Would it be weird if I stared at you all day?
I went back to work a couple of weeks ago, after having several months off, and that's when the construction started in earnest.
Today is my day off, and the framers are here. (I'm pretty sure that's what they are.) The first hour they were here, I was popping around the house, from window to window, watching them.
It got weird.
Now I'm sipping my coffee and sitting in the massage chair and watching them through the sliding glass door. That's less weird, right?
A LOT has happened since my last post, but with me being so used to being a lady of leisure and then suddenly going back to work full time, I've neglected to keep you informed.
They replaced the sewer line and filled the dirt back in, so now our front yard is the barren wasteland it used to be and no longer a pile of holes and dirt. Bonus, in tearing up the yard to replace and install everything, they also tore up a lot of the vegetation that we hated! I'm being serious here. I imagine if your yard was beautifully landscaped it would be a huge bummer to have to tear it up, but for us it was like. SCORE!
They finished leveling the yard and put then put sand and rebar in the place where the new house is going. We were totally fascinated by this. Why is there sand? What's the plastic for? Should there be more plastic?
I'm so fascinated by the rebar! It's so symmetrical.
On Saturday, they poured concrete. I was at work all day, and I kept checking the nest cam and completely drained my phone. I don't know what it is, but I loved watching them pour concrete!!! So I save a little timelapse for y'all. I always thought those boots were just for walking near concrete, but they're actually stomping stomping stomping it down! It kind of reminds me of Lucy stomping grapes.
And then when I got home Saturday night, it looked like THIS:
Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?
And if all that wasn't enough, this morning the lumber was delivered. And then this happened.
And Shar and Michelle and Mark were here from Ritz, and we talked and talked about windows and doors and openings and made some changes. For example, we had planned to have a pocket door into the laundry room, but discovered that because our house was built in 1960, they used 2x3s instead of 2x4s and so they couldn't put a pocket door into our existing wall (as we had planned to do) without modifying the wall and furring it out. I didn't really want to lose that 2' in my studio, so instead we're going to have a swing door.
One of my favorite things about this process is how much I'm learning about my house. For example, with the 2x3s - they used them for a variety of reasons when this tract home was built. One, they were cheaper. Two, using them made the walls slightly thinner, which made the rooms slightly bigger, which is in agreement with everything I've learned about the homes built during this period. So for me, all of these little details are COMPLETELY fascinating, and I love that I get to be so involved in this.
Mommalinda came over this afternoon and we walked through her "house". She seemed most excited about how big the yard is, but I don't think the house is quite real to her yet. We told her that the walls are going up this week and the plumbing and electrical will be in by next week and she said, "We'll see."
But here's a pic of her posing in her "front door".
As excited as I am about this whole process, the timing is so awkward! I'm going in to tech for The Imaginary Invalid at the Old Globe Theatre tomorrow. For those of you not in the theatre world, that translates to 14 hour days, every day, for the next 6 days. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be coming home way too exhausted to blog, which is a bummer because so much is happening this week! So there may be a guest blog from Jules coming up. If I can remember my login so I can give it to her.
Good night!
Today is my day off, and the framers are here. (I'm pretty sure that's what they are.) The first hour they were here, I was popping around the house, from window to window, watching them.
It got weird.
Now I'm sipping my coffee and sitting in the massage chair and watching them through the sliding glass door. That's less weird, right?
A LOT has happened since my last post, but with me being so used to being a lady of leisure and then suddenly going back to work full time, I've neglected to keep you informed.
They replaced the sewer line and filled the dirt back in, so now our front yard is the barren wasteland it used to be and no longer a pile of holes and dirt. Bonus, in tearing up the yard to replace and install everything, they also tore up a lot of the vegetation that we hated! I'm being serious here. I imagine if your yard was beautifully landscaped it would be a huge bummer to have to tear it up, but for us it was like. SCORE!
They finished leveling the yard and put then put sand and rebar in the place where the new house is going. We were totally fascinated by this. Why is there sand? What's the plastic for? Should there be more plastic?
I'm so fascinated by the rebar! It's so symmetrical.
On Saturday, they poured concrete. I was at work all day, and I kept checking the nest cam and completely drained my phone. I don't know what it is, but I loved watching them pour concrete!!! So I save a little timelapse for y'all. I always thought those boots were just for walking near concrete, but they're actually stomping stomping stomping it down! It kind of reminds me of Lucy stomping grapes.
And then when I got home Saturday night, it looked like THIS:
Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?
And if all that wasn't enough, this morning the lumber was delivered. And then this happened.
And Shar and Michelle and Mark were here from Ritz, and we talked and talked about windows and doors and openings and made some changes. For example, we had planned to have a pocket door into the laundry room, but discovered that because our house was built in 1960, they used 2x3s instead of 2x4s and so they couldn't put a pocket door into our existing wall (as we had planned to do) without modifying the wall and furring it out. I didn't really want to lose that 2' in my studio, so instead we're going to have a swing door.
One of my favorite things about this process is how much I'm learning about my house. For example, with the 2x3s - they used them for a variety of reasons when this tract home was built. One, they were cheaper. Two, using them made the walls slightly thinner, which made the rooms slightly bigger, which is in agreement with everything I've learned about the homes built during this period. So for me, all of these little details are COMPLETELY fascinating, and I love that I get to be so involved in this.
Mommalinda came over this afternoon and we walked through her "house". She seemed most excited about how big the yard is, but I don't think the house is quite real to her yet. We told her that the walls are going up this week and the plumbing and electrical will be in by next week and she said, "We'll see."
But here's a pic of her posing in her "front door".
As excited as I am about this whole process, the timing is so awkward! I'm going in to tech for The Imaginary Invalid at the Old Globe Theatre tomorrow. For those of you not in the theatre world, that translates to 14 hour days, every day, for the next 6 days. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be coming home way too exhausted to blog, which is a bummer because so much is happening this week! So there may be a guest blog from Jules coming up. If I can remember my login so I can give it to her.
Good night!
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