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.