After starting to settle in, we soon began to call our house the “Before” house…

“Before” we could begin the desperately needed interior renovations, we had to make sure the house was worth renovating … so out came our home inspection report.

“Before” we could deal with one of the issues pointed out in our home inspection report, i.e. the fact that the front 7 feet and rear 12 feet of the house was not on a foundation, we had to take a good look at what actually was there: and found that both areas of the house rested on steel tubes, one inside the other – which, of course, had started to rust … the real upshot of that rust was not really apparent until much later but “before” I get to that story…

As someone who worked, at times, with tendering and contracting, my first instinct was to get at least three estimates prior to assessing them and deciding who would get the business…so, M. was off for a walk in the area, saw a house that had a new basement under it and a sign posted nearby giving the phone number of the contractor: Roger. So, to get bid number 1, we called Roger.

He did a thorough inspection of the existing basement under the central part of the house and noted that “before” much else got done, we needed to deal with the fact that one of the main beams under the house had been cut apart to install the furnace!!

He did give us two estimates/bids: one for frost walls underneath all the areas that had no basement and another for an entirely new basement under the entire house … the basement walls were not the sturdiest and they were also very damp! He said, if we decided to go ahead, that he could do it “quite soon”.

“Before” making a decision, I looked for other contractors to give us a bid…one guy was very not interested/too busy. A third contractor, when I called him, asked if he were the first to bid … I was honest and said “no” and he asked for the name of who it was had already given us an estimate … when I told him, he was honest enough to say that if he got the job, he would subcontract it to Roger!

So, “before” signing a contract with Roger – to put an entire, full basement under the house to give it a firm foundation, we talked to the bank for interim financing until some maturing funds became available and set a date 10 days hence!

“Before” Roger could start, though, we needed a building permit. Given that we had already contracted for new windows, doors and siding later in the summer, we applied for – and got in three days – a building permit not only for the basement but also for a picture window to go into the north wall of what quickly became called (and still is) “the back room”.

“Before” Roger could “lift” the house and put in the new basement he had to take down the exterior chimney (which was about to fall down anyway given the mortar was crumbling) which was not going to be replaced as there was no fireplace or furnace exhaust to go with. Roger set up scaffolding and took the chimney down … including stone that fell out of the area that had originally been a fireplace in the living room. As can be seen in the photo above, it left a gaping hole in the wall… which M. quickly covered with plywood and 6 mil plastic!

Then there were a number of other things that had to be done “before” the house was lifted – we had to talk to the insurance company as they would not cover the house while it was not on the foundation (Roger had insurance for that), we had to talk to the town regarding the septic line out/water line in and had to hire a plumber, we had to have the heating oil guys here to empty the oil tank and disconnect the furnace and move both to the garage out of the way and, having moved stuff into the basement, we had to move it out – into the garage. Resulting in a busy 10 days for everyone!