Let the Demolition Begin!

After lunch, I went to Maxine. Fred on the phone, and the crew working on the exterior... already part of the east wall was exposed, with the worker working around the window in an attempt to save it. [cell phone photos...]





Fred came over and shook my hand, asked how everything was going. I smiled, shrugged, and gestured to the house... I don't know, how is everything going? It's all good, he said. He said that a neighbor had come by to make sure he wasn't going to work past 8 at night. I asked if he did normally. Not normally, but there were some times when you're in the middle of something and... you don't want to stop. I asked who had asked, but Fred didn't have a name.

Fred asked how his "guys" worked out on Friday. "One was great... Victor was awesome. The other..."

"Shy (sp?)?"

"Yeah, he seemed to slack and talk on the cell more than actually work."

Fred frowned. "But he did everything, right?"

"Well... what did you tell him to do?"

"I gave him three things to get done." He held up a finger: "Get your stuff to the condo." Another finger: "Get the rest of your stuff into the storage container." A third finger: "Make that trip out to Ventura to get that other thing."

"Well, they got us to the condo. The pod got about half filled. Ventura, Shy balked at, and I didn't push it."

He shook his head and seemed to try not to say anything. Lucky for him, one of his guys called him away, and our neighbor Linda called me over to ask if she could have the screen door... guess she had already asked Fred, as she said he was "a really nice guy."

When Fred and I continued the discussion, he assured me that the course of this will be long with highs and lows, and that he was sorry that Friday was a low, and that he would take care of it.

He then took me around and showed me more, as the mini-frontloader-jackhammer was breaking up the old concrete...










He yelled in my ear, over the noise (and vibrations): "If your neighbors didn't know about your remodel, they know about it now."

Then I brought out the checkbook... and he said, "And you know I'm already into this out of my pocket..."

I looked at him quizically.

"You don't think your first thousand covered all these guys, do you?" He grinned.

I handed him the check. "Well, this should cover today."

"About the next two weeks."

Omigod. Does that mean another 60K in two weeks? Oh, my...

So it goes. And goes. And Jason and I will take over the couch to Grandma B's storage locker later today.

I'll take more pics tomorrow...