We're not the only ones who are nesting

We have a squatter on our pergola, can you see her?


Take a closer look, she seems very cozied in. We haven't heard any little hatchling chirps yet.


We decided that she is a bird bird of the genus bird and species bird. That's how into ornithology we are.

Amazing how we have come full circle

From cooking outside from August 2008 to March 2009 (that's 8 months with no kitchen) to cooking outside again in April 2011:

Nice, huh? The back of the house has come a loooooong way:

Here it is covered with limbs as Woody, Ginger, Brian, Jamie, Fe and I work to take down some trees:


Here it is draped with tarp before we had a real roof (I had forgotten how classy this looked. Our house looks like one of those motorcycle jackets with the fringe.):


Here it is after the overhang went up:

And here it is today:

We are going to make the "upper patio" our cooking area and put a sideboard up there as well. The lower patio is going to be our dining/ basking around the fire pit area.

Woody has already put in a bunch of veggies -- brussel sprouts, spinach, broccoli -- you know, all those things that will further add to our planet's methane problems...

We also have the concrete pad ready for the construction of our outbuilding. Thanks to some slight miscalculation of how much concrete we needed, we now also have a ramp into the building:

To reassure you that we have not gotten too far from our hovel-like roots, we have a new pile of crap ready for pick up. It is amazing how many piles of crap this house can generate. Wait, did I say this house? I might have meant our plant-based diet.

Do we have grass yet? No, but who needs grass when you can sip cocktails on a patio?

Very dozy guard dog

This is Alice's favorite spot in the world. She loves looking out the window. Even when she is fast asleep...

Guess where we're going to put the hot tub...

Yesterday Kenneth and Woody constructed the forms for the concrete for our grand outdoor patio and garden walkway:




I floated the idea of a hot tub in the left-hand corner of the patio but it was quickly deep sixed. Woody said there wasn't enough privacy. I told him I wanted to have gatherings like this at our house:


Except I don't want to know any of our guests' names and I want there to be more alcohol.

Concrete will probably be poured on Thursday!

Woody demolished our neighbor's shed (with his go ahead)

Manapalooza III...and we still have power and water

Remember Manapalooza I and II? Of course you do. Jane's Addiction was there. Sound Garden was there. I was wearing tiny barrettes, a tiny t-shirt and Doc Martens. Curses, I've fallen into a mid-90s reverie again. MANapalooza. Must focus on MANapalooza...

Manapalooza I, if I can pull you back from fondly smiling about stereograms and Snapple, was the first 517 extravaganza involving Brian's arsenal of large power tools. During Manapalooza I, Brian and Woody brought down many of 517's scary looking dead trees with a symphony of chain saws.

Manapalooza II -- hey! I said come back from the mid-90s! Stop shivering at the thought of Blair Witch, it was a kid in a corner and a shaky camera -- brought Brian's skid steer to 517. Woody tooled around our yard, got rids of shed-sized piles of trash, and succeeded in demolishing our electric meter.

Manapalooza II.2 had its finale in an apparent face off between Woody-in-skid-steer and his father and Woody taking out our water main.

But today, after Manapalooza III, we were able to use our lights AND shower! Given, the entire extravaganza felt less "extreme" as a result. But I guess once you get central heating and air and an indoor kitchen, you go soft...in a domestic sense at least. Certainly not in a corporeal sense. Since September, Woody has lost 45 lbs and my first half marathon is just 2 weeks away. So we at 517 are becoming quite the hard bodies...or at least cardiovascularly healthy.

Manapalooza III brought Brian back to the house with skid steer in tow:

After Woody dropped Brian off back in G'ville, he set about leveling our yard. In a good way. First the giant rotting tree that a local yokel had felled in our backyard was moved onto the trailer for transport to the dump. (Note: the local yokel is not Brian. Brian is an expert at felling trees. This guy succeeded in taking out our neighbor's fence, crushing our wheelbarrow and destroying Woody's homemade saw horses...all for $150.)

View of yard before:

As you will remember, we decided to keep Alice mostly with the hope that, in her teething year as a puppy, she would in fact gnaw away the entirety of this tree. That didn't happen. Apparently she has more of a taste for dirty underwear and socks.

View of yard after:

You can also see here the impressive tracks made by the skid steer. By the end of the day, our yard looked like it did in the halcyon early days of our renovation:


Woody also spread out the large pile of mulch/chipped wood that our neighbor was kind enough to give to us. I am sure this was a great disappointment to the local squirrel population as they had carved out a number of cozy peat condos in it.

A look before:

A look after:

The billowy rows of mulch made me want to go out in the yard and roll around. That and the knowledge that the layer of mulch was thick enough that I wouldn't wallow in a) dog poop b) old auto parts or c) generally nasty sand. I told Woody he should do this every week so I never had to do a dog poo sweep of our estate.

Woody also dug out the space for our new outbuilding. We will finally be able to remove the air compressor from our bedroom and have a closet for things like clothes in the middle bedroom!

Woody in action:


The spot for the guest cottage, er, outbuilding:


Kenneth will be coming by on Monday to start construction!

Happy holidays from 517!

We are still chugging along on the house at 517! The work going on now is more detail and finish work. This holiday break Woody and I are working on getting the home office in shape -- soon there will be a big shared face-to-face desk and more polished-looking bookshelves. Pictures to come soon!

In the meantime, un-redeye-corrected greetings from Maddy and Alice. I would have made them look less possessed but I don't have that kind of Photoshop know how. If I did I would have also made Maddy look slimmer and Alice look more obedient. We didn't do the bells-around-the-neck thing, the groomer did. Woody wanted me to mention that.

Best wishes for a great new year from all at 517!