Finally the house was torn down on June 5th. We practically held our breath all weekend waiting to see if changes were going to be made again. After so many times being told that "it looks like next week we'll get started" and something would come up it is hard to believe that it finally happened.
Some of the delays included a migratory duck affectionately named Phoenix. Migratory birds are federally protected, so we had to delay demo till she hatched her eggs. She chose the back deck in the direct sun as her nesting spot among the debris of the fire and sat diligently on what we discovered as 3 eggs.
Sadly her two hatchlings didn't make it. Between the extreme hot spell we had and probably the poisons in the nesting material the odds were against her and them.
Then the gas company needed to turn off the gas at the street! Seriously they had only done it at the house initially. Bureaucracy at its best.
Monday night we got confirmation that the demo company had completed staging fencing and silt barriers to prevent stuff from going into the pond and storm drain. So Tuesday morning it was.
We were not even sure what time till that morning and realized that our plan to all be there before heading to work wasn't going to work out because we were told it would start at 10 am.
I got there at 9:30 and they were already chewing away at the house with a giant piece of machinery.
That was truly a surreal morning. Not in a emotional way though. I'm just so relieved that it is finally gone. I can't imagine living near that eyesore for those four months and wondering if it would ever be gone. Don't get me wrong I loved our house, but we are so deep in the redesign that I see the promise of better things, so getting rid of the carcass of that burnt house is a relief.
It was a relief of all of us; Tom, Kyle, Brian (the friend that was with us the night of the fire) and Troy (our host, along with his wife, for our first three displaced weeks) and me happily popped the cork of some champagne and clinked our glasses that evening in celebration before going out for dinner for Tom's birthday.
The slab got cleaned off by Wednesday night. The demo guys were meticulous and have provided a clean slate for true measurements to be made for the designer/architects and for inspectors to determine how much of the foundation can be used and what needs to be replaced. Generally it looks pretty good to me, but there are some things that are broken. Luckily there are no major cracks in the slab that I could see. I'm sure we'll hear about the nitty gritty details in the coming weeks.
With those measurements we'll be able to get more specific about things with the layout of rooms and where windows will fit etc in the design phase, which I imagine will kick up a notch soon.
It's been an exciting week.
End of a chapter. Start of a new chapter.
ReplyDelete