All wrapped up!

Thanksgiving Morning we decided to wander around our home. The roofers are done roofing and the framers are done framing. The new parts of our home are almost all wrapped up in Tyvek. We don't have our new backdoor yet so the opening for the new backdoor is all Tyvek-ed up.

We went upstairs and looked around -- it's a much better view than the other night when all we could do was walk around with a flashlight. We admit, it still needs a bit more work, but it is getting there :-)

Our current 2nd bedroom is currently known as Daphne's room. Daphne was one of our many cats and she did not play well with others so for awhile, she had her own room. She eventually had free roam of our home but at night, we would tell her to "go to your room" and she would. She was a sweet cat but really needed to be in a single cat home, not living with 3 other kitties.

Anyway, the backwall of Daphne's room will come down and join the 14 foot addition to become part of Dad's room. I'm peeking through the window that is currently on the backwall of Daphne's room.

The other picture with the huge square of Tyvek and the 2 windows is my new crop room. The huge square of Tyvek will become a double pane door when it comes in. My new crop room is huge! I used to have all my workshop crop space upstairs but this room will be much better since there are no sloping ceilings AND it is on the first floor.

We're hoping for sheetrock by Christmas!

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

We went outside yesterday afternoon and watched the guys raise the walls on our back addition. It was just like the barn raising in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers without the pretty dresses, bright shirts and music :-) Thankfully there was no brawl either so our walls are still standing.

It's one thing to see a drawing and another thing to see it for real. I love the curve of the new overhang. I know if Ed could, he would put in a round door so we could have a hobbit entrance.

We have roof shingles now! These pictures were taken earlier in the day before the roofers were done but we now have roof shingles.

Last night we also got to walk around the upstairs and the addition for the first time. It was neat to see the walls in place and we're already re-arranging a few. Some of the windows will change as well. It's really beginning to look like a home again! At least from the outside -- the inside is a mess with almost everything on the floor and no real furniture.

Our new addition in back is big enough for us to have Thanksgiving Dinner in ... next year that is unless everyone wants to sit on the floor and freeze!

Have a Happy Gobble Gobble Day!

Moving right along...

Okay, it's not quite done but that's basically it. We will get a wider front door though since it is a little smaller than standard.It's hard to believe how much they've done in one week! And yes, there will be windows in front.

And our new basement now has a ceiling and my new crop room/dining room now has a floor. Next step, walls :-) !

Trying to beat the rain...

It's a somewhat cloudy day today and even more noisier than ever before! Two vanfuls of guys showed up this morning armed with lots and lots of tools. They're tackling the house trying to get it framed in and roofed by this afternoon--it's supposed to rain!
And we say goodbye to our little front porch today. It's going away -- we'll have an overhang in the future but no more closed in itsy, bitsy front porch that served as a great "airlock" to make sure no kitties escaped.

The cats are not happy at all. Harrison is handling it a lot better than Olivia but even that's not saying much. When they get scared, Harrison usually heads upstairs and Olivia goes under the sofa. There's no more upstairs to get to since it is boarded up at the top of the stairs and tarped up at the bottom so Harrison has been joining Olivia under the sofa. Well, the sofa went into the POD on Saturday and Olivia ran under the bed. That didn't help either since shortly after the sofa left, so did the bed. Lee built a little fort for them out of sofa cushions and Olivia hid there for a little bit but I dismantled the fort on Sunday in an effort to clear out more stuff. So now Olivia is hiding in the closet and Harrison is hanging out with me in the kitchen.

A Quiet Day

There has been a lot of noise coming from upstairs from Wednesday to Saturday. It's Sunday now and quiet for the first time in days -- except for Ava's barking.
Ava and Ed poked their heads through the backslider -- no walking forward though since it's about a 14 foot drop to the new basement floor.
It's been freezing out -- unusually cold for November and they are trying to get the upstairs closed up as quickly as possible. But it's also been really sunny out which made for great shadow shots of the guys upstairs against our neighbor's shed.

By Friday evening, we had walls upstairs! I didn't even realize it until they told me when they were getting ready to leave. It was really really windy Friday night and the tarp would flap really loudly in the wind -- I was afraid the whole second floor might just blow away.

By afternoon on Saturday, the 2nd floor was partially closed up.

And by the end of the day, we were tarped up but it looks like we have our attic now too!

If it would just warm up a little bit -- it's about 24 degrees in the morning and it doesn't get much warmer during the day!

News from Anita

After raising two big black lab boys, I wanted to try a little yellow lab girl so we put in our request to the Seeing Eye and in December 2006, Anita arrived at our home. She was tiny and she cried a lot -- I slept on the floor with her for the first few days and for the first month or so gave her a t-shirt of mine to sleep with to quiet her down in the middle of the night. She was a sweetie. I called her my petite puppy because she topped out at about 55 pounds while Lee called her the pooper scooper -- I'll let you figure out how she got that nickname.
We got a letter from The Seeing Eye on Friday -- Miss Anita is doing very well and we've been invited to her Town Walk. If all goes well, the Town Walk is the last time we will see her. We'll walk about a half block behind Anita and her trainer while Anita "struts her stuff". She won't even know we're there since we're not allowed to go near her so we just get to send her hugs from afar.
It's heart breaking to raise a puppy for someone else. We want to be proud parents and hope they graduate and go change the life of a sight impaired person forever but on the other hand, part of us hopes they will return to us. If they don't make it through school, we are offered the puppy back first and of course, we would take our pup back.
But as Ed says there is a bright side for Anita graduating -- now we have room for another puppy. People ask us all the time how can we do this, part with a puppy that we raised and loved for over a year -- I tell them I call it my "puppy trade-in program". But in reality it is very hard when our pups return to TSE. The best you can hope for is another little puppy to distract you from missing the one that just left.
We're hoping Anita's Town Walk will be within a week or two.

Tut Tut...it looks like snow...

It's Friday and it's hard to believe that on Tuesday we had a top half to our home.
It's supposed to snow today and they are predicting rain for early next week--isn't that just wonderful?
It's really noisy and if I could fit under the sofa, I'd probably join Olivia and Harrison (kitties) under there.
I think by the end of today we may be able to walk out the kitchen slider onto the new floor/ceiling that will be over the new basement.

We can rebuild him...we have the technology...

Okay, in reality I've always thought of our home as a she so I guess it really is "we can rebuild her...we have the money...or rather the home equity loan..."
By afternoon, all remnants of the original 2nd floor were pretty much gone and they started laying the beams for the new 2nd floor. Besides all the hammering, it occasionally sounds like and feels like they are tossing weights or more likely, huge pieces of lumber around. The whole house shakes and we now have lots of nail pops on the first floor as well as a new crack in the living room ceiling. There's also a small hunk of wall missing from the bedroom. But that's okay because they'll fix it all and make it look brand new -- well, most of it actually will be brand new.
It's dark out now and they are pulling a tarp over the house.

In case you're wondering where the 4 legged household members are...Ava went to another puppyraiser's home for a few days -- we didn't think she would like the noise. Olivia (12 year old kitty) spent all day under the sofa and Harrison (8 year old kitty) spent part of the day under the sofa and the rest of the day wandering cautiously around the 1st floor.
And I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier, Trinity (terrier/mutt) went back to Maryland -- she definitely would not have liked all the noise.

They are hoping to start framing the house soon and maybe by Wednesday it will be all closed in! WOW!

It's raining house...

Most of the 2nd floor is gone except for one sidewall.

The house is all tarped up but it is still really cold. Can't wait to see that gas bill!

We may have lost our second floor but we now have a Porta John on the front lawn too -- yippee!

And they filled the dumpter in one day so we're swapping our filled one for a nice empty one -- maybe the next dumpster will be red -- at least it will be festive with the upcoming holidays :-)

The Point of No Return

I came home from the Post Office this morning and there was a van out front with a bunch of guys armed with tools. Look at what they did by lunch time.
The tarp covering the back of the house is gone and so is part of our roof!

It looks like we were hit with a meteor shower! The house is rattling with chain saws and there is a lot of noise coming from upstairs.

Dumpster and Wood

There is now a dumpster on the left side of the lawn -- that's to artistically balance the POD on the right side. Our driveway is now filled with loads of lumber. Next thing...a Porta Potty -- can't wait for that lovely addition!

Ava says...where is my pink vest with purple flowers?

Monday night we went to Monmouth Mall. Ava was being tested -- it's a new Seeing Eye thing. They are testing pups over 6 months of age and if they pass the test, they get a Seeing Eye puppy vest! Of course, Ava made us so proud and she looks so sharp in her new vest. She really wanted a pink one with purple flowers but they only had Seeing Eye green.

We have cement!

By the end of last week, the walls of our new basement were done and there was plastic sheeting making the basement floor ready for cement.

Bright and early Monday morning, the cement truck arrived and it pooped out cement into a wheelbarrow which the guys then spread over the floor. It really kind of reminded me of globs of elephant poop. They spent the day spreading it out -- it really looks much nicer now than in the picture.

We spent the weekend clearing out the rest of the attic and by Sunday evening it was empty enough for Ava to run around and play fetch! She hasn't had a backyard to run around in a few weeks now and of course we can't let her off leash in the front yard so fetch has been very limited to extremely short throws in the living room where it isn't really safe since we have so much stuff all over the place.

She had a great time running around upstairs.

And of course we had to take silly pictures. The attic looks so empty with nothing up there and it echoes too.

Sometime this week, the 2nd floor comes off and that will be our final farewell to our little cape cod.

Excuse me...that's mine

It's a good thing she likes him!

Just another brick in the wall...

Hey--the wall is at ground level now! It's just a few more rows until they reach our sliding glass door--yippee!
At some point the bilco doors will go away and that will the opening between the new basement and the old basement. The bilco doors look like an elevator shaft to nowhere.
It's been sunny and it should be sunny the rest of the week so the sides of the tarp came down giving the guys more light to see what they are doing down there.

It's still windy though and the tarp billows in the wind.
And I think we've come to a final decision on siding, shutters and shingles!

Sunny Days...

It's a sunny Sunday morning.

We have half a basement wall--the guys were here on Saturday building it.

The backyard is still tarped up...hopefully the mud will dry up at some point!

Rain rain go away

It's been raining so there is a huge tarp over the back of the house and the hole that is slowly transforming into our new basement. Of course, last week's weather was beautiful for the whole week and this week it is drizzle and cloudy skies--typical fall weather.

It's been really cute to watch Ava and Harrison check out what's going on. Ava says she just wants to play with the contractors and help them dig. Harrison says he's a cat and can easily make the 12 foot jump to the ground.

Isn't it just oh so pretty? The POD takes up most of the front and now there are flats of cinder blocks and bags of cement. The back looks like we are having some sort of bizarre carnival or mud festival.

And sometime within the next week we're supposed to pick out colors for our shutters, shingles and siding. We thought we had it picked until we saw what it would look like on actual homes. One other thing I learned is that the more people you ask, the harder it is to decide. Deciding by committee definitely is not working!

On the plus side, our crape myrtle in the front corner of our house is showing it's beautiful fall colors and our roses are still blooming.

Still Studly...8 Litters Later

We received another picture from Harley with his newest ladyfriend, Vesey. Unfortunately, he must be very tired up at The Seeing Eye Breeding Center since there were no "stud stats" about the number of boys/girls or the total number of pups in the litter. I'm hoping to find out the info at some point.

But here's what he had to write...
Dear Family,
Here is a picture of Vesey & our pups. This is my 8th litter.
People say they look alot like their dad! I have also heard that Vesey is a very good mom to our kids.
Hope all is well.
Take care,
Harley

Playing in the dirt...

Can you see the fluorescent orange line spraypainted into the grass? The diggers were here before 8am on Monday morning ready to play in the dirt. It was neat to watch as the hole was dug for the new basement. They dug about half of it on Monday.

Our nephew lives in Salt Lake so we don't see him very often. We were out there one year when he was about 4 years old and at the time he loved bulldozers, backhoes and all types of huge construction equipment. His favorite videos were about this guy Bob -- no, not the cartoon Bob the Builder -- but this guy named Bob who was sometimes a builder, fireman, policeman, etc... When we were visiting, our nephew really wanted us to watch the Bob video on construction with him-- he kept asking us Wanna Watch Bob? We'd watch for a half hour and then it was back to Wanna Watch Bob? After the third time, we finally said no because those videos were just pure torture! :-)

Later on in the day, Harrison finally came out to see what was making all the noise.

By Tuesday evening, the diggers were done. The forecast is for rain so they put a huge tarp over the pit. Ed wanted to check out the view from the bilco doors (which will go away) and Matt went into the pit. I think they dug 8 feet or more down. There is the drainage ditch for the drain pipes and a deeper part for the new sump pump. And there is dirt everywhere! Thankfully we never did replace the grass which was on our to do list.

Ava asks...where's my deck???

Ava doesn't understand why she can't go out the back slider anymore. She keeps knocking on the glass to go outside. Of course, it probably isn't safe for her to run around the backyard anyway. We had to take this picture and of course, I hung onto Ava because I'm pretty sure she would have just jumped.

A VIPP :-) and Farewell to Our Back Deck :-( !

On Wednesday afternoon, I got the phone call we've been anxiously waiting for. The township finally issued us a permit. First thing Thursday morning I went to pick it up and I taped that yellow piece of paper in our front bedroom window. Of course that window will be gone in a few weeks and that will no longer be our bedroom so in a few weeks, that piece of paper will be taped to our new den window!

The first thing to go is our backdeck. We love our deck -- it came with the house and it was built by the guy that used to live across the street. Of course it was built without permits and had a wheelchair ramp that definitely was not to code since no person in a wheelchair could have made that incline. But kids and puppies loved running up and down that ramp. A few years ago, we tore the ramp out and replaced it with steps. I loved to sit on the steps in the afternoon sun while our Seeing Eye pup ran around the yard and I read a book.

Bright and early Friday morning, the contractors arrived. It took less than two hours to take down most of the deck. It's a good thing our neighbor hired the same contractor because we don't have a dumpster yet so all our deck debris went into his dumpster.

Ava really wanted to go out and play with the contractors. The cats were freaked out by all the noise -- the initial chain saws vibrated throughout the house. It's a good thing everything hanging on the walls was already packed.

Our new first floor addition will go out 14 feet back which is most of the deck. We're putting in a full basement under the addition. And sadly it looks like we will be losing our bilco doors -- no more outside access to our basement :-(

We have a backhoe! Ava has been helping out with digging the new foundation by digging holes in the backyard. Unfortunately she hasn't seen the plans so she is digging in the wrong places. She was very excited to see the backhoe and wanted to drive it into the backyard but we told her the fence had to come down first.

A note from Anita!

While I was in Maryland for the Marine Corps Marathon, we got a postcard from Anita! She's been at The Seeing Eye since May 29th. We did get the standard notes saying she had passed her medical tests and was being placed with a trainer, but I guess she's just been having too much fun to send us a personal note until now. Or maybe it just took her this long to learn how to write :-)
We were very excited to hear from her...
Hello everyone!
Things here at TSE are going great. Denise says I'm making great progress. I still have a little trouble with loud trucks from behind but we are working on it. Denise loves me. She tells me how cute I am everyday! She also says I'm really smart, and very pleasant to work with! Of course that's no surprise to you! Training is tough stuff, but I like it! The kennels are fun. I have lots of friends. I have a really cute roommate. He's a black lab, his name is Toby. All my friends here are fun, I sometimes play with the biggest shepherd in the yard too! They put me on a diet! They think I'm a little chunky! The food's not bad. All else is great. Lots of licks!
Love, your puppy, Anita & Denise

We're looking forward to hearing from her again!

PS The puppy picture is the picture that made her famous -- I'll blog that later. The picture to the left was taken in Vermont and the picture to the right is the last picture I have of her -- it's the day she went back to TSE and it's taken in front of TSE van.