Building begins Monday

At long last the building begins. We signed contracts today and next week they begin by doing some prelim work.  The ugly cement wall in the photo is getting torn out and replaced with a great looking new wall moved back about 5 feet. It will give us more room to stage the workmen during the build, eventually make for more area to back up and empty groceries near the house and we’ve wanted to put a nice wall in there forever anyway. Two birds-make that three.

Sadly, in order to get the dumpster in the space and negotiate large equipment, we had to cut down the wild cherry tree. There will be a new one in my future. I’m hoping the chipmunks will eventually return to the new wall. Boy are they going to be pissed.

They came and took away the second dumpster yesterday and now we have to have the POD removed next Monday. Right now it contains most of the things Bob wants to keep and a large collection of my fabric as well as some of James things he still housed in the old basement. That’s my car in front of the POD. From next week on I will be parking in the street below us. There is very little space for all the heavy machines that will be coming up here to dig foundations and move a lot of dirt. One of the things they are doing right away is moving the electric, cable, and phone lines up to a higher position. Right now you can’t get anything bigger than a UPS truck up here and that barely makes it. All the land is back up in the hillsides and nearer the house on this property.

We were pleased to learn today that our architect and contractor were the designers of this years Hampton’s Show house. They brought July/Aug 2012 issue of “Traditional Home Magazine” with them to show us the photos. If you’re near a Library or Barnes & Noble you can take a peek. The Hampton’s Show House is a yearly event on the east end that people can go see for about a month. You pay a fee to tour the house where every room is decorated by a famous or up and coming decorator. The proceeds go to Southampton Hospital. Our contractor built the house that was designed by our architect. I’m so thrilled for them and for us that we got them!!

Anyway, the old part of the house is pretty much gutted inside and the new house will be built  by using that gutted part and attaching a whole new house for James and Dani…and of course Lucy!

I will be here for all the work as well as BIL Bob since he retires at the end of this week. I kept a lot of my fabric and my sewing machine so I have  something to do to take my mind off the chaos for the next couple of months. Aside from the bins that are stored in the POD there remains The Closet of Shame that I can cull from. The kids bought me a Nikon Coolpix  for my birthday a few weeks ago and as soon as I can figure out how to charge and use it I will have photos to show that will be much better…he he.

Wish us luck…here we go