Conclusion of Week 2.

Not sure why Charlotte is chewing on the end of her rake, but note the new brickwork on the back of the house!  Pretty awesome, and now Buster can't escape next to the fencepost anymore!

This is a look at the sand pile, with moat, from the backyard.  The moat was filled with cement, then the cement blocks were strategically around the exterior.  Now the blocks are in the moat!  No more moat - we have the beginning of walls here - a new bathroom and walk-in closet are coming!

Charlotte is becoming more interested in my pictures every day, and I can't resist her when she follows me around saying "Cheese!" So here she is!  She has so much hair, and the poor girl has a long hot summer ahead with all that hair.



Jay does not care of the photography as much - he's busy being a "workman." He hammers and saws that playhouse over and over - but must have on his workbelt before getting started!  It's fun to see what he picks up on from the construction project.

Week 2


I stepped back yesterday evening to capture "the scene."  There's a lot of equipment, materials, and "gear" hanging around our house!  And you can't even see all the serious power tools inside the carport and storage room!

This is looking into the carport.  Yesterday's major progress? About 2/3 of the ceiling is gone!

Outside the carport, the cement moat is dry, and the stack of cinder blocks have been strategically (I assume) relocated around the moat.

This trailer with a stack of bricks was a new addition the driveway yesterday.  I thought Charlotte might want to have a dance party up there, but as soon as she got up there, she wanted down.

This is the rear of the house, notably the back of the storage room.  This window opening used to be the door to the storage room.  I included this because Buster got not one, but TWO, tastes of freedom the other night.  See that space between the house and fence that has two cinder blocks stacked?  The cinder blocks weren't there before, and without bricks on the house, Buster fits through there!  The kids and I were checking out the construction when Buster appeared behind me, outside the fence.  I put him back, and blocked the opening with a patio chair.  Then the kids and I walk down the street and back - and when we're coming back up the driveway, theres's Buster coming down the driveway towards us!  He scaled the patio chair.  So, now there's cinder blocks.

Hi Charlotte!

Week 2 - The machines are here!

Seems like the machines arrive daily.  Just this week we've had a big dump truck swing by to empty our dumpster, an excavator was on site, and now a green tractor lives in our driveway overnight.  Construction Junction is legit - we have workmen AND work trucks!

This is what you see when you pull up to our house.  The dumpster and portapotty are there for the whole project.  If you need a potty break while on a walk in the neighborhood, stop in!

Not sure if the shadows are too dark, but this shows the arrival of the tractor, as well as the start of a cinder block wall.... and the carport full of sand!  Sand is everywhere!  Packed sand apparently is the base for the new slab that will be poured.

More sand!  There's sand inside the old storage room, a sand pile inside the moat (which has been filled in!), and the remaining brick wall holding up the electrical meter has been fully removed.  That meter is barely hanging on!

The moat is now full of cement with rebar posts sticking out.

A closer view of the sand inside the carport, and the in-progress cinder block wall.  I think more sand is coming today!

And here's the current star of the show - the big green tractor!  OF COURSE I let the kids climb on it.  OF COURSE I took their picture.  And, OF COURSE I waited until the work crew left to do it.



Attempting to "drive" with her feet.



See this face?  This face loves tractors!

Week 2, post 2. aka The Post with Excavator Results.

Before we get to the result of the excavator, here is our sad, lonely electrical panel.  It used to be in the storage room, but the wall it was on has been torn down, and the panel is moving.  But it's not moving yet!  So it, literally, hangs in limbo, with cords coming out both ends, waiting for its new home.  It looks bizarre and pitiful and clearly out of place, but it is also kind of smack in the middle of things right now!

And here are the results of the excavator!  This is standing in the driveway.... where that big pile of sand is used to stand a quite large holly tree, with a good bit of shrubbery around it.  No more!

And outside the storage room (reference the meter covered with the bucket), where the new bathroom will be built, used to stand an array of large azaleas.  No more!  Now we have lots of dirt, with a moat around it, and the moat has bars/supports in it.  Fascinating, and clearly lots more work to come.

Sadly, the excavator was gone by the time Jay got home from school, but supposedly a dump truck is coming today and may be around all day.  The laundry room is now complete until the interior finishes (paint, shelving) are underway for the whole project.  And it's functional!

Week 2!  The work crew was busy yesterday.  Walls are now just boards, doorways and windows are framed, and our laundry room makeover is about 50% done.  Check it out!

Standing in the driveway, looking at the carport and storage room.  The two 'empty' walls are becoming interior walls, but apparently they have to be stripped naked first!

Looking straight into the carport. Someday there will be a wall, with fireplace, here!  Not much has changed inside the carport since the very beginning, but it is a great storage/work space for the work crew.

Charlotte! This is standing inside the rear of the storage room, looking in toward the carport. That area Charlotte is looking at (with the white ceiling) used to be part of our laundry room!  And the open floor she is checking out is open to the crawl space under the house! Our laundry room is much smaller now, the washing machine hook ups had to be moved, and it all happened in one day!

With all the missing walls and changing rooms, this still makes me laugh.  The exterior electrical meter, hidden behind the bucket, that can't be moved yet.  So it sits on this one preserved bit of brick wall - and I almost walked into the bucket twice today.

The new laundry room!  That's just dry wall, not a paint color, in case you're wondering. This view is from the kitchen looking in, with a little swivel to the left. The room is now just big enough for the two machines, and they will have shelving above them.  Also, that drywall will have a doorway in it soon - that'll be the entry to the master bedroom.

Laundry room again, view from the kitchen, but a little swivel to the right. This is currently the door to our carport (which we can't use).  The doorway will remain, but will be a pocket door to the family room.

As a teaser for tomorrow - a tractor just like this one (this is not actual footage from our Construction Junction!) was waiting in the street this morning for me to get my car out of the driveway.  Something's getting torn up today!

Conclusion of Week 1.

Buster's first blog appearance!  This is the view from the rear of the house, particularly of the storage room.  Not much to see except for how the ceiling/attic/eaves are all ripped out.  And, that which used to be a doorway is quickly becoming just a rear window.  Buster is once again safely enclosed in the backyard!  The window opening you can see on the right side of the storage room will remain as such - but with a new window!

Day 3 (photos taken morning of Day 4, 4/19/12)

Aack! Not only can you see that the wall between the carport and the storage room is now just boards, and the door is gone, but everything in the storage room is gone, too.  And not just our stuff - there was quite an assortment of shelving and a workbench and such in there, and it's gone!  All the doors and windows are gone, presenting a containment issue with letting Buster out in the backyard.  Also, the exterior wall, that used to brick, is now black, see?  No bricks! (except for the bricks left to hold the electrical meter until it is moved.)  And, those azaleas are getting thinner every day...  (not shown here: the holly tree, witnessing the demise of the azaleas, shaking with anxiety.)

Not sure what else is to come this week.  But, to keep you coming back, next week will feature the reorganization of our laundry room including plastic sheeting, relocated washer and wall shelving (the dryer gets to stay put), and a new wall!

And, a little birdie told me that there is a great deal of cement to be poured sooner rather than later, but I'm not sure of the timeline. Keep your fingers crossed that the cement truck is on-site after 3pm so Jay gets to see it!

Construction Junction, Day 2 (no photos from Day 1, sorry). Although, technically these are Day 1 because I took them before work started on Day 2.  It's a two-fer!



Yes, it was raining, so excuse the raindrops in the photo.  This is looking directly into the carport - Look, Mom, no walls! The double-windows you can see from the driveway in earlier pictures are to the left. The brick wall to the right has also begun it's demise, as seen in the pile of broken bricks on the ground.  Azaleas to the right still standing...

Hi Jay!  This is looking to the immediate right of the picture above.  You can see the jagged edge of the brick wall on the very left of this picture.  The azaleas here are thinned out in the middle, and the window and eaves of the storage room are gone!  That window hole will become the doorway from our master bedroom into our master bathroom!

Here are the "before" pictures.  I've focused on the side/end of the house that is under construction - the rest is irrelevant to this project, I suppose!



The new shed!  This is now full of all the junk stuff that used to be in our storage room.

This is taken from the driveway, looking at the house.  The double-window you see is the current carport (forthcoming family room), the big holly tree to the right is enjoying its last days of life, and that green space at the end of the driveway will soon house a bathroom and new carport.

Closer to the house, still in the driveway. This is the aforementioned green space, the entry to the carport is to the left.  Those big azalea bushes are hiding the current storage room (forthcoming master bedroom), and this part of the driveway and that green "parking patch" won't be here much longer!

Here you can see the entry to the carport (car included!), with the storage room behind. Notice the door from the carport to the storage room - it won't be there soon!

And here it begins!  This is our house - and my photography is so stellar that you can't even see the part of house that is being changed. Anyway, we got pretty excited when the contractor's sign showed up in the yard, but it was still a couple weeks before the work began...