Tag: home improvement

Flood Savvy
House Elevation, Step 5: Post Elevation

House Settling Effects Post House Elevation Project

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  As the calendar turns over to reveal the start of a new year, 2014, we are still in the midst of our house elevation for flood mitigation project that began many moons ago. What’s left? Final inspections, certificate of occupancy, landscaping, driveway resurfacing, exterior painting and a few other odds and ends. MOVEMENT AFOOT We moved back into our home just about … Continue reading House Settling Effects Post House Elevation Project

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House Elevation, Step 5: Post Elevation

Moving Back In – Post House Elevation

WEEK 26 Oh me, oh my what a week it’s been preparing to move home again. I can summarize the week’s main emphasis in one little word – cleaning. My goal was to rid the house of the ubiquitous remnants of dry-wall and construction dust. No small task considering that every cupboard on the first floor had to be emptied and throughly cleaned. Hauling out … Continue reading Moving Back In – Post House Elevation

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FloodSavvy.com
Home Renovation, House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

House Elevation: Building the Foundation

As fate would have it, next door to our temporary apartment, the house is also being lifted. It too suffers from the occasional rising whims of the little brook near our house, about two miles down stream from our house. With my new knowledge base on this subject, I’ve noticed a few things about this elevation that the casual observer would be likely to miss.  Style … Continue reading House Elevation: Building the Foundation

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Home Renovation, House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

Exterior Railings for an Elevated House

Exterior railings add an element of flair and fashion to your house, along with safety measures. They may seem like a minor detail, but railings can have a dramatic impact on the visual appeal of your house. Our house project is coming along this week and the staircase is now complete except for the railing.  In the picture above you can see the completed staircase, sans … Continue reading Exterior Railings for an Elevated House

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House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

Mudroom Renovation

WEEK 21: The mudroom, like this entire project, is S-L-O-W-L-Y  taking shape this week. In an earlier post I had discussed the history of flooding in this room as well as tips on choosing tile, so this is mostly a pictorial update. SEPTEMBER The base of our mudroom has been filled with cement. #floodproof OCTOBER  The floor was built up and then the concrete was poured. … Continue reading Mudroom Renovation

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Flood Savvy
House Elevation, News & Events, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

Staircase Transformation on an Elevated House

WEEK 20: Fresh on the heels of last week’s set-back, we’ve made some steady progress this week, albeit not nearly enough for my liking. The majority of the work effort has been restricted to the new front staircase. It’s great to see the transformation, but what I’d really like to see is a beehive of activity on my house. You know, like they show on TV … Continue reading Staircase Transformation on an Elevated House

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House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

Hiccups to a House Elevation Project

WEEK 19: Mired in a sea of inept, lazy, self-righteous pin-heads this week, things could be better.  Sometimes life is bound to get a little dicey, particularly when undertaking a substantial home renovation. Allow me to elaborate. A VOLCANIC EXPLOSION The week started with a site visit in which our contractor had erroneously poured cement in the wrong place when building up our foundation walls. His … Continue reading Hiccups to a House Elevation Project

Robin Azer3 Comments
House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

House Elevation: Lighting Up $100.00 Bills

WEEK 18: Finally, something to cheer about – we passed the electrical inspection today. Not that we ever questioned if we would pass it – but another hurdle has been cleared. Did I mention that the wires from the basement, the new room atop the garage and the mechanical room all had to be rewired? Add that to the new foundation, the new gas line, the … Continue reading House Elevation: Lighting Up $100.00 Bills

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Flood Savvy
House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

House Elevation Blues

There’s No Place Like Home. Where’s My Ruby Slippers?  WEEK 17: It’s true what they say: There’s no place like home. And much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, our children are yearning to return home. Too bad they don’t have any snazzy red shoes to click together three times and make that happen. (Although we do have three boys, so donning red high … Continue reading House Elevation Blues

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FloodSavvy.com
House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

House Elevation: Rear Stairs and Deck Design

Originally we had a healthy backyard with a petit patio and enough green space for our three boys to run around. After a few poundings offered up by Mother Nature in the form of floods, our once charming backyard lost it’s luster. Perhaps it was because the water table under our house had permanently been altered or maybe healthy soil had eroded away, whatever the … Continue reading House Elevation: Rear Stairs and Deck Design

Robin Azer4 Comments
Home Renovation, House Elevation

The Gas Man Cometh

WEEK 16: aka The Continuing Saga of the Gas Service. When I last left off this topic, we had remedied many of the gas line installation woes with our utility company. They had correctly repositioned our project as a “flood recovery” one and therefore were much more receptive to our needs. They agreed to install the new gas line, at their expense. We dig a trench, … Continue reading The Gas Man Cometh

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News & Events

Perks to Flooding … the Rainbow after the Storm

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” Robert Frost In the days after a flood event, it can be very overwhelming. Take a deep breath and a shot of courage, then put your big boy/girl pants on, chuck aside the useless self-pity and get to work. Be patient, work diligently, help your neighbors and look for the rainbow. … Continue reading Perks to Flooding … the Rainbow after the Storm

Robin Azer3 Comments
FloodSavvy.com
House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

David Vs. Goliath: The Gas Meter Revisited

DRAMATIC TURN OF EVENTS An old house. Extensive flooding. One family. A behemoth-sized utility company. What do all these things have in common? A house elevation project. What originally began as a Stalin-esque shake down from conEdison, our utility company, making us question if we had somehow woken up in a post WWII Eastern Bloc country, has rounded the bend dramatically this week. Once told … Continue reading David Vs. Goliath: The Gas Meter Revisited

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Home Renovation, House Elevation

Feel the Burn: Gas Lines & Meters

GAS METER UPDATE: In a previous post I lamented about the excruciatingly long process to have a new gas meter and a new gas line installed. Con Edison, our local utility company, first visited our site  on August 20, 2013. At that time, we were under the impression that getting new service was the only option we had; it was the required protocol during a … Continue reading Feel the Burn: Gas Lines & Meters

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floodsavvy.com
House Elevation, Step 3: Construction/ Rebuild

Gas Meter Location for Elevated House

WEEK 11 OF HOUSE ELEVATION PROJECT:  This week began with a visit from our local utility company (conEd) in effort to determine the new placement for our gas meter. As the old gas meter was previously located in our basement and said basement is scheduled to disappear, the meter must be relocated. By ‘disappear’ I mean that the former basement will be back-filled then covered … Continue reading Gas Meter Location for Elevated House

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FloodSavvy.com
House Elevation, Step 2: The Elevation

House Elevation Project Runs Amok

WEEK NINE  A big disappointment  – that sums up week nine of our house elevation project. The lifting company, Payne, was ready to return to the site, but the construction crew did not have the site sufficiently prepped. As Payne is jamming with business, they did not have the luxury of time to sit around and wait. They moved on to their next job in … Continue reading House Elevation Project Runs Amok

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