The Adventures of Valparaiso Gal: Grovertown Demolition

Hi There!

I thought about fixing this house up.

I found extensive termite damage and rotted wood.

Plus, it needed a new well and septic, among a long list of other things. Let me show you the inside:

Sadly people were staying here. I say sadly, because it's hard to imagine how bad things would have to before I would have camped here.

My paperwork tells me it's on a crawl space. I thought I could sorta see the floor of the crawl as I looked though the boards. I asked the local fire department if they wanted to burn it down. They said, "Yes". I was told to ask the neighbors if the following Saturday would be okay, as they may have to close the road for a bit. All the neighbors agreed to that date. The morning the burn was to take place, the guy next door changed his mind; he didn't trust the fire department would keep his property from being damaged. (This was a blessing in disguise though!)

So, I began demolishing the house myself. When I first started demolishing the house, I used a rope with carabineers on the ends for easy hook up and release. That was a mistake, because even a rotten house is to much for 2000 ton carabineer. The clip broke and went flying though trees, over the neighbor's fence, through the glass of his storm window and the true window pane, through a woven lawn chair, and a glass lantern hanging in the garage. Luckily, it didn't hit anyone. The neighbor guy wasn't happy I broke his windows. I could tell he was having second thoughts about not having the fire department burn it.

I approached the neighbor guy again, fixed his windows and proposed that I collapse the house first and then we have the fire department light it up. After witnessing me in action, he agreed to that!

The house sits on a little over an acre of land. Ideally, I wanted the house to fall away from the neighbor's garage. So, I started at the other end, ripping out studs with just the rope and the truck (no carabineers this time!).

EEeeek, SNAKE!

Gladys and Troy decided to earn some money, so they came with to rip the vinyl siding off the house. I try to recycle as much as possible.

As we were working Gladys asked me to toss her a crowbar. I did, and it accidently went inside the house right through a small hole in the floorboards. She went to retrieve it and couldn't reach it. So, I gave her the longest crowbar I had with us that day. I'm thinking the house is only a crawl space, why isn't she able to reach it. SUDDENLY, THE FLOOR CAVED IN AND SHE FELL RIGHT THROUGH TO THE BASEMENT!

So much for the house being on a crawl space! Apparently, what I thought was the floor of the crawl was really to top of a rusty drum. I guess technically, part of the house is on a crawl, but most of it is basement. Funny thing, is that there was no indication of stairs or cellar doors or any way of access to the basement. Gladys didn't get hurt at all. I found a total of 4 drums in the basement, and all sounded full. (See why the delay in burning may have been a blessing!)

Mom began coming with us to supervise, no idea why she felt we needed that! :-)

Speaking of fire department, I had a little incident. I had me a small burn pile going to help keep things tidy as we torn down the house. The trouble is, the fire spread faster than I expected. Noo problem, I came prepared with a few gallon jugs of water to put the fire out before I left. That wasn't enough! It kept spreading and reached the bushes! The kids and I tried smothering it with the rakes and shovel we had. We needed something bigger. I had a brilliant idea-- I ripped off the foil looking stuff from the side of the house and put it over the fire! Ahhh, there we go, fire's out--- five seconds later--- VoooooSHH IT BURST INTO FLAMES! BIG FLAMES! Note: foil looking stuff on sides of houses is apparently extremely flammable!

It wouldn't had been a big deal to me if the house burnt down, since that was what I was planning, but the time wasn't right yet. After all, I still had a basement with enough fuel in it to rocket to the moon!

Most of the fuel in those drums did eventually get sold. The little bit that was left behind, I made sure the fire department was aware of.

The basement was good, in the fact that it would make for a bigger fire pit to burn the house in. I had confidence in the fire department all along, but I could understand the neighbors concern. He was worried about both the heat and flooding.

I left that end of the house alone.

I used log chains to tear more of the house away with my truck. Also, to encourage it to fall how I wanted it to, two of the corner posts were cut with a chainsaw.

The house was, one fat bird landing on it, away from collapsing!

The house sort of teeter-tottered in the wind, and the other supports began to bow ever so slightly.

At this point, it became unsafe to get to close to the falling structure. In order to hook up the chain, I took a brick tied to the rope and tossed it, to fish the chain tied to the other end, through.

Little by little, sections of the house got ripped away.

The house began to sink, and creek and pop!

I figured I had one more section to pull out before it gave way.

As an audience gathered in the street, I fished my rope and chain around the last section!

I pulled it out, and to my surprise NOTHING HAPPENED!

S L O W L Y the house began to fall until it rested on the cut corner post.

At this point, I knew what I had to do! I had to get that chimney outta there! My brick/rope throwing skills were now quite perfected! I fished the chain around that chimney, added another 15 foot section of log chain and hoped for the best!