Walls!!!!

Well, we're going to have (basement) walls in about a day - just as soon as that concrete cures. Tomorrow the wall frames come down to reveal the concrete within, which is being poured today.

Our foundation guy Curt Wilson is awesome! His crew is fast and great, and he's talked Mark through every step of the way. Confidence is restored that we can be finished in 2010!!!


Showed up at 8:10am with a book, expecting to wait a while for the show to begin - this is what I saw instead. Holy cool!


















overhead view of concrete pour from our neighbor's second floor

Joe the concrete dude

Demo/Excavation photos

I've been negligent in getting photos on the blog. Although my parents saw the work site last week, our family in Iowa has been clamoring for photos and we have yet to deliver.

But first, an update on the status of the project. The house was demolished on May 19. It came down amazingly fast - when we showed up at 10am, we had a house and when we got home from work at 6om, we had a big pile of rubble. Seriously.

As you can see from the pictures above, Mark and I took a stab a the demo ourselves, which proved both slow and painful (I hit my ankle with the sledghammer when trying to swing it toward the wall!).




Back to May 19 - the remainder of the week included dozens of trips to and from the dump/recycling center to offload the housing materials and foundation. Despite a few setbacks - the big purple excavator, dubbed "Barney", went kaput on day 3 of the project - progress was made, albeit slower than expected.

By last week, excavation efforts were underway. Because the property's soil is primarily sand (we dug our fence's post holes with a shop vac, if that gives you an idea of how sandy it is!), it proved more difficult than expected. So... there is a theme here. Everything takes longer than expected!

Our concrete guy came yesterday and is, as I write, busily working to build the structure for the foundation. Sides poured next week, basement slab the following week, hopefully.

More soon!

Demo day is here at last!

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: Demo day is tomorrow, bright and early (as early as 7am). Prep work only today because the tractor wasn't fixed in time to start today.

UPDATE: Demo guy's tractor broke down and will hopefully be fixed by noon. Maybe demo today, maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow is demo day! We're thinking sometime between 9 and 11am tomorrow. Seattle friends and neighbors - come on out for the show! We'll post pictures galore once it's finished.

The teeny apartment

Our little place doesn't require more than 4 photos to capture its entire square footage, but it's cozy and convenient.

Interior House Photos

house photos after digging up trees

Front of house
We still have the magnolia, but can't replant it until it blooms. Any day now!



A large hole where the japanese maple used to be. Man, that was work!



Back yard - straight back are the two japanese maples; the plant on the right near the orange mesh fence is the forest pansy from the parking strip. The chubby butt in the middle is Oscar.



Back of house
Mark ripped off the crappy vinyl panels to see what was beneath. Crappy wood paneling.

On needing a place to live

So in less than a month we’ll enter the mortgage-with-no-house phase. Barring yurt-building or the purchase of an RV, this means we need to find a 'second home'. A really cheap one.

Our dogs are already anxious, seeing the parade of empty boxes making their way up from the basement and being filled with things they like to look at, pee on or chew. They stalk us from room to room and bark at the top of the stairs when we're going up and down, batting at each other for prime parent-watching position.

Unfortunately, packing has transitioned from the easy stuff to the miscellaneous - the square-shaped piece of plastic that's a part for either the fan or the bike rack (Or neither? Is it worth keeping?), the old heart rate monitor strap that works with the watch I lost (What if I find it? and how do I categorize a heart rate monitor - bathroom? bedroom? medical supplies?). Boxes and boxes of those question mark miscellany, left for another time when I have more patience.

Unlike packing for a vacation, packing our house is an exercise in regret. I found my old flute, which I promised myself I would keep playing as an adult. I found gifts from others and to myself that I barely used. I found puzzles unopened (not making enough time for fun), a punching bag unpunched (never did take those boxing classes), and even old resumes (why didn't I ever apply for that job?). Even prints and photos that I meant to frame could create anxiety, if I let them.

But back to the issue of needing an apartment. Last week, we scoured craigslist for a suitable place, and by a stroke of luck, we found a studio in the building above Verite Coffee in Madrona, just two blocks from our house!

We toured the next door neighbor’s place (who has the same layout), finding not only is 250ish square feet really small, but some people (like maybe our future next door neighbor) are unashamed of showing off their dirties. We tip-toed around dirty dishes, dirty clothes, a bathroom that looked like a throwback from the frat house, pizza boxes, and dozens of video games. No joke – I think I threw up in my mouth when I saw the bathroom. Undeterred (and a touch desperate), we immediately filled out the rental application.

Apartment = check! The only obstacle that remains is the dog interview … Fortunately, we have some leftover muscle relaxants from when Felix hurt his back, and although they’ll probably need to be carried into the interview, the dogs will pass the test with flying colors.

Before pictures coming soon…