Friday: IT WAS REALLY LOUD HERE TODAY (oh... was I shouting?) (9/10/10)

So this has been a wierd little cedar-lined closet in our basement.  They decided (with our agreement) to widen it into the next room's closet so they could place a doorway into the new part of the basement almost underneath the existing front door.  (I'm willing to bet that sentence only makes sense to me...)  To those who aren't familiar with our house, most of our basement is a "real basement," not a 21st-century, Washington-area finished basement.

When you open the door to the cedar-lined closet, much of the cedar lining is now gone, and they're about to open a door slightly to the right of this shot.

To the right of that cedar, they have demolished/cut the foundation to allow a doorway into the new part of the basement.  (Plywood, or something similar, placed there for the time being, to block the opening.)  Much prior to this photo, I decided that Reuben and I deserved a respite from the noise and vibrations of all the demolition, and had a leisurely (sp?) late lunch on the patio of Foxfire Grille.  These photos were taken after our return...

Same space from the outside, with the new doorway in the near right corner of the photo (guess I won't be going out that doorway anytime soon...).  They're finishing the prep for the foundation pour in the new basement that will be underneath the existing front door and under the new hallway.

Here's what they removed to make that doorway.

Another shot of the sightline (back-to-front), where the new back door (almost all glass) will look down the new hallway through the large window in the front.

Wednesday: Just as you suspected, the Gellen-Carpenter property is single-handedly destroying the Chesapeake Bay (9/8/10)

There's a whole lot of text cut off to the right of this photo of the letter just received, but this little bit will give you the gist.  Our total reduction of impervious surface, use of pervious pavers, and a rain collection system for garden irrigation, apparently does not count as far as the county is concerned.  They now not only think that their requirement for a 65' (or was it 85'?) x 5' drainage ditch requirement (a mere $17K) is justified, but now seem to be insisting that we pay someone to redesign it to standards published after our request for permits was submitted.  Oy.

Tuesday: More foundation work (9/7/10)

View from the front.  We've had no end of cars slowing down and drivers asking us for some of our excavated dirt.  Believe it or not, we need it all.  (Someone else asked if we were putting in a pool...)

Most of the day was spent preparing the foundations for the pour - this is the back door foundation.  Lots of gravel dust all day - I really felt for the workers.

Around the corner to the front - this is the foundation for the chimney extension.  They backfilled dirt around it.

This is the front door foundation, aka, the future hallway upstairs.

Sunday: Thoughts while nothing really happens... (9/5/10)

Nobody's been here working since Thursday, and that means Jack has been dangerously distracted with coming up with new ideas for the house.  The newest (which I LOVE) is planting a "living wall" or "vertical garden" on the courtyard garden wall, which the sliding glass doors in the new dining room will look out onto.  We had long talked about a formal, contemporary koi pond there, so the new idea is to have water trickle down the wall, hydrating the plants, and falling into a koi pond that goes along the bottom of the garden wall (this would not be the only recirculation/oxygenation of the water for those poor little fish...)

If anyone has an opinion to offer on this, please do!  (If so, go to the 'Comments' link below this post.)

Thursday: A bit more garden wall... and some catching up on my part (9/2/10)

Not a whole lot changed this day.

They built this portion of the garden wall.  Again, the other two walls (above photo) were looking kind of freakishly tall to me, but the lower portion to the right here (which is the new dining room foundation) only comes up to the level of the floor in the existing house.  When I realized that, it seemed to fall better into proportion.

Such dramatic changes had previously been taking place outside, that I realized that I hadn't posted some of the changes inside.  They put up new zipwalls downstairs for further dust protection.  Also, they took up some of the flooring where they'll be installing a cement footer to support a new wall going in upstairs.  Reuben just loves barreling down the stairs and into the basement, through this opening...

...then around through this new little zipwall.  It's sort of like going through an old-fashioned haunted house ride.

Also, in the basement, they had dug out this section of hearth and flooring, and laid rebar, for the new chimney/fireplace foundation.

Wednesday: The walls keep getting taller (9/1/10)

The walls seem kind of overly tall, but then look how tall I've become!  (Oh, and they have cut the hole for the window here.)

They removed some stones from this opening to make it wide enough to accept a standard 3' entry door for the future back door. The builder said they'll be "toothing in" stone to fill it in. Sheila's in that orthodontia phase, and that's all I can picture...

Monday: If I keep going away for long weekends, will they keep getting a lot done? (8/30/10)

It's sort of like when your child goes away to camp for a week and comes back seemingly a foot taller and a year older. It's starting to look like a building... This is where the new carport will be. These walls will eventually be covered with stucco.

I was a bit concerned, because there's supposed to be a large window where the stone meets the new wall. It turns out that they build the wall, then cut an opening for the window. More precise, I suppose.

The courtyard garden will be behind the carport wall. (Sorry to have been so repetitive about these, but until they become more like rooms, it's difficult to visualize - unless you've lived with the drawings for three years, as we have!)

The courtyard garden from the other side.

The new dining room.

This opening is where the new back door will be.  There will be a sightline through the window-to-be, in the front, through the glass back door here, out to the back yard.  This hallway will be Sheila's new running track.