Touchdown

Touchdown

I am sitting in my Adirondack chair in the shade staring at the gable end of the house in disbelief. I have sat here and watched the wall be demolished one sledgehammer blow at a time. The whole end of the house is wide open and I can see the interior walls and the staircase. What a strange sight I thought  to myself,  “Well that’s quite an airing out”. However before the crew leaves tonight it will have to be buttoned up with tarps in the off chance of bad weather. The demolition has begun in earnest and will continue until all the wallboard, windows, some partitions, shingles and eventually the roof are removed. Doesn’t seem like there will be much left of the old cottage.

We welcomed Chuck Lacey and his framing crew fresh from a vacation in Myrtle Beach to the construction site on Monday. They brought their own style and swagger to an already energized project. Their large trailer outfitted with precision tools and a refrigerator for quick refreshment is parked out front.  They attacked the problem of sistering new joists to sagging old ones and soon had the building leveled out for the first time in 50 years. By Monday evening they had figured out how to connect the 73 steel hurricane bolts to the new sills. Using a laser to line everything up, Chuck remarked, “Sweet it’s all perfect”. This would allow Kevin and Sylvester’s crew to lower the house without a hitch. 

On Tuesday 1200 feet of 10mil polypropylene vapor barrier was stretched out on the foundation floor and up the walls a few inches. Caulking adhesive and a 22 caliber concrete nailing gun made sure that it was going nowhere.   When the shooting was over Chris and I jumped in with our shovels and metal rakes to help spread out 40 tons of native stone that Paul lifted into the foundation with his CAT.  Eyeing the small pile in the driveway I had sensed that this wouldn’t take long.  So I flew into the pile working furiously to fill the 2 wheelbarrows trying to prove that I could be part of the team effort. However it didn’t take long for me to realize that this was hard work. 

Kevin and 2 assistants from Sylvester’s were already lowering the cottage by the time we arrived at the construction site on Wednesday.  Chris had to scramble quickly out of the car to capture the action. Coming down was a lot faster and less dramatic than going up. Chris and I had actually gotten used to seeing the house 10 feet in the air. We had even propped up a ladder and climbed into it last Saturday to take a peak at our new views. When the cottage finally landed onto the new sills it creaked and then settled looking so solid and connected. It was time to celebrate with Paul.