Our Home

Have you ever been involved in a really big project where before and after pictures would have been excellent to have for years to come?  Are any of you like me and think of what a great idea it WOULD have been to take those pictures the day the project was completed?  This is normally how things work in my world.  Andy and I were trying to get a new homeowners insurance company and needed some pictures of our trampoline - with this insurance company trampolines are not allowed unless they are contained within a 6 foot fence.  Can any of you imagine fencing my yard?  I can't either.  Our insurance agent even suggested that we just fence the area with the trampoline but our yard is one of my favorite things and I told him that would look WAY too goofy.    In order for the insurance company to consider us with a trampoline we had to take pictures.  While Andy was fulfilling this purpose he was nice enough to take a picture of our house so we could have a before and after picture.

The formal announcement is: construction has commenced.  Skip started digging Monday, March 2.  Our goal is to have the project completed in 60 days or less.  So, by May 1, 2009 we should have a home that looks brand new.  Below you have the before picture and hopefully in less than two months I will be following up with the after pictures.
Andy has said for years that we have a neapolitan house.   The only thing missing is the strawberry flavor and he threatened to paint the bottom layer pink.  A side benefit of the remodel and new brick will be the evidence that disappears.  If you look closely at the left side of the house you can see that the brick doesn't match too well where the garage is located.  Many moons ago, on a nice summer evening, I pulled the car into the garage from the driveway.  It just so happened that I confused the gas pedal with the brake pedal and I ended up doing a little remodeling.  I can still remember it was on a Friday night - and my immediate thought was the fact that this problem was going to keep me from watching TGIFriday - the best programming on television.  I'm sure some of you remember watching Steve Urkel.  My second thought was to back the car out of the garage, drive it up the hill and push the garage wall back into place.  Oh, the naive thoughts of a 15 year old.  For any of you that are curious as to why I am still alive today.  One of my dad's best friends, Dave Wilkey, had taken him to Australia on a little vacation so he wasn't home to react - on the flight home Dave let him in on the little secret and he had a few hours to calm down before he actually saw the damages.  A month later, I happened to have a near death experience on our zip line.  My dad blames himself for the accident - I know it wasn't his fault but since he has guilt I just decided we were even - an arm for a garage.
Hopefully this addition was a good decision.  We'll let you know in another 30 years when it is paid for.