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?

I really hope it's always darkest before the dawn...

So, how about an update?

Still no permits.  Maybe if I ask Santa for them we'll get them by the New Year.  Maybe?

Anyway, the elves are still busy inside.  Skip has installed ALL of the replacement windows and trimmed out all but one, which can't be done for awhile (it involves plaster, wiring, alarms, insulation...  all that boring guy-stuff).  You can see one of his finished windows below -- it's even painted!

There's also been some demo on the first floor.  The half bath and floor in the back hall & bathroom have been removed.  This is the section of existing floor that will be dropped to match the new family room.  If, you know, we ever get permits.

Outside there has been additional deconstruction.  Our contractor told us that if we took the brick off of the east wall we'd gain about six inches in the family room.  So, Rob tore that off last week too.  A new pile of rubble!

We did make a purchase last weekend -- our very first family tree.  Probably not a big deal to most people, but strangely a big deal to me.  I love our little tree.

That's it for now!  Crossing our fingers that Tom the Builder Guy arrives on his white horse next week with his extreme makeover crew (or at least the permits).  A girl can dream!

The view from the kitchen sink...  looking out the living room window!

No more floor -- the back hall & 1/2 bath.  (Nice toes though, right?)

The former water closet.  Or 1/2 water closet.  It really was closet-sized, wasn't it?  I never noticed how small that was...

Window trim, up & painted.  I like!  Thanks, Skip!

Rubble, from...

The brick face on the east wall.   Six more inches, people! 

The bushes are out; upstairs windows now with Tyvek trim (until we get the siding replaced, after we get permits or Sara gets married, which ever comes first.)

Our new tree.  A Japanese maple.  Love!

The Waiting Game, or Happy Birthday, CJ!

So, my brother asked me today why I haven't posted anything.

OK -- first?  My brother?  Reads this blog?  Who knew?  (Clearly not me.)

And to answer his question for the record:  Because there's just not a whole lot going on right now.

My father-in-law would certainly disagree and I mean him no disrespect.  He has been working on putting in the last of our replacement windows and putting up trim where he is able.  So yes, something has been going on.

But none of the BIG stuff is going on.  It seems that the city of Indianapolis, or the state of Indiana, or both, like to screw with their taxpayers by making them wait for weeks on end (weeks!  that's right, I said WEEKS!) to issue final permits.  I am so beyond over it that I don't know what to do, but there's not a hell of a lot I can do except curse about it.  And so I will.

Those #&^-d@#^ m(#*%^-f&#?^*$ really need to get off of their m(#*%^-f&#?ing a$$e$ so we can f&#?ing get on with this already, because this $%!t is really starting to p!$$ me the h@)) off.

Ah, I feel much better now.

No, no I don't.  Not really at all.

But there it is.  We wait while the chump from the IDEM decides to grace us with his* presence so we can actually start building what we've been dreaming about for over a year.  Perhaps if he realized we are sharing a room with a two-year-old, he might take mercy on us and put a move on it?

Nah, I don't think so either.

*And in the event that this chump is a woman, all of the above still stands -- because I am nothing if not an equal-opportunity p!$$ed off taxpayer.

Trials and tribulations

Hmmmmm.

We should be into day three of excavation. Yes, yes. We should be.

There's just a little problem with obtaining permits. And finding that our current design doesn't meet current zoning regulations. (Of note, our lot as it was platted 80-some years ago also doesn't meet current zoning regulations. This is a bitter pill, I must say.) And trying to reach the architect who needs to make changes to the plans so we can meet the current zoning regulations and obtain the permits.

OMG. We haven't even started and we're behind schedule. I really thought we had escaped the ever-loving foot-dragging, now that Tom the Builder is running the show.

O. M. G.

Cozy

No pictures today.

Rob, Sara and I have moved "out" for now, and I'll admit it was a little strange when I left last night, realizing that I don't have many -- if any -- more nights sleeping in our bedroom. Our new room has yet to be built.

Weird.

So for the next several months the three of us are huddled together in my sister's spare room. Actually we're not really all that huddled and for now we have plenty of room to sleep, get dressed, get away from each other, etc. But we'll see. We have a way of letting laundry creep in and surround us. Somehow though I don't think the sister will put up with much of that. :)

Excavators were out last week getting the lay of the land. We should be breaking ground two weeks from today. I can't wait!!

Windows: Before & after

One of Skip's first projects... Awesome! Hooray for windows that work!

Big doings this week! The porch is gone -- or at least going, in lots and lots and LOTS of little pieces. Skip and Rob both spent some quality time on the end of the jackhammer and the concrete slab is no more. Poor Sara looked out of Nanci's window and said "What happen my house? It's all broken!"

That's an understatement, sister.

Third installment (batting out of order)

These pictures were actually taken last spring/early summer but show that there has also been a big effort underway inside, too. One of these days I'll take some pictures that show the results of all this hard work!

Second installment

Big work outside this week. We got a hungry chipper and Rob & Skip had plenty to feed it! Skip built a wood shed, too, for all the soon-to-be- (or later-to-be-) split fire wood. Make way for that addition!

Let's start at the beginning

I'm Amy, and this is the story of the house I grew up in, which also happens to be the house where I now live with my family.  We haven't named the place -- "home" suits it just fine -- although it did have a nickname for a period after all the kids were grown & moved out.  (More about that another time.)

We live in Indianapolis, IN, in the Warfleigh area of a neighborhood known as Broad Ripple.  From the best we can figure, our house was built in or around 1936 (which just happens to be the same year my mother was born). My parents bought the place in 1959, just before my brother CJ was born. 

Mom and Dad both lived out the rest of their lives in this house.  They raised three kids, a couple of dogs and a cat here.  There were countless vegetable gardens and flower gardens, a constant rotation of cars in various states of repair, and a few dozen Christmas Eve parties spent with family and friends.

As we go along I hope to tell you the story of our home:  the people, the events, the things that make it special (at least to us).  I'll also be posting some pictures, from the past and the present, to help tell the tale of where we've been and where we're heading.

Here we go!