavation prison until further notice.

Fortunately, these guys appear to be pretty reasonable and I certainly have no desire to see anyone hurt on this job site (who needs a haunted house, even if it is lightly haunted by the spirit of an ankle sprain) but let's face it, we are not exactly digging a tunnel to Tokyo here either, so we hope that between our excavating contractor and the ever-vigilant and safety minded OSHA inspector, we can make sure all is safe and start digging safely once more.

The other big dig

And the digging goes on. More and more mud and rock are dug up from the back yard to make way for the excavator.



I think the concrete retaining wall is looking a bit nervous, probably because it knows what's going to happen next.



And once the digger has dug, this little guy moves the dirt out of the way.



Pretty impressive operation, really.

Playing with the Mud

We have now moved from demolition to excavation. Much of the dirt behind the now-destroyed retaining wall needs to be removed to make room for new foundations and and the new, improved retaining wall at the back of the new house. As most construction projects in the history of construction, we are now busy removing vast quantities of mud from its original resting place to a new (and we hope a better and more mud-friendly) home.

The work slowed down a bit in the last few days for a very practical reason: it's very hard to squeeze a 8' tall digger into a 7' tall garage. But our builders are nothing if not tenacious and through some machinery origami, they managed to squeeze not just the digger, but also a bucket loader into the tiny space, which now resembles a mine shaft. Unlike most miners who dig for gold, silver or even coal, these guys are actually digging for space because that's what we really need to build the footings, the basement, and maybe, just maybe, my new wine cellar.

If they keep digging in the same general direction, I will end up with a private commuting tunnel to 19th Ave. That should take at least 5 or 10 minutes off my daily commute. We'll see how far we can get.

The wall falls -- again.

I am no longer sure what is holding up the house, but the retaining wall is pretty close to gone.

Here's what the wall looked like until a couple of days ago. It is a little hard to see it in this picture with the furnace, cabinets and other stuff in the way, but it's the whole back wall of the garage.



here's what it looks like now. Note that the big concrete block underneath the furnace is also gone.



Here's what the top of the retaining wall looks like now:



"Retaining Wall" is a bit of a misnomer at this point since the wall is having trouble retaining its own shape, let alone holding back the side of the hill.

Jack, hammer please.

Now the fun really starts. The highlighted part of the picture below is the top of a massive concrete wall that is basically holding up the back of what's left of the house. Starting this Monday, the crew will carefully cut through this concrete wall to make an opening big enough for a digger to get through to the back yard to dig out a big hole for the back of the new house and for additional concrete footings that will hopefully keep the new house in place for at least another 60 years.

We will be lucky if the neighbors still talk to us in 3 weeks when all the digging is over.

Where is that breeze coming from?

If you ever wondered what a backless house looks like, now you know.

Going, Going, ,,,,

It's hard to believe that we are only a week into this project and already most of the house has been cut down and carted off.

Where the third floor used to be, there is nothing but air now.

The second floor has not fared much better. The basement is pretty well cleared out and even the stairs that led into the house are nowhere to be found. The entire back wall of the house is one giant Flintstone-style picture window looking out onto the steep, bare slope that used to be a tree-covered back yard. And of course, the ever present port-a-potty serves as a silent, if at times smelly, witness to all that is going on here.

Overall, the house is taking it all with dignity and grace. Defiant to the end, it continues to stand tall, even as its skeleton is systematically dismantled, and it reminds us that the scaffold that supports its black hijab is leaning on the house, and not the other way around. I am not sure how long it took to build this house back in 1947, but the fact that we can undo all that work in a matter of days is an eloquent statement about the nature of man and the nature of life. It is far easier and quicker to destroy than to create.

Fortunately, for us anyway, the deconstruction of this house is just a prelude and far more creation lies ahead us than destruction in our wake. Soon, we will step past the rubble and into the light.

(Photos courtesy of Ms. Camille)

Speaking of views, this is the view from the second floor of the existing house. The third floor master bedroom view would (hopefully) be even better. Without the outside wall to get in the way, it's easy to enjoy the view, but it is a bit breezy. Even on a less than clear day like this, the view is pretty impressive. We just need a place to sit and enjoy it without getting bird droppings on our heads or fog swirling around our feet (cue ominous music). And that's what this project is all about.

Off with its head!

We stopped by the house today to find the roof completely gone and sunshine pouring into parts of the house that had not seen it since the roof was closed almost sixty years ago. We had talked more than once about getting on the roof to check out the view, but had not been able to find the roof hatch. Now the whole thing is a hatch, and its wide open; problem solved.

I don't think we need this lamp any more, but it was nice of them to keep it for us.

We were very surprised to find two workers hard at work deforesting the back yard on a Saturday. They had chopped up and stuffed most of the trees inside the house and the garage, making the place smell like a underground Pinesol factory. They had also cleaned up and removed all the drywall and wet pulpy insulation that had been pulled off the walls. At this rate, we will be down to bare dirt fairly quickly.

Take it off! Take it all off!

Wow! Just two days into the project and the little house looks like it has been visited by a horde of angry locusts. The roof is mostly off, the walls are down to bare studs, the kitchen and bathroom are history, and the appliances that were left by the previous owner are nowhere to be found. There is even a port-a-potty across the street. These guys don't waste any time.

Here are some before and after shots:





And here is our new skylight:

Like I said, these guys work fast.

Waiting for the axes to fall

Here's the little house, sitting as it has since 1947, utterly unaware of its fate, looking forward to another quiet day. Little does the little guy realize that in a few short days, it will be uncermoniously taken apart and carted off to make room for the new house. I try not to think of it as demolition, but as deconstruction followed by rebirth. I am hoping that my Karmic account can hold up to the heavy withdrawals that are coming.

If all goes according to plan, which would be a first in the history of construction but we are optimists, in about the time it takes to make a baby, we will end up with a house that looks like this:

"How is the house coming?"

Hello all.
Ever since I made the mistake of telling my friends that I had bought a small house in San Francisco with the goal of converting it into a dream home for me and my beloved, every conversation has included the inevitable query "how goes the construction?" or words to that effect. Normally this would be a perfect excuse for me to unleash a torrent of good news about the rapid progress of the project, but the glacial pace (we are talking before global warming) of the various agencies in San Francisco and construction in general has turned this into a question I have come to dread. So I am starting this blog to document the construction of the house, and go back to talking about the weather, the war, taxes, and other depressing topics. We'll see how it goes ...