Digging In!

It's always a good sign when the heavy equipment shows up!

They've started digging the foundation hole- the boys loved watching from the window!

Timber- taking down a dead tree

There's been a pine tree next to the Well House that we've been keeping our eyes on.  At least half of it's branches were dead, and the others weren't looking so great either.

You can kind of see a part of it on the left side of this old photo- although you can't see the whole thing (and it's half-deadness), you can see how close it is to the well house roof.

We were worried that if it fell down, it would damage the slate roof (that would be an unneeded expense!)  But if it was able to be saved, we wanted to keep it.  So, we trimmed it up, and spent two years watching & waiting for it to perk up.  We've finally decided it was time to take it down.

Mike started this while I was at work, and forgot to take a before photo... so that's why we have the old photo above!

When I arrived home (and ran to get the camera), it was already down...

I was relieved that Mike remembered to move the bird bath & iron bench that we had out there.
The top of the tree came mighty close to the picket fence!

Next spring we'll work on shaping up the flower beds around there.  I think I'd like to put window boxes on the four windows, or at least the two in front.

Under the Back Porch

One of my favorite parts of the demolition is getting to see what's uncovered!

As soon as the demo guys left, Mike & I were out there checking it out!

I am so in love with the stone foundation!  I found it interesting that there were little support walls made out of stone too.  The support wall on the left was made of cement- obviously a later fix.

There was a pile of dirt and rocks that we had fun sifting through.

We put the big rocks aside to use for little garden walls (like we did for my picking garden).

The rocks were really heavy, so Mike got the tractor out to move them.

We were careful to watch for any bits of pottery- and were very excited when we found some!

The terra cotta flower pot wasn't anything great- it probably got kicked under the porch at some point.  

But the little bowl was really neat

It had a "Luxembourg" stamp on the bottom.

 We also found some little pieces of broken dishes.  Some had leaf patterns & flowers.

My favorite of these is the black & gray triangular piece on the bottom.  

It's hard to make out the pattern in the photo, but it has little flowers.

I am very excited to see if we find more when they excavate for the foundation- would love to find an old bottle or something like that!

Demolition

I'm so excited to finally be posting about this project moving forward!  It's been rather quiet on this blog, but we've been doing some little projects through the winter- I was just less than motivated to write them up.  I'll fill you in on those updates, in between the bigger posts about the addition progress!

The first step of getting started on our addition was to rip off the back porch.

Within a few hours, we went from this...

Outside

Inside

To this:

We plan to use the windows that were in the back porch to replace some that are needing repair (or we just don't like!) in the workshop.  I also hope to use one or two for a crafty project :)

So, each window was carefully removed and stored away in a barn.

(I'm sure the work men LOVED that requirement!)

That left us with a pile like this...

...which will be going into a dumpster, which will arrive soon. 

We marked out the place for them to drop it in the driveway.  

This placement will allow us to still drive around it.

Now we have to get used to going in & out of the front door, and taking the dog out using his leash (it had been so nice just letting him run out the back door all winter!)

Adding On- the beginning!

It's officially begun- the building of the addition!

After MANY delays, the project is finally underway!

We're adding on a new kitchen, butler's pantry & half bath downstairs, as well as a master bath, master  closet & laundry room upstairs!  

The revised building plans can be viewed here.

The first step is tearing off the back porch...

I'll have some demo photos later in the week!