Christmas in July

I'm at home visiting my family and my sister had me open the holiday package that she, like me, was bad about mailing. Jes was with us as the speaker phone on the table.

Erin

Erin is my artsy niece who is studying photography and doing an impressive job of being a college newbie, paying her way and staying firmly on track. Good job! No, great job!

And now there's decking

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A few joists in place

Having the lead builder on vacation while the job is progressing can be stressful... These initial joists got disassembled because the overlap they had at the center beam would cause 1/2 of them to be shifted off the 16" on center line. This would make it hard to locate them for future projects. They'll join end to end now.

First day of lumber assembly

Fonda

26 piers

The Mexican wonder workers dug the holes and poured 26 piers in 3 days. I could have done 1, and been panting and whining. I'm amazed. One of the guys was wearing a Whole Foods t-shirt today which celebrated their 8th year of being on the Fortune top 100 employers list. He said he worked there for a year. He's now working for his father's foundation company and next in line to the concrete dynasty. Now, who's gonna clean up the cement sludge mess in the driveway? (likely me)

On the front, front... the soffit and facia is installed on the front porch.

Fountain is done


I worked on a community project to build and install a drinking fountain with a doggie bowl in a small park in my hood. I carved the stone basin and snuck in an additional small turtle as a tribute to the world's best lady. Mine. The project was funded by Keep Austin Beautiful. Here are some pics.

Turning the corner from demolition to construction

An amazing 4 guys spent yesterday hand-digging 2'x2'x3' holes for the foundation footers in the caliche clay. You can't reasonably walk out the back door any longer because there are so many holes all surrounded with the piles of dirt that came out of them. Mike and his crew have cleared the sheet rock from the bedroom, stripped the roof and covered the roof deck with 30lb tar paper. They also broke up the concrete front walkway and Matt took charge in loading the chunks into the dumpster.

Jes and Matt at the Crown
After being a great help in loading concrete into the dumpster, we went with Matt for a burger and beer.
Thanks Matt!

Sunset on Narragansett Bay

Sent to me by my cousin Tom

Lyla's birthday

Lyla's birthday

Steve at the Crown

Garter snake eating a kicking toad.

Nothing to add, just cool to see.

Milo and his flippin stomach

This is Milo, dog of our FANs (friends and neighbors). He's had a tough early life with some "special doggy" issues. His latest was his stomach. He had his dinner, went off to the back yard and returned sulking. So bad so that a trip to the vet seemed like the correct action. It tuns out the his stomach flipped and got a twist in it, and he need surgery. All better now.

We have a front porch roof

Demolition days

They've removed a lot of the house. The roof of the front porch, the whole back porch and back siding, and half of the upper kitchen cabinets. Basically, they're doing all of the cosmetic demolition. We have to wait for the final permit before any exterior walls can be opened. The picture of the back is from a couple of days ago. I really liked the uncovered deck for the one night that it existed. Now it's a pile of wood that I need to pull the screws and nails from to recycle it into the addition.

Speaking of permits, we're very close, but the city requested a topographical survey yesterday... delay #1