The Big Dig

Since my special friend Justin P. (age 4 3/4) has taken such an active interest in the house project, I'm posting this one especially for him! (Justin -- I'll keep the photos coming, but your mommy was right when she told you that it's going to take a while for the house to be built. I promise I'll let you know when, though!)

After the trees came down...before they were hauled away.

The weather continues to plague us, although progress is being made. There were some large tress on our lot that, sadly, had to go. Their roots were either going to cause damage to the new house or their locations meant they had slim to no chances of surviving the construction. I don't have a particularly green thumb, but I thought that it was sad to see the trees go. Especially my beloved cherry blossom tree...remember how much I loved it?? I would have taken more photos last year if only I'd known it would be our last spring together!!


Gone they are, as is a ton of dirt. It's all making way for the FOUNDATION THAT WILL BE POURED TOMORROW. Weather permitting, of course.

A few LARGE tree stumps remain, and they're blocking the port-a-potty. Now how in the world are those workers going to "go"?

Gone with the Wind!

After I-don't-know-how-long, it's finally done. Over. Finished. Down. Demolished. The house is gone.

YAHOO!!!

The big-rig was about 30 minutes late arriving on the scene, but they more than made up for the time. Considering how long it takes to build a house, it's amazing how fast they can take one down. Less than one hour... And considering what a large piece of equipment they use for the demolition, I was amazed by how "tidy" a process it was. Although I had to leave before it was done, done, when all was said and done just a pile of rubble remained.

I'll spare you my commentary and just leave you with a few photos.

If you look closely, you can see what a poor job we did of cleaning out the attic. Yes, that's one of our (many) Britax car seat boxes!

That used to be the living room...

...and yes, those are hangers hanging in the coat closet.

Blue was our bedroom. Yellow was the kitchen.


If you can't see the video above, click HERE. And for another great video (a bit longer), click HERE.

Now the real fun can begin! As Noah would say, "let's get our build on!"

Just Kidding

So the house wasn't demolished week before last.

And although I could think of a lot of four letter words, the delay was caused by one of the worst.

S.N.O.W.

In a city that gets a big snowfall every 7 years. Literally. The last awful one was 2003 (the week before our wedding). The one before that was 1996. I'll be sure not to plan anything important 7 years from now...

Uugh!

So the first (or fourth if you're keeping score) demo day, originally scheduled for 2/3/10, was postponed because of 6 inches of snow. It was rescheduled for Tuesday, 2/9/10, at which point we had an additional TWO AND ONE-HALF FEET of snow on the ground. So, yes, it was postponed again. Until tomorrow morning.

Thankfully the county plowed our cul-de-sac on Friday...had they not, we would have "treated" our neighbors to the plowing. After all, the street has to be clear in order to get the heavy demo equipment in. At this point we just have to pay for them to move snow out of the way on our lot. And then the house will come down.

April would have been our 5th anniversary in the house. We started this "new house journey" before we even closed on the property. Originally we thought that we'd do a significant renovation. The project has, clearly, changed in scope since then. Either way, this has been a long time in the making. So tonight when we passed the old house after picking Lily up from a playdate, we all bid the old place good-bye.

2726 when we moved in...



And today, when the port-a-potty moved in...






Get ready for something great. The new house won't look a thing like this last one. Thankfully! From the foundation on up, it's all going to be brand new. Stay tuned...I'll keep you posted along the way.