The House Gets Demolished

There is no turning back.

New Water Service

The plumber hand digs around the 6" water main.

Pushing the pipe sleave under the road was not easy.


The plumbers hit obstructions on the first two tries, but the third try pushed through.


A 1 1/2" Type K water pipe looks huge. No complaints from me since the city tap fee for the existing 1" service was credited. Even with skyrocketing copper prices, the additional material cost is minimal.


The city brought the fittings, inspected the cut/capped old 1" service and the new service was done. Alan kept the B-Box access low so he could protect it during construction. The plumber will raise it when they run to the foundation.

It doesn't look like much after the backfill is done, which is why people complain about the cost, but the equipment and experience required to get site utility work done quickly and without breaking water mains, 36" dia county water transmission lines, gas mains, etc easily justifies the cost.

Construction Commences

As the young O'Neil estimator Tom Lee once said, "Mobilize Immediately!"


Starting residential construction the day after obtaining a permit is probably unheard of, but RA Davey is setting a new standard.

Yesterday, they put in most of the silt fence and removed the landscaping around the house.

Today, they brought out the plumbers with two combination backhoes to do the new water tap and disconnect the old 1 inch service.

Everything went well. Great start.

A Permit in Hand is Worth 2 in the Bush

Actually, it's worth thousands (of dollars), but who cares, you can't put a price on progress. Yes, it's true, we obtained the building permit today. The silt fence goes in today, the water service demo and new tap will go in tomorrow and the demo is scheduled for to start Tuesday, 8/29/06.

Aaannnndddd . . . They're off!!

Ward just let me know that we got the official permits and we've paid the hush money (today), so the house will turn into a hole in the ground on Tuesday, August 29th! I have just realized that I was mostly in disbelief that this was actually going to happen. Now, I'm getting excited.

Ward and I are going to look at kitchen cabinetry tonight. It turns out that this is something that needs to be chosen early, since it has a direct impact on the location of plumbing and electricity. (Of course, I always knew that the kitchen cabinets would be very important, but my reason "why" is a little different.) This is where we're going: http://www.tristarcabinets.com/ - wish me luck in liking things that are WITHIN MY BUDGET.

Gas line? They don't build it like they used to. . .

. . . and its a good thing, because Nicor came out today to cut the old gas line for demo, and they cut the neighbors at the same time. Evidently, my gas service is a branch line off of the neighbors service. Yikes! Fortunately my neighbor is nice and understanding, so she isn't upset at me. Nicor is supposed to come out tonight to reconnect them. The next time the gas company complains about losing money, I'll have to remind them if this waste. The boys will be making double time tonight. Oh, I forgot, all costs get passed to the consumer, so it sucks to be me.

When it comes to water pipes size matters

There has been a lot of angst over the water service. 1" or 1 1/2", what do I really need? Of course more is better, but who pays? 2 years ago, there was a class action lawsuit against Lockformer, a sheetmetal fabrication shop, who contaminated the water supply of many private wells, including ours. We got a free connection to an existing water main, but I was sleeping because I let them put a 1 inch service. I should have had the foresight to anticipate a larger service. Fortunately, the City of Downers Grove considers me an upgrade, so the tap fee (hush money) is much reduced due to the existing 1" service. Plus, the demo of the existing service, which must be done before the house can be demolished, can also be done at the same time as the new connection. All told, between me, the city, the builder and the plumber all is resolved and the demo of old and new tap will be done next week; at the same time.

August 12, 2006

I mowed the lawn today with the Honda Alison's grandparents gave us. Ok, so what, but it was the first time in over 10 years for me and I hate to say it, but I had fun. Al, my next door neighbor said I'd get sick of it after 2 or 3 times. And everyone wants me to buy a rider. I don't get it. In high school, Chris Benken and I mowed 20+ lawns a week with 21" Honda walk-behinds. What nostagia! But, instead of a Sony Walk-Man with a tape of Queen's Hot Space playing, I had my Ipod with 6300 songs pumped into the brain. Is that progress?

Meeting the neighbors

We met the neighbors across the street. They are really nice, so the PR problems that WILL crop up over the next 6 months should be kept to a minimum. I learned several years ago, when I started the construction of a 9 story low-rise, west of downtown Chicago that staying friendly with your neighbors while you litter their properties with debris and scatter mud on the streets is tough, but necessary. I'll be giving them complete contact information so they might call me before calling the cops if there is a problem. Unfortunately, the 9-story job downtown had frequent visits from the police and trips by yours truly to court to pay violations, but as they say, "You can't fight City Hall". This time, I'll do better.

The Mother of All Loans

Well it's official. We're broke. Cancel the paper, magazines, cable (which sucks anyway), and the internet. Well maybe not the internet. The residential construction loans process looks like it will be a quick and painless experience. Thanks to Keith, our mortgage broker, it looks like everything will be good. Check out his web site. http://www.loansarefree.com

I didn't want to laugh out loud at this name for his website, but come on, nothing is free. He showed us his site WHILE we were writing a check to his company for $2,000. I could only laugh to myself.

Pre-demolition Video

Video taken on 8/7/06

August 9, 2006

We met with RA Davey Construction, the builder, and officially hired them. The principal, Alan Davey is the brother of a long time friend of mine. He comes from a familty of home builders, plus their Irish.

We reviewed the site work, scope, talked about siding colors, etc. It was the official kick-off meeting. We feel confident that RA Davey will do an excellent job. They are already chomping at the bit to get started. All that remains is the natural gas demolition by Nicor and the Dupage Health Dept approval of the septic design.

August 8, 2006

Diddo. I'll give him more time, since he's about $900 cheaper than the other bid I got.

August 7, 2006

Took the day off to monitor the plumber dig to prepare for capping tomorrow at 11 am. The City of Downers Grove is scheduled for 11am on Tuedsay to witness the cap. The plumber never showed up to dig. Maybe tomorrow, but I won't hold my breath.

A Racoon Lives Here

Actually, there is a whole family, we're told. They are the only remaining tenants. You can see here that the racoons disapproved of the condition of the garage as well.

His mother never taught him to pick-up after himself

The renter hasn't quite moved out. This is a picture of the garage. They have some stuff in the house, but not for long . . . .

August 6, 2006

I removed all of the kitchen cabinets and stored in the garage. Greg, the renter was moving more of his stuff out of the garage, which is mostly full of his stuff. It's a real mess.

August 5, 2006

Alison and I moved the refrigerator, clothes washer and stove into the garage.

August 4, 2006

The intent of this Blog is to track the progress of the construction of our house at 5815 Lee Avenue. Since this process began over three years ago, I will have to back track a bit, but we are on the verge of breaking ground and there should be news if not action everyday.

This is a huge undertaking. I work for a large commercial general contractor in Chicago, so I know a bit about construction, but doing this while holding down a full time job is not easy plus residential construction is different than commerical. Originally, I wanted to general the whole thing myself. But clearer heads prevailed and my wife and I decided to hire a builder to do the demo, foundation, framing, roof, siding, HVAC, electrical, plumbing and drywall. I'll do the permit procurement, site utilities, landscaping, painting, flooring, cabinets, trim plumbing, trim electrical and trim carpentry. Some will be hired out and some will be done by me and anyone I can trick into helping me. I believe this is a good plan since it will allow us to establish a core and shell price (with little change hopefully) and then we'll know how much we can spend on the finishes. So far, the core and shell budget is blown by about 13%. We're doing some value engineering now and cutting the finish budgets.

Right now, I'm finalizing the core and shell price and setting the finish allowance, so we can go in for the loan next week.