Brick?????

If you were to ask Mel what her ideal material for a home would be - probably never a brick would be on the list.  Funny how some things choose you even if you don't choose them.  Gifft Hill is being designed to respect what was there and use it in new ways.  So, brick it is - considering this is an early 50's ranch and brick was all the rage.  

 So, the carport came down and so did the brick knee wall it was sitting on.  Time to dig through the brick pile.  We are pulling all the 'good' ones to use for patch repairs and to fill in the existing front door.  The ones that are harder to clean will become something in the landscape design (patio, path, who knows!).  This is our type of recycling.  Brent - our Builder - you can tell he thinks we are nuts.  :)

 When you buy a house 'as-is' - it comes with many a mystery.  Here is the back wall - must have been a tree limb or some sort of awol bomb.  The hole goes straight through to what will be the laundry/mud room.

 Back of chimney.  The brick will be left exposed here as part of the guest room wall.

 Front of chimney.  Can you believe they covered this up for the last 60 years?  We are exposing it all the way and adding a chunky mantel piece.  Trying to decide what to do abut how it jogs - that was a surprise.

Here is the front exterior corner.  It will now be inside the front door in the foyer - Mel is totally excited about being able to bring this indoors.

The new addition is taking shape, inspection in the morning and pouring concrete tomorrow afternoon. It took Oscar and the guys almost two days to dig the foundation, really good, compact dirt, no worries about the foundation or house settling.  The only major concern is the concrete truck bumping into Melissa's tree.  Oscar took great care to measure the height and talk with the concrete company to make sure it would all work out.  He didn't want to have to pack up and move to Texas taking Brent the contractor with him.  Everyone knows that if Mel's Maple gets hurt, we better all take cover.  I must admit that is a very nice tree and will be a prominent figure in the landscape.

Water and Power Today

Not much happening today with the construction but the water department finally found the water meter.  When they built the round-a-bout it was lost and now it is found.  Buried 3 feet deep, with a little help from Ty we will have flowing water tomorrow.  Georgia Power set the poles and pulled some wire, should have power this week.  Hopefully the ground is not to wet, may start digging footings tomorrow.

Jose/Hosea was busy today

That's what you get when you study portuguese in college instead of spanish, misspelling the framing/demo contractors name for the world to see.  Melissa was quick to point out my mistake, I played it off and made an excuse.

Anyway Jose/Hosea took off the car port, lifted it off with the big cat, and took down some walls in the house.  Things are taking shape, can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.

You guested it

As all you most likely guested the big cat was needed to move the rock.  This 1 1/2 ton beauty has a place of honor in the landscape plan.  Sometimes plants, design features and the like get moved around in the Casteel landscape, but this baby is home.

Grading is done

Well not really done, but ready for the next step.  We will have to finish this up and get ready to put Melissa's landscape plan in place.  Today she was standing on the hill surveying the area and you could see a plan running through her head.  A blank canvas for the artist.

Moving some dirt

Now were talking moving some dirt around in the yard.  I thought about using a shovel and wheel barrow to save some cash, but decided it would be better left to the professionals.

Check back tomorrow because something big is happening to the house. Let me just say I don't know how much sleep Mel will get tonight.