For Skip

My father-in-law is chomping at the bit for photographic updates of the project. So here, just for him (and you, too!), are some photos documenting the progress made over the past week. As I was editing them I realized that they are pictures that only a homeowner could love.

Enjoy!

These poor guys were out there working in the nastiest weather...  You may notice that I took this picture from inside the house.  I think this was the day after Christmas.  But look -- a new water feature!  Striking, no?  

Some pipes, under the future family room.  I have no idea what they do.  Pipe stuff, I guess.

This is looking from the south, at what will be the new family room.  The kitchen is adjacent -- you can see the cut-out in the block where the steps will take you from the kitchen down into the family room.

Here's the addition on the north side of the house, with the bump-out for the kitchen.  That window is where the kitchen sink is -- actually, it will still be there, just a little further north!

Finished slab for the crawlspace under the kitchen addition.

Hot off the presses!  The cement truck arrived just this morning and poured the slab for the family room. (Remember those pipes from above?  They're under this cement now.)

This guy got out his really LONG smoother later to make a nice, level top.  Thanks, cement guy!

Evidently, we are getting a new stoop.  I guess I had forgotten about this.

And, just as a reminder:  Here we were last spring...

...and here we are this morning! 

Progress!

Observations on the construction world

• It really does take five guys to operate one shovel.
  
• Never try to use construction lingo -- you'll just end up looking like an idiot.
  
• Five pick-up trucks parked out back?  Of course.  Two white panel vans out in the street?  Naturally.  A sparkling clean, white BMW in the middle of it all?  Huh.
  
• The first five delays will happen before the crew even arrives.  The next five will happen within the first two weeks of the job.  The remaining setbacks (to infinity and beyond) are anybody's guess.
  
• That loud piece of machinery you hear but can't see is most definitely at your house.
  
• It's never surprising to come home to an earth-mover in your front yard.


• Or a cement truck out back.

The fruits of their 11pm labor

A picture from last weekend.  This is where things pretty much stopped, until today.  The masons arrived last Saturday morning at about 9:00a, and didn't leave until nearly 11p.  Seriously.  And it was COLD.

An update you say?

Well, here's this -- just to whet your appetite. Rest assured, there is more. Much, much more...

It's a Christmas miracle!

Did anyone else feel the Earth move yesterday? No? Just me?

Our ever-faithful contractor, Tom, came through with the permits yesterday. Mostly. As I understand it (which is to say not at all), there might have been the tiniest bit of fudging on a technicality that didn't really matter because it was a form that requires notarization so we'll have to sign it all over again (i.e. for the first time) anyway.

Clear as mud? Right.

Anywho, there is talk of excavators coming over to my house to play next Monday. Forgive me for being dubious -- I'll believe it when I see it.

But maybe, right?