A teaser

Right now, you can stand in the kitchen & see not only the basement floor but also the bathroom ceiling.

Awesome, right?

I'm going to head over today with the camera... more to come!

Taking a look back

This house of ours holds a lot of memories.  Seeing it now, in it's mid-demolition, torn-up state (like a Pheonix, I keep reminding myself) it's hard to imagine it's past life.  But I'll try anyway.

Our neighbors to the north and south sit fairly close to us, but we do have a nice deep yard.  The front yard slopes up from the sidewalk about 4 or 5 feet and was always good for rolling down in the summer or sledding down in the winter.  When I was a kid there were two big maple trees flanking either side of the front walk -- not particularly good for climbing but lovely nonetheless.  I remember when Dad took those trees down (and the ER visit that followed).

The back yard was always a lot busier:  vegetable gardens, flower gardens, barbeques, soft ball, tree climbing, countless auto repairs, refinishing old treasures from the attic, trying to dig my way to China -- I could go on & on.  As I look at it right now, from my sister's dining room, I see pulled-out railroad ties that were once used to construct our patio, fallen limbs, an earth mover, debris of all varieties, a dumpster, and lots & lots of mud.  Mom's old white pine, the one she brought back from Maine when she was a kid and moved to this house when she got married, still stands in the back corner, oddly-shaped from storm damage more than 20 years ago but holding it's place of honor regardless.  None of us has the heart to take that tree out, so I suppose it will stand there until another, stronger storm comes along and does it for us.

The peonies are awaiting their return next spring, right now tucked in under quite a stack of firewood.  I always loved the day the peonies bloomed, because I knew the end of school was around the corner.  Now I love them because of their heavy, frilly blossoms & familiar, comforting scent.  Another reminder of Mom, too.

Dad's vegetable gardens are lost in the track marks left by the parade of machines we've seen over the last few weeks.  I think we're going to try something new (raised beds and "square foot gardening") but just the sight of sprouting seeds and ripening tomatoes will be enough to keep Dad's memory alive for me.  Sara is so excited about this, too -- she asks me every night to tell her the story about the garden, and wants to plant every tomato she sees in my seed catalogues.

We have big dreams for this yard of ours, most of them new twists on old themes.  We'd like a new patio, this time with a pergola, and of course a nice big garden.  We'd like a play set for Sara and her friends in the neighborhood and feeders to lure back the birds that Mom spent so many years feeding herself.  We look forward to barbeques and blooming peonies and another 30 years with that old white pine.

Everything old is new again.

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?