Leveling, Framing, & Basement Work - Week 6, Monday

Week 5 didn't bring a whole lot of exciting visual changes. I spoke with the contractor on site about the progress and he said that most of the last weeks work was more behind the scenes, less photographic. They found that the house had settled a little, as all Portland 1920's houses have, and there was about a 3/4" drop from the front of the house to the back and spent a few days leveling the house again. Didn't sound like a big deal to me, but I'm glad they did it! He said it wouldn't be noticeable on the first floor, but the upstairs would have been a little wonky without the fix. 

Other efforts were also in the basement. Those big beams from my last post went in and the digging is finally complete. They had to bring out A LOT of mud and concrete to drop the floor that extra 1.5' or so. It just looks like a massive mud pit down there. Hum....idea. Maybe we can host some "underground" mud wrestling matches to recoup some of the labor costs? Yeah? Anyone?

Front of the house with a glimpse of the back wall and interior framing progress

Side of house. You can see the shims they put in to level the house under the main floor beam.

The word on the street, well word from the contractor, is that this week will be less visible changes, but the next few weeks will be much more exciting. He said the framing will go really fast now that the structural base is sound. He also said that we are on track to have faming complete with windows and a roof by Christmas! Can't wait to start seeing those walls!