It's been raining, so the guys can't paint outside. And the basement is stalled until the engineer gets things squared away with the city.
Rather than do nothing, the guys started stripping the interior woodwork around the windows. The half-bared wood reminds me of old buildings in Europe.
We have two different kind of windows in the basement: casement and double hung. Rob isn't convinced yet that the double hung were worth the extra expense, but I love them.
We're missing one window for the basement because -- what a shock! -- the engineer had the wrong window measurements on the plans, so one of the windows was ordered incorrectly.
Progress on the outside, though, has come screeching to a halt. The engineer -- yes, him AGAIN! -- didn't put the chimney on the plans so that throws off the square footage of the shear wall. The inspector won't sign off until the plans are refiled with the city with the correct shear wall information.
The posts on our porch seemed too big for the beams topping them, so our contractor popped the side off one to see if a bigger post had been built around a smaller one.
They're hollow inside, and judging by the condition of the wood, they're probably original. I guess the original builder just had a weird sense of proportion...
The porch ceiling has been pulled down. What you're seeing in this photo is the underside of the roof. It adds, at the peak, almost two feet of headroom. We plan to keep it that way.
We've been arguing with our contractor about how poorly he's been containing the lead paint chips from the house because we didn't want them getting into the soil. Finally, he did this.
I joke sometimes that we are camping in our house, but I never thought we'd actually live in our house in a tent.
The blue grama grass we planted last March has gone to seed. If you look closely, you can see little flags on the top of the mounds of grass in the front. Rob likes to roll the flags between his fingers to spread the seeds around.
Blue grama is a pretty slow growing, drought-tolerant, native grass. With a little luck, the parkway will fill in with it next year and we won't have to keep digging out that awful Bermuda grass.
It developed a fungus on some of the leaves that I tried to treat with neem oil. When that didn't help, and most of the leaves had fallen off, I did some research. We may have overwatered it, we may have planted the rootball too low.
Or maybe, this is just part of the normal cycle -- it is a deciduous tree after all. To be continued in the spring.
Our kitchen sink sprays out the front of the faucet. Redoing the kitchen is not on the immediate -- or even far -- horizon, so we've been trying to make do.
We had plumber's tape on it, which worked for a while. When that stopped working, I traded up to some saran wrap and a rubber band. Classy!
The saran wrap is starting to fail, so it's time to think of what to try next. Condom, anyone?
It seems like every day I come home to a little less house. It's getting to be unnerving. Hope there's no rain in the forecast!
A couple of neighbors have commented the house is looking good. I think what they really mean is that they can now see we actually have a plan and they aren't going to live next to an eyesore for the rest of their lives.
We've had a heat spell which has resulted in our watermelon and volunteer cantaloupe fruiting again. I'm taking bets on whether the baby watermelon at the left can grow to be as big as the 45 pounder Rob is holding.
We get A LOT of comments from the neighbors on the watermelon and we've been sharing as much as possible. Still, trying to unload over 120 pounds of watermelon is a bit of a chore, and I've eaten more than I care to think about...
They've put a scaffolding around the entire house so they don't have to lean ladders up against the new siding as they hang it. The scaffolding is pretty shaky, but Rob braved it to take a few pictures.
Most of the siding has been taken off the house. You can see where the plaster seeped through the lathe 100 years ago when the house was built.
Sadly, we are discovering that some of our plaster and lathe walls have been replaced with drywall. The framer suspects the previous owner did it when he replaced the old windows -- that he replaced the old windows because of leaks.
It's been raining, so the guys can't paint outside. And the basement is stalled until the engineer gets things squared away with the city.
We have two different kind of windows in the basement: casement and double hung. Rob isn't convinced yet that the double hung were worth the extra expense, but I love them.
Seriously, can that guy use a tape measure?!?
Most of the new windows are in.
The eaves under the porch roof have been painted. Hurray!!! Something is finally done.
The posts on our porch seemed too big for the beams topping them, so our contractor popped the side off one to see if a bigger post had been built around a smaller one.
The porch ceiling has been pulled down. What you're seeing in this photo is the underside of the roof. It adds, at the peak, almost two feet of headroom. We plan to keep it that way.
All of our windows have been sealed off with plastic to keep the lead paint dust out of the house. It's like living in a 70's movie.
We've been arguing with our contractor about how poorly he's been containing the lead paint chips from the house because we didn't want them getting into the soil. Finally, he did this.
The blue grama grass we planted last March has gone to seed. If you look closely, you can see little flags on the top of the mounds of grass in the front. Rob likes to roll the flags between his fingers to spread the seeds around. 
Phoenix is thriving. I think we might actually get blooms next year.
This used to be one of the lavender bushes on the parkway. I think the dogs peed on it one too many times.
This is what our sycamore looks like these days.
With the old siding off the house, we can see the built-in in our dining room from the outside of the house. 
We went up into the attic with our designer to start thinking about putting bedrooms up there.
Our kitchen sink sprays out the front of the faucet. Redoing the kitchen is not on the immediate -- or even far -- horizon, so we've been trying to make do.
It seems like every day I come home to a little less house. It's getting to be unnerving. Hope there's no rain in the forecast!
We've had a heat spell which has resulted in our watermelon and volunteer cantaloupe fruiting again. I'm taking bets on whether the baby watermelon at the left can grow to be as big as the 45 pounder Rob is holding.
a scaffolding around the entire house so they don't have to lean ladders up against the new siding as they hang it. 
olding is pretty shaky, but Rob braved it to take a few pictures.
Most of the siding has been taken off the house. You can see where the plaster seeped through the lathe 100 years ago when the house was built.
