Thursday, July 17, 2008

Little masonry bit, we hardly knew ye.

I went over to Mom's this morning at 9:30, and the crew was hard at work. Julio, the foreman of the crew, gave me the grand tour and introduced me to all the guys. He said the foundation is marvelous and he has never seen concrete quite like it. "We already burned out one drill bit on it," he said, and showed me the blunt end. "That's good concrete. The house isn't going to move ever."


Here's the siding on the east side of the house.


They did a neat job framing in the openings to the crawl space. Julio said that there's an infestation of rodents under the house. Apparently the mice come charging out in fright as the crew works. I told him that Mom has been battling the mice for years, then told him about Dad vs. the Skunk.


Here is the interface between the insulation and the siding.


Ooooo! Ahhhhh! Woodgrain!


This is the remains of a bird's nest on the east side of the front porch. Julio said they removed the bodies of 12 to 15 desiccated birds that had fallen in there over the years.


They had to remove the plywood that Dad installed because it wasn't properly applied and wouldn't be able to hold the insultation and siding. How long has it been since we've seen the porch railing? Is that green paint from the Zia Company?


This is the staging area for the equipment, product, and machinery.


Lots of progress on the front! I took this picture this afternoon.

5 comments:

Shoe said...

That's quick work!

I'm having trouble seeing/imagining the bird nest. Where did the birdies fall, exactly?

Everything is lookin' grand!

Mombert, how 'bout an exterminator next?

RetroMag said...

Izzy, the bird nest: Remember, Jack framed the porch and then put a sheet of plywood on each side, so there was a 4" space between the sheets of plywood. There were gaps between the plywood and the ceiling, and birds would build nests in the corners. I don't know how they attached them. Apparently not too well, because it sounds like the little birdies fell out of the nests or the nests fell down with them in it. What you are seeing now is after the inside plywood was removed.

RetroMag said...

And about the mice: Sure, I could have them exterminated, but others would be right back in the Fall. Mice are a losing battle. Except that with Jack Simpson's help, it seems they no longer get into the house.

MrBears said...

The house is looking really sharp. I think it will look very nice when all is done.

Thanks again for the pictures Pagrs

Chuckbert said...

I, too, thank you, Pagrs, for the pictures. I was looking forward to seeing the siding while we were in town. Shucks. But this is the next best thing.

Poor little birdies. I wonder how many were behind the plywood on the other side of the porch (the side Mom had me try to rescue the chirping bird).

It's looking good, Mom.