Cause for celebration – six week cabin update

Six weeks, three 18 yard dumpster loads and 145 “man” hours later, we have completed the demolition of the non-permitted, mold and rodent excrement filled cabin addition.  All that is left is the flooring and the lower level deck.  This accomplishment is cause for celebration!

What I learned from the demolition:

• Wear protective clothing, goggles, and a respirator.  You can never be too careful as my son-in-law found out when he opted for hiking boots instead of professional work boots and took a nail through the bottom of his foot.
• Make sure you’ve had a tetanus shot in the past seven years.
• Try to place the dumpster as close to your work site as possible.  Due to all the large beautiful moss-covered rocks and the slope of my property, we were unable to have it close to the addition.  This less than ideal placement required lots of walking, carrying and pushing a wheelbarrow of debris to the dumpster about 50 feet away from the work site.
• When working remotely as we were, it was important to bring the necessary tools each day to the work site.  We often needed nails we didn’t have, so I often removed nails from the demo debris to reuse.  One day I forgot to bring the circular saw so we ended up cutting some ceiling joists with a hand saw made to cut tree branches.  We could have left our tools in the cabin but felt that it just wasn’t secure enough.

Cost of demolition

Dumpster rental:  $1685

Labor costs:  $1070

Misc. tools and supplies:  $140

Total:  $2895

Was it worth it?  Absolutely!  Each day, I was able to make one of the most beautiful drives in America to the work site, the forest just outside Rocky Mountain National Park.  Working hard has never been a problem for me and working out my old muscles was an added bonus.  I went home many a night, barely able to move, but feeling alive from my head to my toes.

We found a few surprises during the demolition process.  One was the fact that red 2″x6″ barn boards were used to frame part of the addition.  We will reuse that valuable commodity to make some cabin furniture and some Christmas craft projects.  Also, while removing the cheap vinyl bathroom flooring, we uncovered a trap door in the sub-floor.  Upon opening it, I found cobwebs intertwined with old horseshoes, two old electric camp stoves, and unused asbestos vinyl flooring.

With the temperatures dropping and occasional snow falling now, we have halted the demolition of the cabin.  I have contracted an electrician to move the electrical to a construction post for the upcoming construction of the new cabin addition.  I have also contacted my structural engineer to continue the site plan process.  The next step I believe is a soil test so we know what type of foundation I must incorporate in the plan for the new addition.

 

My son-in-law who is also a real estate broker believes my property is probably worth more now with the addition removed.  Nice.

Time for a celebration!