It's The End Of The Garage As We Know It (And We Feel Fine)

The power company still hasn't been out to disconnect the meter from the house. Our contractor has been going back and forth with them all week, and is frustrated with their pokey-joe "we'll get there when we're good and ready" attitude. Now the storm has pushed us off their schedule until at least next week, because so many houses lost power, including -- wait for it -- our house. We're in the unique situation of having to wait for the power to come back on, so they can disconnect it. Ah, the irony!

I went out to the house this morning and found the power out and no work being done. I took Dad over this afternoon to see our fallen tree and discovered: progress! They cut the garage away from the house with a sawzall. Dad approved and said that's exactly what Grampa Al would have done! I think Al would have taken it down shingle by shingle, board by board and saved every nail, but that's just me. It took them two and a half hours to take it down and get one dump truck filled (a MACK truck! the first word Jake ever read). They're coming back tomorrow (a Saturday -I Love These Guys!) to finish cleaning up. Instead of waiting for the power company to move the meter, they just cut around it and covered it up for the weekend. The pictures are self-explanatory, and kinda cool.

Stormy Morning

Iwas going to put up some pictures of the electrical work they've started (digging a trench, temporary box, etc.), but we were interrupted by a storm this morning. It wasn't raining when I took Jeffy to Kindergarten camp at school @ 8:30, and at, oh, 8:31(!) the rain was coming down in sheets, sideways. Jake and I managed to get to Janna's house in town, but the power was already out and winds were up over 60 mph. They called a tornado warning at 9:00, but I'm not sure if it was an actual tornado or just straightline winds. Not that it makes much difference, there isn't a house in town without trees down. So many roads are blocked by trees that we were "stuck" in town until I managed to backtrack my way out to school again (no trees out there). Janna had a tree snap right in half in her backyard, and more branches land on power lines in front. That seems to be the story all over town. The good news is, it's only trees, not houses!

These pictures are from our front yard. We only lost one tree, snapped off about 8 feet up, and one large branch that seems hung up on another tree. We're so glad that's all! Our "split" tree, the one that was hit by lightning twenty years ago, is still standing, go figure. It was almost split in two during that tornado that knocked over the original garage sometime in the '80s. Grampa Al, resourceful guy that he was, tied it together with a chain. The chain is still there, and the two halves of the tree actually healed together. A couple of years ago we thought that when the wind blew just right, you could see through the crack in the tree, and we were planning on taking it down. Well, you can definitely see through it now! I get a kick out of the fact that it's Still Standing instead of Laying Across The Garage -- thank you, Grampa!
















Closeup of the split tree.


















I call this one "Chairs, Trash Cans, and Wet Dog".

The silo is still standing, thank goodness!

Looking for a Theme Song

Jacob helped me pack up clothes and things to take to Mikey's house this morning. He was as helpful as an 8-year-old who's been bribed with five dollars can be, which is quite a lot, actually. The contractor picked up a key to the house today; they'll start disconnecting utitilies tomorrow. Not much news today, so it's a great time to ask for: Theme Song Nominations. The leader so far is "Raise The Roof" with 2 votes. Obviously we need more ideas. Help!

Green Light!

It's official! The (de)struction crew arrives next week to take off the single-car garage and the porch, since they can't lift it with the house. Mike has already been tearing off siding and saving it (when you live on the farm, you save everything. It's a rule.) Then they'll disconnect the utilities, and we'll have to move out. They're hoping to have the house "lifted" on Friday, August 1st. It's actually staying in one spot, but the new foundation will be two feet lower (now you get the title!) than it is now, so my dad will be able to stand up in the basement and not knock his head on the joists. I just want dry weather, and to get back in the house before school starts.

Reason #2

Looking down the stairs to the basement. The camera flash actually makes this look much brighter and friendlier than it actually is.

Wouldn't you love to come down here during a tornado warning? The brick is in front of the fieldstone foundation, and was apparently put in to stop this wall from caving in. It's not working.

The door between basement rooms. The ceiling is 6 feet high. One room has a (broken) cement floor, and the other has dirt. We (meaning Mike again, I Don't Go Down There) added drainage pipe and gravel the year after we moved in, right after our first big rain put out the pilot light on the water heater.

Looking into the crawl space under the kitchen.

Inside the crawl space. This is why plumbers make so much money. Mike and one of his buddies put the insulation in the "ceiling". They had to slide in on their backs, and when Mike turned to his side, he found himself face-to-face with a dead rat. Eeeeeewwww! He says it was more than one, but they were so old they were hard to identify. Which is strangely comforting, 'cuz if they'd been "fresh" I would be living in town by now.

Reason #1

Here is the outside door to the basement. When I was a kid, I thought it was so cool that Grampa's house has a "cellar door" just like Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ. Now I know better. Grampa Al put this on after he tore off the north wing of the house (with a HANDSAW -- see, I come by this naturally). That was in the early 1980's, I believe (check with your local Ring Family Historian on that). Obviously, no one has touched it since. The orange seeping out of the corners is Mike's desperate attempt to slow down the wind, mice, and other critters (don't ask) that try to get into the basement (Sorry, Mikeys!) Spray Foam, don't live in an old house without it!

Are You Crazy??

In a word, yes. We've been thinking about fixing the house foundation ever since, well, ever since we moved in 9 years ago. We've done plenty of "big" things to the house, but a new foundation was always just a funny idea, not reality. Oh, and when I say "we", I mean Mike. So far he has:
torn out 3 ceilings,
removed 1 chimney (from the center of a bedroom),
pulled 6 rooms of old carpet,
2 rooms of nasty shag carpet,
took out 1 scary toilet under the stairs, then
took out the stairs,
removed and replaced all the kitchen cabinets,
took down lots and lots of old plaster,
breathed in lots of old mousy poo,
re-caulked, re-spray-foamed, and reinsulated lots of walls,
insulated under the kitchen by crawling into the 3-ft. high space under it,
hung new drywall,
invented 3 new ways to avoid taping the drywall (his least favorite job),
replaced pipes and light fixtures and 2 more toilets,
and generally got very tired.
My job, of course, is to supervise, and say "There you go!" And brainstorm new things to work on before the old projects are finished.
We knew living in this house would be a big project, but one new septic system, one new roof, a new boiler, and 10 new windows later, we've decided to add one more: a new basement! Yeah, we're crazy.