Excavation in the Original Basement (March 29 - April 27)

With all the bad weather we've had out here lately, Larry and the boys have been focused on getting things moving along in the old basement.  It's been progressing along down there for a while, and they've gotten a lot more done in the last few weeks.  The main things to do in the basement are create new footings and move/replace the support posts (done a few weeks ago), tie into the new basement in the back of the house, and redo the plumbing/drainage system.   It's the plumbing work that's the reason for the basement being so torn up right now - the original plumbing was poorly laid out which was giving us weak water pressure and slow drainage.  The plumbing still isn't completely finished but we've already seen a huge improvement in both of those areas throughout the house.

Excavation on March 29, digging out a trench to access the old drain pipe under the basement floor

Click "Read more" to see lots of pics of the progress in the basement over the past month.

All the way to a hole under the foundation of the front wall of the house

More of the basement dug out a few days later.  That door leads out to the new basement area in the back of the house

The bottom step is a foot or so above the sand... they later built a temporary landing and walkway which you can see in a later picture.  Needless to say, Emily is not allowed down here just in case.

The hole under the foundation leading out the the front yard

Our basement bathroom is almost done!  We're very happy with the design and quality of the fixtures here... not a lot of privacy though.

More dug out by April 3.  Note the twisty drainage pipe over in the right corner - that replaces that big drainage pipe that used to stick out of the dining room wall and run down in the the basement.  This new temp pipe connects up to the temp drain pipe running through the temp kitchen, temporarily.

The temporary drain pipe from the last picture was replaced by a new (also temporary) drain pipe on April 13.

The drainage system that used to run down the side of the house and then flow under the basement floor (which is a big risk for flooding if the Chicago sewers back up) is being replaced by an overhead system.  The white pipe at the top is still a temporary placement, but the black pipe under the front wall foundation is permanent.

April 27... much more of the basement is torn up.  You can see the start of the real basement bathroom plumbing being roughed in over on the right.

The landing and walkway they built to make it easier to get up and downstairs

Larry said he's looking forward to when they can pour the cement in the basement... they're getting really tired of playing around in the sand all the time.