Monday.  Cold.  Rain.  Sounds like a recipe for a quick update on what’s happening at our old island home.

Last week we finished all of the outstanding little demolition projects – the rear deck is now gone and cleaned up.  Not much to show from there, but we did find a couple of old things under the deck.

That’s kind of cool – but I have no idea how old it is.

While the weather was on our side, we also got the front porch off and cleaned up.

We covered the areas where there is no siding to keep the weather out for the next few weeks – both on the front and the back of the house.

Vanessa’s also been busy tending the compost piles as well – mixing the fresh manure in with all of the yard waste and grass clippings.

The manure is too green to add to our garden at this point – it will need some time to further breakdown before use.

And finally, the last of the chimney was removed.  We had already removed the portion through the roof, the attic and the second floor level.  To remove the remainder on the main floor, we erected some dust containment in our Living Room (future Dining Room)

and opened up the wall to expose the bricks.

Then, like above, remove the chimney brick by brick.  Fortunately, unlike upstairs, we could just toss the bricks out the window as they came down making our cleanup and project quick and painless.

So with that said, today the last dumpster we’ll need for a while has been taken away.  It’s nice to have our driveway back – for the first time in almost four months.  But here we are – everything done to date in anticipation of our house being supported, lifted off the old foundation and having a new foundation built underneath.  Today we rest, because later this week….

That’s right – all of our prep work and anticipation is coming to a head.  Tomorrow we enter a new and exciting phase in our renovations.  For the next three weeks or so, we’ll be focusing on some of the outside projects because our house will be up in the air with excavation and foundation happening below.

So, that wraps up this uncommon beginning-of-the-week update, but safe to say, we’ll have much, much more to report as the next few days and weeks progress.

Excuse us while we go do our happy-dance.

“Please. No dancing.”