This Old House

Here is the rotting siding on the back exterior wall of the house we bought in July of 2005. Before we bought the house, we asked the contractor we'd worked with on our previous house to come have a look and let us know if we were being dumb. "This is a good house" he said "I'd buy it, but the siding will have to be replaced". Thinking we had the thing sewn up, Jeremiah innocently wandered off. When he returned, John, our contractor, and I were busy discussing exactly what to do with the house since, as I had suggested, we might as well just rip out the entire wall and put on more house. This was before we'd even signed the contract. I thought Jeremiah handled the whole thing pretty well, especially since, the next time he checked in, we were in the kitchen, talking about how I wanted to rip the whole room out and re-do it. Here we are, just over 2 and 1/2 years later, doing exactly those things. We are putting on a little master suite, a screened porch and redoing the odious kitchen. I am simultaneously thrilled and terrified. Were I not still suffering from the effects of the sinus infection, I'd pause now to put my head between my knees. Too late for panic, though! We've knocked down structures and regraded. Here's the old:


And here's the current state of things. The slab for the addition would've been poured on Thursday, but the concrete guy has the flu.



We're pretty excited about all the changes around here. I hope the concrete guy recovers rapidly, though, because no amount of wiping of Lola's paws gets that mud off them. The place is disgusting.