The house / build threads made me decide to show off my blood sweat and tears...

6BangBronk

6BangBronk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
Location
Durham
The BEFORE.

I bought this in 2009. Pictures don't do justice...
 

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Right side to show it's a little bigger than it looks but not all that big.
 

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Oh yea, bought all my windows off a dude on NC4x4. Thanks dude! Can't remember who you were? Had to remove siding, move a stud over for every single one and add headers, cut siding and redo. But absolutely love my sliders.

This house was built just like a barn...
 
Now show the angle that includes the neighbor's driveway...
 
Looks good. How did you redo the foundation? Did you have to lift the entire house up?
 
drkelly said:
Looks good. How did you redo the foundation? Did you have to lift the entire house up?
Click to expand...

First thing I did was dig a trench all the way around underneath the living room back to the middle of the house and to every center footer (pile of brick and rock). I cut some of the handle off of just a shovel head so I could get some leverage and just wore gloves. Then a flat concrete bucket with a rope tied around. I would dig til it was level to the top and then crawl out, pull it out and empty and repeat. Did this so much I was able to fill in my side yard. Figured 1 to 1 1/2 large dump trucks full after all said and done? Did this so I could move around. I figured in 1920 they had no reason to have a crawl space being why it was so close to the ground?

I had to replace all the septic lines anyways cause they were cast and half stopped up so I re-plumbed the last exit leg and used 2 rubber boots and hinge points to keep it functional.

Lifted it about 12-15"? Was different all over for it had sagged in weird places. The 2 fire places in the middle were the holding points. They were knocked down and tin replaced over the holes on the roof so just had chimneys from ceiling down. I tore them down and hauled them out of the house by wheel barrow down to the subfloor / chimney footers. As soon as the joists got level and the house picked up enough to put treated wood in between the fireplace footers I called it good. I had the system down so well that I could have lifted it to a second story if I wanted. 4 - 20 ton jacks from Harbor Freight, some metal on top of the jacks to spread the load, a lot of misc. wood and block to set the jacks on, one corner at a time. AND ALLLLLOT OF NERVE!!!!!!

I re-did every footer as I went. I paced myself and only lifted 1/2 - 3/4" at a time from front to back and slid in more and bigger treated wood / mortar and block. Then I used brick to fill in the gaps on the outside and filled them full. along with foundation vents. And I did it all myself for all my helpers are Hoss and they all were claustrophobic under there. I'm like a wired skinny fellow myself.

I redid all the plumbing after I had everything set. Even the vent pipes were cast. But since the plumbing came 30-40 years after the house was built, all the vents were external / outside the house at one time so they weren't too hard to replace. I left the vent pipe to the kitchen external for character. The ones to the bath were out of the wall where a porch had been built on.

I redid a lot of the electrical since it was all wired up in the house along the floors and walls. (Ron, I drilled all new holes.:smokin: - Sorry man, had to say it) My brother played a large role since he's licensed. He pulled a permit and replaced the old fuse panel to a large 220 panel so it was a good time to redo the electrical. The water lines were copper but were insulated with 1950's Herald Sun news papers. I kept them for kicks but man that was a dark time in history! I insulated everything with R-19 and replaced all the central heat lines.

I cringe when I got to go under the house for any reason now!!!!

And THIS is the reason I haven't been posting Build Threads for all my trucks. I've been very busy....

:beer:
 
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12' tall Okra my wife grows every year. That's an 8' step ladder.
The vines are Loofa gourd. Wife makes crafts out of them and sells them at craft shows. I love my bees and they keep us overloaded with veggies. This is our Fall garden. We do all organic with horse manure that I get by dumptruck load every year and do plastic over raised garden. The only thing Durham soil grows by itself is fruit trees.
 

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Man your disclosure statement is going to be 20 pages... :D
Or NR on everything...
 
Side facing kitchen. Can't see kitchen for the snow ball bush. You can see where the vent comes up where it's outside the wall. And where the roof was patched for the chimney removed. The roof is original from 1920. It's not matchable for it has unique ridges. I expect it to last another 100 years...
 

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8" drainage with fabbed drop inlets all the way around. Used brick and mortar and heavy gage expanded metal with angle iron. You can see them in the front shot of the house. Works tremendously well.
 
Oh, and I don't cut my side or rear yards after September for I use them to graze my goats during the winter. So no yard comments please. :)
 
That is an incredible amount of work to DIY. Very impressive.
 
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