August 2008 Archives

For safety reasons, the gas company won't let anyone else cut the pipe that leads to their main, and the electric company won't let anyone else disconnect wires from their transformer. (There is no charge to disconnect the utilities.) But the water company just shuts off service in the street and takes their meter -- it is up to us to cut the water and sewer lines ourselves before demolition of the house. So, yesterday morning, Walter Jr. (Walter Heckel & Sons) brought his "machine."

Walter dug down until he found the water (copper) and sewer lines (PVC) then cut and capped them.

Walter also dug a test hole about ten feet down so we could see the soil quality both in the front (where the buried services are located) and back of the property. After we were done looking, he filled in the hole in backyard with the dirt he had taken out.

Walter was so experienced at running the excavator that he could put a hand shovel in the ground to mark a spot, use the machine's scoop to dig around the shovel then pick up the shovel with the machine's scoop, move it to another spot, put it back into the ground and then continue digging.

Oh, and... when we were busy donating things, we didn't give away everything (yet). The old owners had three fig trees. Two are going to family friends but one fig tree was relocated to mom's garden. It looks very dead but mom claims it will survive to next year and grow back. We also salvaged the bricks from the old patio. Some were used to create aisles in the garden but most have just been piled up for our future use.

Victor (Conquest Builders) and Pete (Warrenville Electric) setup a structure for the temporary electric to be mounted. What you see above ground is only part of it -- the entire structure is mounted to three feet of concrete piers buried in the ground so it is not going anywhere.

This will also provide a place for the surveyor to mark a landmark from which all of the contractors can work. We don't want to find out that our house is in the wrong place after it is built!

Not only did we buy this old house, but we let someone else sell parts of it.

More specifically, Habitat of Humanity sold various items and we get a tax deduction for our donation. Here you can see the siding and deck are gone. Inside, various appliances, cabinets and light fixtures were also donated.

We also let the township take some of the bushes, plants and trees. Here you can see some that are "missing" from along the street in front of the house.

And, we are going to let the Springfield Fire Dept. do some training in and on the house. They were here yesterday to do some search and rescue training inside but also marked out spots outside to practice cutting once we do get our demolition permit. (The town signed a "Hold Harmless" agreement, so in return for letting them train, they promise to assume all liability if someone gets hurt during the training.)

Of course, not everything was about giving things away. We made some progress too. The natural gas service (yellow markings) was turned off in the street and the piping to the house severed by Public Service Electric & Gas. Also, water service was shut off in the street by the NJ-American Water Co. (blue markings) but we have to sever that ourselves. Finally, Jersey Central Power & Light came and disconnected the lines that run to their transformer.