Amazing

Tom at Heritage Masonry began the excavating for the foundation repair and landscaping. When I left the church on Sunday night it was prime location for some mud wrestling matches in the front yard but I can already see that it is going to be fantastic. When I seriously began to consider buying the church, I had David come and look at it. We drove up to the property at the same time and both jockeyed for street parking. The first words out of his mouth were "Where's YOUR parking space?" I hadn't really thought about that but over the months I could see it was important to David. He has a better idea of driving and parking in the upstate winters and felt it would definitely improve my quality of life. I had a hard time picturing the parking space or figuring out where it would go exactly. But, thankfully, Tom did not.
Here's the initial grading of the front yard:

This exceeded my expectations. Scoot up the gentle sloping driveway and you're right in front of the stairs. Easy in, easy out. But I had not planned on a retaining wall there; let alone one that needed to have curb appeal. I know what I want and I photoshopped a "sketch" to Tom. Here it is:

I'm probably tripping, but I hope in my heart of hearts this is what Tom is thinking too. Living the dream.

Here's some other changes that Tom and David made this week:

The concrete stairs with the cracked retaining wall on the north side were broken up and carted away.

The stumps and earth were removed from the south side of the church. I had David save the large pieces of slate for the steps in the driveway's retaining wall.

The concrete front steps that were under the rotting wooden steps were busted up and removed. David built this temporary staircase so I could get in and out.

All this in preparation for the old girl, built in 1875, to get her foundation replaced.

 

Meanwhile, not much goes on in the interior. We have to do the foundation work before we can address the plumbing and I can finally get running water. But I feel it is important to stay there, see how the sun comes in, how the temperature varies from lofts to downstairs and to bond with the church in general and think about how I would live there. So I live there. It's a notch above camping. I've made a little lair for myself in the East loft. Here's pictures of my East loft world juxtaposed with living in a construction site:

Deb and I took turns playing with the Caterpillar parked out front but Tom had the good sense to lock the cab because you know we were going to try and have a photo shoot up in there. Here's the best we could do.

Coming up next: Ordering Windows and Doors