And so it starts

The header on my blog describes us as "two folks... who like to... renovate their house." I'm never sure if we like renovations, but we certainly do them a lot. The latest project officially started yesterday.


For those unfamiliar, this project entails a whole raft of stuff:

1. Expand the basement;
2. Build an addition that expands and moves the kitchen over top of the new basement room;
3. Move the laundry facility upstairs;
4. Re-design the roof drainage to stop leaks in the basement;
5. Re-shingle the roof on the whole house;
6. Replace a failing retaining wall;
7. Fix any other headaches we find. More explanation in a moment.

The official start was yesterday, which was mostly a prep day. We got a dumpster. 

Big. Red. I think my hummingbirds will love it.

I'm surprised we got one biggie and not two small ones. The rule here is that all construction waste has to be separated into woods, metals, etc; there's like 5 categories. Ah, well. Not my problem, I guess.

I asked for the Douglas Fir tree in my back yard to be protected by hoarding so no one hits it and wrecks it. This is what they built:

Hmmmn...

What I'm used to is a box that stands 1'-2' away from the tree on all sides, so that if a large piece of equipment hits it (say, a backhoe, which will be here tomorrow) zero damage is done. Not so much this.

Anyway, one of the worker bees (Michael, whom has worked here before and I'm sure we will see all summer) started the demolition process. Compare this to the first photo in Sunday's post.

Mid tear apart. Windowbox and siding gone. 

Done and cleaned up. Window covered in plywood.

When Michael pulled the eave apart, an old squirrel nest fell out.

Complete with pine cones. Not this season's, or last.

Within hours of all this coming apart, we heard squirrels in the attic. Not surprising, given that there's nothing there to stop them from getting in. They won't last long. Major serious removal of the roof (and other portions of the house they may wish to call home) will start at the end of next week.

Nothing happened today. The backhoe will arrive later tonight or early in the AM to start digging the basement, with concrete pouring to start Monday. Here's hoping he doesn't hit the powerlines on his way in.

As I mentioned, part of this project is to fix any headaches we find. From our leaky roof to more squirrel nests, I'm sure we have our hands full.