House Project 2010: Week 4

Because of the drizzles of rain, a concrete guy's weekend injury, and construction's name of the game, not a whole lot was done this past week.

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The kids did enjoy seeing our back stoop ripped off by some big machine with a claw (a Kubota?).  They especially loved that the wicked claw was within inches of their sweet little faces in the window.  One wrong move and they would have been part of the destruction.

Years of dusty settlement was loosened and a downpour of hidden muck and grime fell on the workers.  The kids thought the dangling light was awesome.

Once the back stoop was off, our original house material - adobe brick - was exposed.  I don't know why, but it gave me such a thrill.  Our house has been covered in stucco so I've never seen the true character underneath.  Jeff took his car keys and scraped it along one of the bricks and it felt as strong as a regular brick - no crumbling or indention made by his key.

{Whew!}

This shows what the original back door would have looked like before the stoop was put on.  It was covered in (pink?} plaster.  This also shows how thick our walls are.  Can't buy insulation like that nowadays!

Shaw's permanent seat.

Dirt leveled out, foundation gaps filled in.

Basement plumbing roughed in, window wells secured, garden left in a complete mess.

{We'll deal with that next year.}

Basement and garage cement poured.

Next week?  Framing!

The pioneers only left a few, broken pieces of china.  The kids found these while climbing the mountains of dirt during the excavation.

By contrast, the construction workers leave these treasures on a daily basis.

Do you think, if I left them a garbage can, they would use it?