No Harm Done

I have noticed that quite a few hits on this blog are from people doing searches on asbestos levels, asbestos exposure, and asestos removal.  And people who know what we’re doing with our house have asked if removing asbestos, or even just being around asbestos, is harmful to one’s health.  Well, apparently a steam pipe with asbestos coating exploded in New York’s Grand Central Station and someone at Slate wrote an article and now those questions have answers.  For those of you who don’t want to read the article, I think the answer – in the case of our house and Grand Central Station - is no harm done.

Rest in Peace, Old House

We were blessed to have friends and family around us during the demolition today, but for those who were not able to join us, here is a little slide show to help you experience what the morning was like.  We arrived at the house at 6:40am with coffee and donuts in hand.  Demolition started promptly at 7:30am after our builder helped us bring out the totem pole and the demolition crew found a few treasures that they wanted and we didn’t care for anymore.

We took one last tour through the house and shared some of the history of the family and the house with the crew.  Whether or not they were really interested, I don’t know, but they listened, and I think they knew then just how momentous this occassion was for us.

And then, once all cars and people and valuables were out of the way, we all stepped back and heard the crunch as the digger’s big scoop dropped through the roof of the living room and we knew there was no turning back.  Once through the roof, a hole was made in the floor into the basement.  The digger operator, with incredible finesse and precision, proceeded to pull the house inward and into the basement.  It was then scooped out into the waiting trucks.

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The walls were down by about 9:30am and the basement was empty by 11:30am…  These guys knew what they were doing and made quick work of the whole thing!  They are supposed to be back tomorrow to dig up the concrete slab in back and the walls and floor of the basement.  The driveway will stay for now.

And that is the final goodbye to our old house…
Now we look forward to building our new home!

Bigger Digger

There must be something in the soil of the front lawn, because the weeds and the diggers just keep growing!!  This is the third digger we’ve seen on our property (though perhaps this one can be classified as a backhoe?) in the two weeks – and they’ve grown in size each time.  Maybe I should leave a little pile of money and see what happens…

So, tomorrow we close and Friday we demolish and destruct and smash and smoosh and… I’m getting a little carried away…  We’ll be at the house bright and early – 6:30AM!! – with coffee and donuts to give us a nutritious (ha!) start to the day – sugar and adrenaline and excitement, oh my!  We’ve invited all our nearest and dearest (and those we think would just like to see it) and we’ll see what kind of crowd we have.  It should be interesting, especially because we seem to be in the middle of monsoon season.

Six Days

So, the plan is in six days – Friday the 20th of July – to say goodbye to the old house.  We have almost everything we want out of the house (and if we lost it now, we wouldn’t really miss it) and everything is lined up.

We are scheduled to close on our loan next Thursday morning, with demolition to follow on Friday morning.  We are going out of town for a week and thought we’d have to wait for demolition until we got home, but the builder said the excavator is on standby and just waiting for the go-ahead.  And it looks like it to see the front lawn!  So, imagine how relaxing our vacation will be knowing we have one less house to worry about.  And it will give a us a bit of time to let it sink in, as it will also be a bit sad and surreal to see it go…

But I won’t feel that bad – maybe they’ll let me take the first swing with that big backhoe bucket!  (And then I’ll probably bawl my eyes out…)

Check out the new wheels!

So I pulled up to the house yesterday to put out the recycling (there wasn’t enough room at the curb and I knew my little junk man would be back) and what do I see?  A couple new sets of wheels!  This is almost as good as I imagine it would be to walk out the front door on a 16th birthday and see a cherry red convertible with a big bow sitting in the driveway, Dad dangling the keys!

As tempted as I was to go take a seat in the bobcat, I held myself back.  Maybe they’ll let me climb up in the backhoe on demolition day and give the bucket a quick swing against the house.  Or maybe I’ll just stay safely across the street with my margarita.

Anyway, I suspect these fine pieces of equipment are here not for demolition, but to dig up the street and do the water disconnect.  It’s progress one way or another – and I’m thrilled to see it!

Alexander Beetle

I had a little beetle
So that beetle was his name
And I called him Alexander
And he answered just the same…

I had to do a little research and find that beetle…  It is a Stag Beetle.  Apparently they are a bit rare around here but love rotting wood.  That makes me feel great.  I hope he enjoys his new home underground, because lovely as he was, I won’t cry if we don’t meet face-to-face again.

Dishwasher Redo

In an attempt to empty the house, my husband did a dishwasher redo with the upstairs fridge… dragged it across the living room, out the front door, across the front porch, and onto the edge of the steps before giving it the old heave ho.  I don’t quite get it, but that is a great motivator for him to get other things done.  And there are plenty of things…

When the builder was over on Tuesday, he said we need to get everything out of the basement.  We had already moved up the fridge and freezer (as posted previously) and today we moved up three four-drawer filing cabinets, a ton of trash, and a few things we want to keep. 

And a beetle that looked like a transplant from the Amazon.  I wish I took a picture or could find an accurate representation, but the sucker was huge.  It was about two inches long and had these big pincers on the front of his face – and two beady eyes with which he stared at me with obvious hunger.  Not being a fan of killing anything, much less anything that crunches, I put him on the ground, where he quickly burrowed (probably to eat more, rest, and spring up on some unsuspecting neighborhood cat).

Fortunately, when we thought we’d run out of curb space, a little man in a box truck drove by looking for “treasure.”  He took a pail of stuff I thought no one would ever want, as well as the fridge and the freezer – which he loaded by himself into his truck without a dolly or lift.  Go figure when it took three of us to get it out of the basement!

Overall, today was a very successful day full of progress and partnership.  We managed to remove a lot of trash and keep our spirits up.  Of course the visit by the ice cream truck didn’t hurt either!