Surprising Walkthrough After Excavation and Foundation Repairs

My surprising walkthrough of our small fixer upper after some excavation and foundation repairs were underway, was a bit shocking as I knew we would be moving into the house soon!

This is our new home! I said this with a hint of sarcasm and disbelief as I approached our front porch to tour the recent progress. Nate is standing in the doorway ushering me inside to share what has been done so far. I make my way up on a plank of plywood propped up on the porch stairs that the contractors used to carry out the excavated dirt by wheelbarrow.

Nate shares how he took out all the living room wood floors. All I could say was, “Oh my word!” This was my first shocking encounter, but what else was I expecting since after all, we were excavating and working on the foundation!

Luke 6:48

He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.

WALKTHROUGH AFTER EXCAVATION AND FOUNDATION REPAIRS

I take another tour of our little fixer upper after Nate, with the help of some contractors, excavated and repaired parts of the foundation. We were also supposed to be moving into the house soon because the lease on our apartment was ending. We didn’t want to have to keep paying for two places – a house mortgage and apartment rent. 

This is our living room and there’s a new beam down there that the contractors put in. It was great to finally see some repairs being made to the foundation. The contractors didn’t lift the foundation and have just been digging so far. They have been digging real deep too!

TOURING EACH ROOM IN THE HOUSE

I almost trip and make the comment of how I’m stepping in a pile of dirt in my living room! This is our office space and there’s the bedroom. I’m not sure if it’s safe to walk into the bedroom from the office so I go around toward the kitchen to reach the bedroom. I show the current progress of the living room and kitchen. 

NEW WOOD BEAMS FOR FOUNDATION REPAIRS

On the way to the bedroom, I notice the new wood beams that were going to replace the rotted boards in our foundation. I somehow end up calling them wood planks, but truly they are the new wood beams that would hold up our foundation. This just added to my surprising walkthrough of our excavation and foundation repairs.

ITEMS FOUND IN OLD HISTORIC HOME

“What are those things?” I asked pointing to these old bottles. Nate said those are bottles he found under the house! I was thinking we could put them in a glass display or something. I wondered how old they were. Nate seems to think they are from the 1930’s when our house was originally built. And they do look pretty old. I was shocked and couldn’t believe bottles that old would be discovered in our house! They looked so unique too and different from the modern day bottles we currently drink out of. 

What a cool discovery! We will have to save those and put them in a display and then we can make our house like a museum. 

Now I finally make my way to the bedroom and share the current excavation status. There was also a huge cast iron pipe running in the middle of it. We were not sure if it was actually in use or just the part hanging out under the flooring. Nate thought it may have been for the water, but he wasn’t completely sure. We were discovering old pieces of history everywhere we turned in this tiny fixer upper. 

Bedroom Excavation

I make my way along the perimeter of the bedroom where there was a little bit of room to walk on top of leftover wood flooring. Otherwise, the rest of the bedroom was being excavated and seemed a bit of a way down as the contractors had dug so deep in this room. There was definitely a lot of progress being made around here! Such a great feeling. We’ve got to move faster as we would have to get ready to move in soon as well.

As I make my way to the bathroom, Nate shows me how far I can go on the wood flooring where it was safe to do so. And of course, I for some reason don’t actually listen and almost fall into the excavated dirt pit. That was crazy scary for a second until I gained my balance again. I thought I was going to fall through!

BATHROOM EXCAVATION

Now I share the progress in the bathroom. I scan it to show where the bathtub used to be, where the window is, and the wall where the sink and toilet were mounted. As I leave the bathroom area to go back out, I realize how sketchy it is to walk along the perimeter and have to be careful with every step. 

My surprising walkthrough so far reveals the excavation progress and foundation repairs throughout most of the house.

I head back toward where the bedroom closet used to be before we tore it down and take a peek inside to see the demolition progress. The wall dividing the closet with the water heater closet was now also torn down. This is the area we would enlarge the bathroom into. 

Nate shares how he gutted the closet, but this time he gutted the closet even more! Little by little we are making progress as this has been a one man show for the most part. This time he also removed the water heater and removed some of the walls, which is new progress.

As I make my way out of the bedroom into the kitchen area, I almost trip, but figure my way out with debris and wood beams in the way. I scan the kitchen and laundry area next to also check out the excavation progress in these areas.

EXCAVATION DIRT EVERYWHERE

Then I open the backdoor and see our backyard with the water heater out there and dirt mounds everywhere. 

It was amazing how much dirt was taken out from the foundation. Nate and those contractors dug real deep to create a crawl space underneath the flooring. Wow, that was a lot of work! It was also great to see some new beams being replaced in the foundation. I can’t believe how many rotted boards were under the flooring for such a long time. It’s like this little old grandma is finally getting the face lift she deserves!

Here is Nate describing how he is opening up his beautiful new kit. This is like bits for your tools.  

The progress we are making is so exciting. Yet, we still have a long way to go! Stick with us as we continue to share more updates with you!

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic home mostly on our own. Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead!

You can also watch a video about this here.

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

If you want to see how we’ve excavated and started to repair the foundation and a video about how we reflect and plan for more DIY renovations, click on the links below.

EXCAVATION AND FOUNDATION REPAIRS | FIXER UPPER IN POOR CONDITION 

SMALL FIXER UPPER | DIY DEMO REFLECTIONS AND PLANNING