New front wall

The house came with 2 slanted walls off the front that didn't fit with my vision. I tried to incorporate them into the inside but they took up too much room so we pulled them down and rebuilt them straight. It cost about $35,000, which is a TON but it made a huge difference.

Shawn sawed through the 8" concrete wall filled with rebar and lined with a couple inches of foam on each side. The walls are 21' tall and about 15' long so it takes about 10-12 hours just to saw through it. Then the Wiser boys tie onto the wall and pull it down with a crash and Shawn cuts it up into more manageable pieces to have it hauled off.

Once the wall is down, the footing has to be cut up and pulled out as well. A new footing has to be poured and a new wall stacked and poured. You can see the difference between the old, 3 year old foam and the new - yuck! I understand we can pressure wash the old foam and get the grime off before we stucco.

The new wall is poured about 3 feet short so new foam blocks can be stacked all across the top of the 50' length and then poured in one piece to act as a 'header' along the new wall. Once this is complete, we can set the roof trusses and sheet it and it's ready for roof material!

Land

Along with the giant house came 5 acres in the middle of a nice little neighborhood in South Kennewick in an area knows as 'Badger Canyon'. I really hope to find a wine grape grower who would like to plant 3 or so acres or specialty wine grapes on the property so I won't have to mow it.

Here are some photos of the back of the house - which looks especially daunting - but the majority of it is taken up by the inside pool. I don't like pools, especially inside ones, but off I go putting in major skylights and rigging up hokey ways to get the humidity out of the room without spending an absolute fortune.

I am selling off my Equity Account that has done absolutely nothing for the past 11 years and continues to go up and down - mostly down. I will need to sell my river house to finish it, which is fine as I certainly don't need 2 houses but it is a bit of a scary market and who knows if it will feel anytime soon. My plan is to totally close it in and finish off the exterior so it is safe from any more deterioration then I will pick away at the inside. It's hard not to want to pick the light fixtures (though I have already bought many - a good subject for another post) and have to constantly stop myself from spending money on things I won't be needing for another year.

First Purchase

I purchased this partially finished house in January 2011 and have 1 year to work on it before I have to actually pay for it. It is a house built of ICF block (styrofoam of sorts with a concrete poured center - about 13" thick in most places) that is about 22,000 square feet which includes a 6,000 square foot area surrounding an indoor pool. One funny thing is that the pool is almost complete - having been built out of the same ICF block as the rest of the house!

There is a center section which used to be a 'GREAT' room that is about 2,500 square feet all on it's own, with a 2 story wing going off to each side of this Great Room that are about 4,000 square feet each - 2,000 on each floor. Add to this a large 'studio' behind the garage and another 3,000 square feet in the daylight basement and you get about 19,500 square feet - who knows where the other 3,000 is... There is a garage on each side of the side - one side can easily fit 4 cars and the other can easily fit another 2.

The style was convoluted country with a high pitched roof complete with 2 - 21 foot tall pieces of natural basalt rock that stood in the Great Room. There was a partial roof over both garages but the rest of the house had been left totally open to the elements for the past 2-3 years.

INTRODUCTION

I'm a bit late but better late than never...

I started tearing apart this house about 3 months ago and luckily, have taken photos all along the way. I'd like to journal this project and keep it all nice and neat right here.