House "Fall Down"

Finally, after what seems like eternity, the house came tumbling down. Or as Connor said..."fall down."

It is quite amazing that a house that stood the test of time for 70 years, was completely wiped out and hauled away within a few hours. In fact, the house and garage were probably gone within 120 minutes...it was waiting for the dumpsters that took some time.

In the process this morning - all the gawkers were out in full force and we actually met quite a few of the neighbors we had never met - including several with kids Connor's age.

Anyways - I was able to salvage a couple shingles, a plank of flooring and a piece of siding that will go into the new den in some sort of collage of articifacts and articles concerning the house. Not much else was really salvageable.

Kudos to Calacci Excavating - who with a two man crew did a flawless job. I hope all my subcontractors end up being as top notch as they were. They will be back out Monday or Tuesday to dig the hole for the foundation - which again, they say they can do in one day.

Bridget gets major credit for what looks like may be a $3,000 to $5,000 cost savings discovery. Turns out we have a friend (who Bridget works with) who is building a custom home down in Plainfield. Turns out his builder is working on a large church project that is in need of clay/dirt. So I gave the guy a call and he is going to take ALL, yes, ALL, of our dirt that needs to be hauled off site. It may not sound like much - but it had the potential to be a major savings if all goes well. We are estimated to have 50 truck loads of dirt that will need to be trucked off site. At a charge of $210 a load ($140 for truck time/miles, $70 a per load dump fee) we can pretty much eliminate all those dump fees and possibly some of the mileage time.

Another great example how managing this process yourself can lead to big cost savings.

We also had some tree guys out last Wednesday to "prune" a massive 100yr old cottonwood tree, and take down two 70 yr old ash trees that were nothing but trouble waiting to happen. Tree firm ended up being fantastic too - couple guys my age - kind of reminded me of my sisters boyfriend - a real nononsense guy who pretty much came out, looked at the trees, and gave me a price on the spot. Versus a bunch of other guys that had to go back to their office and estimate it out. Plus this guys was 50% less than the others.

Hopefully updates on here will become almost daily now, as work will proceed quickly in the short term. Hope to be pouring the footings by wed/thu.


The tree guy up high bringing down one of the ash trees that would have been overhanging the house.


Takes a special person to being these beasts down...


The trees did not seem this big when looking at them from 70 ft below...


The 1930's 1126 Webster St house about to meets its demise...



I am not sure what is bigger - the 700 sq ft house or the equipment that is about to bring it down...


70 yrs of history about to tumble down.





Naperville requires water to be sprayed on the demo the entire time to keep dust down - with temps in the mid 50's and a light drizzle, probably was not needed.


A few whacks later - a good chunk of the house is gone.


Apparently, Carter was not as happy to see the house go away - although he never went inside, he did like playing in the yard.


Connor was fairly mesmerized..."truck" and "fall dawn" were frequently words out of his mouth.


The final wall still stands...




Who doesn't like an "open concept" kitchen?

Within 2 hours - not much remained.

By the time I ran home for an hour- the conrete foundation was busted up and all the house rubble was at a landfill.


An hour after that, the lot was empty...


And you can see, through the back yard, progress in the neighborhood, as a new house towers over its older neighbors.