so this is what the garage ceiling looks like when we removed *most* of the crud from the ceiling. this was saturday afternoon. snoozie read a book and "watched" the girls attempt to clean the basement tiles while mark and i inhaled tons of what is sure to be hanta virus spores in the soon to be den of iniquity...

isn't it great that mark makes it a priority to clean out all the shiite in the garage before we actually rip out the ceiling? i think so...

and actually, today (tuesday) we worked more on the gayrahge. mark thought (with jamey's help) we'd be able to get all FOUR walls up. the following is what was ACTUALLY (actually actually) accomplished...

um, yah. that's ONE (1) wall...

forgot to take pix of only the floor joists, but mark decided NOT to remove them just for a photo op. the rest (of the flooring) is completed, but this is as far as we got last night. woke up this morning to a nice pool of water in the (ahem) wine cellar because we neglected to prepare for the rain that we knew was coming later. its not quite dry yet.

apparently it took a coupla hours to remove the stone threshhold thingie. mark and jamey worked on it all morning before they could even contemplate the inevitable drive back to menard's for whatever it was they needed and forgot they needed. in mark's case, it was to exchange wood for the correct size...

 

the concrete they poured yesterday (also in the bottom of the pit which you can see in the next picture). now the masons are finished until the end of the project, when they put the stonework on. hopefully, this won't be as messy as this part of the project...


because this is PART of what they left behind. lots of cigarette packs and and old shirt and leftover lunch as well as broken tools and general detritis. the dumpster should be delivered today or tomorrow. on the other side of the yard are chunks of concrete and asphalt that they apparently decided NOT to take with them.


this next one is a picture for gabriel (ahem, GABE). this is where we'll put the alligators. any unsuspecting bad guys coming to the front door will then fall into the pit (of despair) and have to tangle with the alligators till we pull them out with our fishing pole and rope, right?


the basement is finished. tuck pointed and shored up and... i don't understand why we have a column of concrete in the corner, but mark said it was necessary. i guess it will look better once we put the sauna panelling back up.

 

i know its monday, but this was taken apart last week and i neglected to take a picture of it before now. actually, today it's got a big box around it, cuz they're gonna pour concrete in and around to shore it all up. concrete gets poured tomorrow am.
gotta love those step cracks...

don'tcha just absolutely love excavation? i mean, you never really know what's going on under and around your house until you plan to undertake some huge OTHER project. and then you find all the "butt firsts." this butt first is only a few brazillion dollars, but still...

 

this is my contribution to the removal of the stone from the front of the house. i've actually stacked them in TWO rows, sorted by size...

 

this was our favorite discovery. know how those guys always say "add at least 10-15% into your budget for the unexpected"??? well. here is the unexpected. you prolly don't remember, but this whole wall was covered in cedar boards and bookshelves - an extended part of the sauna (on the left). we discovered the dang wall was pushed in a full 2 inches.

makes ya just go hmmmmm... (ya know why? cuz the previous owners bamboozled us - they did a beautiful patch job on the bottom, made sure the wall was plumb, then painted it so we - and our building inspector - would never suspect a thing. and we didn't).

so, while they were digging up the topsoil, we asked if they could put a few inches in the back, where it's kinda swampy. sure, they said. and promptly deposited the topsoil. and all the clay they're RE-USING as backfill...

this pile is actually about 8 feet high. loverly, eh? all my beyootiful woodland plants are underneath this pile. somehow i don't think they'll survive...


and then i guess they couldn't figure out how to drive on the plywood path they layed for themselves. decided to trench up as much of the yard as possible.


did a damned fine job, i say...

 

mark chipping away at the stone outside. once the first stone went, the rest were a bit less difficult. and YES, i did work on this as well. i stacked them so we could re-use them later...

 

day one. they just felled the big arbor vitae tree - one of many that have to go

kinda scary to think there's no turning back. and we're losing all these great big trees...

driveway is gone. hill to the left of the driveway is gone. tree(s) to the left of the driveway - gone...