Good News Finally

Well after last weeks hurdles with the sewage we finally have good news...our street is indeed hooked up to city sewage and all the houses have running lines. We also found out that three houses on the street are already hooked up.

Indianapolis is in the process of reworking older neighborhoods, converting old homes with septic tanks to city sewage. This new program is called the Step program and come to find out the city forgot the neighborhood was ready to be transfered over to little old us came along. Needless to say the city will do the hookup and work the fee into our monthly sewage bill so that we don't have to pay one huge lump sum. We also found out the letters to the rest of the neighborhood will be sent out stating that they will need to convert in the next 6 months. So in the end we kinda help the city out and saved ourselves of up to 7000 dollars in the process!

Demo is 99% done! George, Mom, Dad and myself spent this past Saturday working on the inside. George and I demoed the fireplace (we're rebricking/new facade), we also took all the planks and insulation out of the great room, Dad removed the final pieces of the old furnace unit and patch the ceiling and mom just cleaned up after us. See below photos.

We'll be taking a short break which is needed but also gets to me as well. Dad is taking a smaller job up North and will be adding on a sunroom to some ladies home, the money from the job our parents are giving back to us. Dad says he should make enough to get us our new furnace, air conditioner and water heater. Basically the parents won't be down for another 3 weeks. Once the get back we should be ready to roll and roll fast.

We still need to get a land surveyor out the property to actually mark out lot lines. Once we have that done we then have to draw up "to scale" blueprints of our home and the extension we are adding onto the house. Dad will then take that to the zoning offices for their records.  We also need to get an exterminator in to access if termites are still active and then have it majorly treated before we begin to rebuild. We're hoping all this can be done durring our 3 week down time.  If we play our cards right and get all that accomplished, by the time dad gets back down here we will be ready to jack up the back of the house, replace what support joists need replacing due to termites, begin to rewire and put in the heating/air/water, and then start adding the addition on. So I'm really looking forward to what lies ahead.

SNAFU

Well demo is 97% done but we've ran into two major issues. Termite damage and no city sewage.

There seems to be no active termites in the wood just left over damage needless to say we're going to have to replace some support beams and a few joists. Dad said it would of cost someone who doesn't have a father as a contractor upwards of $15,000 to replace the damage but lucky for me it shouldn't set us back more than 300 - 500 bucks. Before we start putting any new wood into the house we will have an exterminator come out and treat the house, surrounding grounds and whatnot.

The sewage has been another story in itself. My parents spent better half of a day running around downtown Indy on a wild goose chase trying to figure out if the house had city sewage. They were told no, then yes, then maybe, then no. Well over this past weekend as Dad and George were roughly measuring out our lot lines in the front of the house they notice not 20 feet from our house in the middle of the street and pothole that read Indianapolis City Sewage. Hmmmmm, suspicious?!?!? George called the city sewage engineer and they're meeting him out at the house today. We are praying that it can be hooked up, that will save us about 7,000 dollars in not having to put in our own septic system. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Other than that we're moving right along. We only have the great room ceiling to rip out as well as the fireplace. We've decided to replace the old white planked wood ceiling with new white planked wood and 2 horizontal decorative beams which will give it more of a mid century feel as well as some drama.

We've picked out new stone for the fireplace but need to actually visit the dealer/supplier to see it in person to see if we do indeed like it.

Stay tuned in for more pictures and more details coming soon!