Progress...

After a long Saturday of watering and weed-whacking, I took some wide-angle shots of the sunny south side of the house:

Russell's photos from the past week:

master BR doorway to the deck

Drew installing a window

master BR windows facing east

view from master BR to the southeast corner of the deck

south porch looking east

north wall with guest bath casement window

Powering Up

The plumbing is almost done, and the wiring has begun!  The electrician started on Monday and put in most of the can lights and switch boxes on the first day.  All of the scary old cords and fixtures are gone, except the old chandelier, which now hangs in the garage.  Speaking of the garage, here is a garage door photo that my mother requested...  The door is a sandy color that matches the window trim-- a warmer color than this photo indicates.

the electrician also drilled holes for wiring

silver housings for can lights in the ceiling

blue plastic boxes for light switches

wiring on spools

On a different note, the lawn is still thriving after the rainy holidays and the summery weather of the past week.  The cherimoya fruits (above) are getting bigger and bigger, so now I have to figure out when they are going to be truly ripe.  Out of the two packets of flower seeds that I planted in November, only one sunflower grew-- and it was the one directly under Jesus in the Birdhouse.  Hmmmm...

the successful sunflower on Jan. 17

the same sunflower on Jan. 28

...and Onward

We are looking forward to welcoming Drew to town for some extra help on the house.  Between rounds of golf, Drew and Russell will finish the framing and get started on the deck.

deck frame on SE corner of house

view into master bath (top) and laundry room

old kitchen door (right) and new laundry door (left) and the rock that won't budge

laundry door and north side of addition

master BR looking toward master bath door

duct between back of study closet (left) and front of master BR closet

Upward and Onward

Russell made lots of progress on the addition this week.  The structure has taken shape enough for us to visualize the layout and how the fixtures and furniture will fit into it.

looking southeast from under the large oak tree

Jazz checking out her new home

the master bedroom seen from the living room

the master bedroom french door opening seen from the future deck area

the north side of the house

ABOVE: the house last May                BELOW: the house today!

Frame Up

the addition looking southeast

framing the corner of the master bedroom

the view from the addition

the plumber installing new pipes under the old house

Fun With Phobias

After finishing with the Dumpster balancing act, which reminded me that I am indeed afraid of heights, we turned our attention to the new foundation.  We had to even out the ground inside the footprint so that it would drain properly.


The dirt had soaked up 5 days of rain and become the consistency of dense cookie dough, so the shoveling process was quite a workout.








I pulled the battens off the back of the house and cleared away other remnants of the old back porch... until I found a nice surprise in a pile of wet boards: a decomposing opossum.  I made a quick exit and got Russell to deal with the carcass.

My day got even more challenging when Russell assigned me to cut the plumbing out of the old bathroom.  Not a bad job, until I had to crawl under the house and try to disconnect the sewage pipe.  Add claustrophobia to my fears of heights and dead animals, and I was three for three on the day.

Humpty Dumpster

We finally tackled the pile of old drywall, paneling, tile, and assorted junk that had accumulated in the past few months of demo work.  It took almost three days to load the Dumpster, and it was no fun at all.  Carrying armloads of soaking wet plaster full of rusty nails took some patience, and then balancing those armloads as you climbed a ladder was even more tricky.  I think next time we will hire someone else to do it....

the pile before

the pile after

about half full

almost full

on the ladder

the pick-up

good-bye