Shab-busters get started

Hello, friends,

Once again I want to thank you for your interest. When anything takes this much of some people's resources of time, money and soul, it's pleasant to know that, on some level, other people think it might be worthwhile.

You have seen the shabbiness, and now things are going to get better. The River House renovation is what we call a gut-rehab--isn't that an ugly phrase? Evocative, though, of what the old place is going through...
Photo #1: we're just getting started. It's July 7th and this is the south side. Can you see the stone wall in front? That was the foundation on that side! Shaky to say the least. You see the lower south wall is ripped out; the upper part will be torn off, too, after a while. The south wall is where the radical changes will take place.

Next one shows more guts spilling, that old stone wall strewn--good flat stones, though, wealth of a sort: we'll use them for garden paths. And, see, the house now is supported by a big steel beam, and the big gap that will become our basement yawns below it--I can imagine a fair amount of nervousness on the house's part. Unlike at Dragonback, the digging was a breeze, no rocks and soft, pliable dirt. Service with a smile from the Ice Age, which left those soft deposits in mounds dotting the valley.

#3 Here is the kitchen screen door, overlooking another chasm where the east porch once was. The shab-busters (that's us) called for the elimination of that porch, too, except for its salvageable roof. Porch'll get rebuilt. It was where we ate, on weekends all May and June, while reclaiming the farmland. (That one word, reclaiming, encapsulates a world of sweat and flowers and excitement.) It was strange to find our outdoor kitchen/dining room reduced to a six-foot pit. This was the period when you couldn't actually get into the house using any door. Board-ramps over chasms were the rule.


#4: The view south, looking out from about where the kitchen island will be, through what will be the sunspace. What's left of the old house? Not much at this end. This end didn't deserve preservation. Good riddance. How satisfying to see, instead, the wide opening to the sun and the land beyond. The builders got to this point in about a week, amazingly quickly.Since this blog allows only four pictures here, I have created a little album for you to see....And will write again pretty soon. Now I have momentum.

Love, Josie