It always gets worse before it gets better. Right?

We had a busy day here today, folks. First, I had the day off because my parents were coming to pick up the boys for their annual Camp Mim and Pip, which my brave parents do the first week of August every year. I leave tomorrow on a week-long trip to Vancouver for a conference, so the boys headed to Mim and Pip's house to enjoy a week of fun and craziness.

Our morning together started out with our Dumpster being delivered at 8am on the dot. Too bad we'd asked to have it dropped off between 4pm and 5pm.



Then the excavation/masonry crew showed up. We started out the morning with the project looking like this:


The crew worked gracefully around the Dumpster that was blocking the dump truck's access to the driveway. The truck driver, Al, as his name turns out to be, was very gracious about it and said they deal with tight spaces all the time. He hauled the dirt out of the back yard one load at a time with a bucket loader. And midmorning he took a quick break and took the boys for a spin inside its cab. I really wish I could've gotten a photo of that experience, but it was an impromptu thing and I didn't have time to run inside and grab the camera. Trust me when I say they had a blast.

Then Mim and Pip and Aunt Malinda showed up, and we came inside to have lunch. Just a quick lunch since Mom and Dad wanted to get on the road back home so they'd miss the heaviest traffic on the PA turnpike around rushhour. Once they had packed up and left, the noisiest part of the job started: concrete saws cutting through the exposed foundation of our house to finish carving out the space for our new basement. Malinda and I had to leave the house because of the overwhelming noise and smell of gasoline. Whew! We ran some errands to stay out of the house and get ready for tomorrow's flight to Vancouver. She gets to be a tourist while I work. Lucky her.

The crew worked hard and made lots of noise, and ultimately their work led to this:


Let's take a closer look:

That's our gas furnace you can see off to the left in the hole. That is our crawl space fully exposed to the elements. And somehow we actually meant for that to happen.

Don't worry; Ken and the neighbors tarped it so critters can't get into the house overnight, but it is quite a mess out there and there is a HOLE IN MY HOUSE. And this we call progress.

This weekend is a big work weekend for Ken and a bunch of buddies he recruited as workers. With luck (I say that with a touch of sarcasm), they'll get the roof of the lower side of the house ripped off so when the lumber and trusses arrive next week (we hope, we hope--the trusses have gotten delayed on the production line) he can have another work weekend where he and the guys frame out the new master suite and kitchen. Malinda and I will be here Thurs night after arriving home from Vancouver, but we will skedaddle on Friday sometime, and I will spend next weekend at my parents' house with the boys so we can miss out on all the noisy, messy fun.

Since I leave first thing tomorrow for Vancouver, the blog might not get updated daily, but Ken will try to send me pictures so I can do my best while away from home. Stay tuned!