Well, it's been a busy weekend here. The house is undergoing a metamorphosis.

Here is our house on google maps. Right now, you can see what it looked like:



So, here we go. We've been working on getting rid of that ugly grey shingling, and redoing the entire outside of the house. Curb appeal, you know. We've been working on it for a while, but made a push to finish stage 1 this weekend.

First off all, here of one of the many trash heaps we have collected in the process:




Next, here are some example of what that stuff was hiding (wish we had known when we bought the house):

1. Really top-notch wiring job for the porch light:



2. Great accent -- ripping of the drip cap, so that the ugly grey covering can fit on the house snugly:


3. And completely rotten window frames. Nice.


Anyway, we were finishing up getting off all of the shingling and the side balcony this weekend, among other things.

One of the last bits of shingle siding ("insulbrick"):


Alley side of the house on Saturday morning:


Uncle Dan working on the balcony:




More progress:


And now its gone:


The door to nowhere.


The finished product, from further down the alley:


Of course, there are three more sides of of the house, each with 2 floors, not to mention the attic.

A rooftop consultation:


An Dan climbing around on the roof:




Anyway, by end of day Saturday, we were done with the first stage of the outside of the house.

We'll take a moment to mourn our tree that received the orange mark of death:


So, a full day of work on Saturday. Time to play. Ketsale's (next door) third birthday:

Games first:



Ketsale in a cake coma:


That's what too much cake will do, I guess.



Anyway, woke up Sunday with nothing to do. What the hell, lets rip out the kitchen wall.

First, use a low quality stud finder. :)



Once you've found the low-quality stud, have him tear the call out with his bear hands:


Actually, first step was to put up a LOT of plastic, and then have Dan go to work with a sawzall.



Eventually we got out the part we wanted out, without destroying the house.




Not bad for a weekend. Time to go to sleep though.