Clean up

   Planning with Mike Perri is moving forward quickly as he gathers his sub contractors to evaluate our house.  We have a meeting with him and some of his guys this week but paramount to his tasks is to get the trim carpenters in so we can get the windows installed and have the house in a lockable state before the end of the month.  To do this we need to know the house exterior material since this will dictate window placement in the sill.  Mikes second priority is to get water and sewer installed so the stone masons can have water on the site to put up the cobble stone on the exterior.  If we can't get water installed fast enough, we'll need to get a tanker in so they have water for their mortar.  The paperwork change over with the bank probably won't happen quick enough for the window install so Mike suggested we have some cash on hand to pay the carpenters to set the windows so we can meet our insurance deadline criteria this month.

   In the mean time, I ordered a dumpster that will remain for two weeks so I could put in some sweat equity and get rid of all the construction material from the front of the house.  When Matt's crew clean up the house, then just ended up putting it in piles in the front yard.  To their credit, they put it in organized piles, so we had one pile of shingle cut-offs from the roofers, one pile of waste lumber, and one pile of cardboard boxes from the shingles and other stuff that was cleaned out of the house.

   Here's the dumpster I got.  I wanted a 40 yard, but they only have a 30 yard available, but I have it for 2 weeks.  It costs $395 and unfortunately, we can't throw any concrete or tree stumps in there.  I still have to figure out how to dispose of out tree stumps, but maybe that's a job for Great Oaks or Mike.  For the concrete, since we're going to be adding so much fill to the front of the house, I can just dump the concrete chunks near the retaining wall and use it as base material.

   Opening the door is pretty easy.  You just have to remove a pin that traps the handle the holds the back of the dumpster closed.  Most of the stuff we're throwing away is light enough to hoist over the sides of the dumpster, but there are a few bags full of saw dust from inside the house that were really heavy.  Unfortunately, there was a rain storm that blew through the day before so all the cardboard was wet, and there was a good amount of water in the dumpster.  Having the door open allowed us to use our wheelbarrow to dump the heavier stuff.  It's fortunate there was enough lumber to make a nice ramp.

   This is after four hours ow work.  I missed taking a picture of the trash piles before, but they're probably in earlier posts.  That's with all the shingles, lumber, and most of the miscellaneous pile in there.  We have a bit more but I should be able to fit it in the remaining space.

   What's awesome about most of the lumber is the rusty nails.  Most of the 2x4 in the pile was used on the roof as footing for the roofers.  Long pieces with regularly spaced rusty nails since they've been sitting out for almost a month.  I managed to have a piece take a swing at me after I threw it in and, although it didn't stick in, it caught my forearm causing a good leak.  I tied it off with a clean cloth, but today it's hurting a bit and there's some swelling so it might have gotten muscle.  I'll get a prescription for some prophylactic antibiotics.

   Here's what's left of the cardboard pile.  It's just the boxes from the shingles but in a wet condition, it makes it hard to move efficiently.  We found a tarp in the pile so we decided to cover it to keep any more rain off.  Hopefully it will dry off enough for this weekend so we can finish the clean up.  There's also some nasty solvent smelling stuff in the pile. I think it's the disposed tubes of construction adhesive.  

   There's still some concrete and foam chunks in the basement from the HVAC cut-throughs so I should try to get that out.  The wheel barrow will get some use there, but again, we'll just use the concrete as base for the driveway area.

   Mike has already contracted all the suppliers we have inventory with so I have full confidence in his planning and execution abilities.  We'll probably use the garage as the staging area for the windows, and plywood up doorways we don't have doors for.  We'll keep the laundry room window open so the drywallers can hoist their panels to the second floor.  To date Mike said he contacted 3 excavators for the the water/sewer, plumbing, electrical, carpenters, and a stair guy.  Once the bank stuff calms down, we'll get the metal roofer on the job and get the house completely dried up.  The Sound Vision will meet with us on Tuesday to get everyone on the same page.  Margaret will shoot us some ideas for lighting, finishing trim, doors, and flooring materials.  I love not stagnating.