We start on our first full week of work and we are excited!
Monday - we start on the new garage - digging, digging and digging
Well, here is the foundation wall, exposed!
This is a view from where the top of the driveway used to be, looking down what used to be our driveway.
I can see the neighbor's home across the street from inside the new garage, not quite to ground level, but close
Tuesday, basement is almost dug out. To show perspective, this is my brother-in-law Barry who is 6' tall, standing on ground level of our new garage -
A view of the front of the house -
One last look
Wednesday - today, the original footings are cut off, a hole for the new duct work for the family room and the basement fireplace structure. We never built the fireplace when we were finishing the basement, we just framed in the hole and sheetrocked over it --- in case we wanted to go back and build it later. Well, it's a blessing we never did because years later --- that fireplace made a perfect entrance into our basement from the new garage!!!
Thursday, we were not quite prepared for the changes that took place at our home today. The stairs are gone - making the only entrance into our home through the back door, cutting through the neighbor's yard to do it. THANKS Steven and Wendy! Here's Curt waving hello. Not only did we loose the stairs, can you see we lost all the brick on the front of our home too. Ewe, I feel totally exposed!
Friday, ok - so if I thought we felt exposed yesterday --- today I'm really feeling exposed as we lost all the siding from the rest of the home, and our soffit and facia to boot. Our home is just a s.h.e.l.l.
If I thought the view from our kitchen door was interesting, here is the view from my front door!
Here is the dirt pile across the street we have created - THAT is a whole lot of dirt!
I know I already mentioned this, but I want to say again how very pleased we are with our builder - Island Construction. They have been so good to work with - from the very first phone call. Although this has caused a huge disruption to our neighborhood, they have worked so hard (the temperatures every day have been in the upper 90's to low 100's). They are clean - I can't believe how clean they are. I left my Christmas lights up before we started the renovation and when I came home Thursday, there they were, all coiled and placed neatly on the back lawn.
They also power AND hand broom the street each and every day before they leave. All tools and equipment are cleaned up and trash piles are removed from the premises each day. Working in the construction industry myself....we could definately learn a thing or two from them! THANK YOU!
I would quickly recommend Island Construction to ANYONE needing any work completed - BUT not for about 4 more months, please!
Stay tuned, concrete next week!
The Jr's were in town last week and we had Ez at the house one night. After walking around the yard/house he turned and said to me "Grandma, why did you want to ruin your house?" Just wait little man, just wait!
