House on Stilts

Overall the original house foundation is in great shape, especially considering it's over 100 years old and is constructed out of bricks stacked on top of giant base stones.  But the north side of the house was starting to sag slightly so in order to straighten out the house and hook it up with the new and perfectly level addition in the back we had to do a little extra work on that part of the old foundation.

First they dug out the walkway along the whole north side of the house (3/4/11).  Notice the big chain and padlock on the gate to prevent anyone from accidentally falling in.

Not much was done with this section for a while, until earlier this week (3/21/11) I came home to find a big section of the siding and wall underneath torn away in order to get access to the sill at the top of the foundation.  To hold the house at the correct level while the foundation was fixed, they put that side of the house up on stilts.  I only have pictures of one of these jacks, taken from the stairs down to the basement...  I'm sure it was completely safe down there (otherwise Contractor Larry would have locked us out of the basement) but I still wasn't too eager to go walking around underneath that part of the house.

Looking down the old basement stairs at the jack and temp support post

I snuck down the stairs for a closer look... the house is definitely not sitting on the foundation right now.   Kids, don't try this at home.