Day 98A

Here are a group of photos of the deconstruction...slideshow didn't work out too well...

Day 98

Filled one dumpster yesterday and waiting for delivery of the second. Sure got a lot of stuff holding this building together. A check of the wiring finds that most of it is about as old as I am (and that's old).

Consensus is that we were a bit lucky the place didn't burn up, construction was very good so that it wouldn't fall down.

Weather is cooperating at least until Thursday, rain predicted. Should be able to get a good amount of decon done in that time.

Flooring has to come up so that some more supports can be installed under new floor to support second story.

Keeping Barbie informed in Northern VA with frequent photos from the iPhone via email.

New dumpster arrived and is being filled.

Day 97

"THE" day has finally arrived...

Today the deconstruction of the Cottage begins with removal of the roof and supporting materials...the faux chimney (concrete block) top has been pushed down and shingles coming off...

Been a long time in the preparation but we have perservered and will continue to press forward...

Friday Barb and I ordered the appliances which will be delivered when we get to that point...

Weather forecast looks very promising this week with temps getting into the 60's over the next couple of days...with luck the good weather that's been around for this winter will continue until about April...

Today makes this project seem real, getting out of the planning and into the doing phase... 

Day 93

Major progress...

With the contractor, William Cooke, in attendance the dumpster arrived this mild morning...

The major part of this is that with the dumpster in place close to the house the shingles and roofing will have a place to be deposited. That means that de-construction will begin on Monday, according to the contractor. The weather forecast is good for Monday and Tuesday with temps in the 40's and 50's.

Don't think I'll get excited until I see that first shingle being "chucked" into the dumpster. The long road to this point has been a staggered journey but when turning around the road ahead cannot be much more direct with twists and turns unseen.

My posts should be expected more frequently as progress is made with stimulating visuals and exciting video clips. Aren't we sitting on pins and needles?

More next week.

Day 84

We're back online...
The electric coop came by yesterday afternoon and rerouted the electric power to the temporary pole near the studio...job was done is about 45 minutes...Studio then out of power...
This morning in a light shower the electrical contractor came by and reattached the power to the studio...warming up nicely...
Now the serious de-construction can begin with one eye on the weather and one eye on getting the new addition under roof...
Reflection; here we are in mid-January and...original thoughts were that we could have begun breaking ground just after Thanksgiving but...Never a doubt that the schedule would be elastic, generally stretching in only one direction...longer
Perhaps we can look to the "weather gods" to keep shining on the "mild" winter trend...

Day 81

Inching ever closer...

An important step has been made...one of the last hurdles to cross has been the remove the electric service from the house and attach the lines to a temporary pole near the studio...The Northern Neck Electric Cooperative, who supplies the little electrons, had to send an engineer out on Wednesday to look over the current configuration...After spending about 45 minutes he pronounced the new configuration acceptable and they would send a crew out to re-route the lines...

Not having heard anything by 3:00 pm on Friday I called customer service and was put in touch with a person with the operations department...his first question to me was, "has the temporary pole been inspected by the county?" They would not be able to do anything until the inspection. To my chagrin I offered that no one had said anything about a county inspection...

On background and unbeknownst to me the contractor, who was also here on Wednesday, had talked to the engineer and told him the pole had been inspected. The Ops Center guy checked with the engineer who told him that the inspection was done.

The long story over (but it will get longer) a crew will be here on Monday to re-route the service to the temporary pole.

Sometimes I feel that I'm in a parallel universe and they are operating on "labor savings time."

Because of the important fact that there will be something "visual" on Monday, stay tuned...There will be a post.

Day 72

You have to look very closely but overnight mother nature left a little present on the ground, a trace of snow. Yes, first of the season. Really cold and windy Tuesday but improving each day.

Happy New Year and we are making progress.

Met with the contractor yesterday to discuss moving forward and the schedule. He is currently finishing another job but will begin doing preliminary stuff; getting a dumpster, etc. Demo should begin in two or three weeks.

Made a call to the Electric Coop to get the power switched from the cottage to the "temporary pole" the contractor erected near the studio. 

Also am lining up estimates for the above ground septic system we need.

I'm beginning to settle into the rhythm of this process (I think)...guess it won't be an avalanche, except at times...

Stay tuned...