Week 9

This was a bit of a slow week, but still, the project marches on.

Monday & Tuesday

The plumbers spent the first part of the week completing their work & getting ready for the city inspector to come on Wednesday.

The mountains of dirt started shrinking, as some dirt was filled in around the pipe in the trench:

The washing machine drain was hooked into the main sewer line:

The bathroom pipes were finished, & wrapped in a plastic stuff for some reason that has something to do with the concrete that will be poured later:

Dirt was filled in around the line coming from the French drain system:

Wednesday

Plumbing approved!

Thursday

Trenches filled in! Goodbye dirt mountains!

This is the remaining pile of dirt. I think it will go into the last bit of trench that remains in the sidewalk:

The garage is starting to resemble a garage again!

Friday

One of Mr. Bunkport's guys started to remove some more of the vinyl siding:

Not sure why he left halfway through, but sure, whatever.



Saturday

Suddenly, on Saturday, AJ attacked the front yard, putting her long simmering master plan into action.

I didn't take a photo of the yard before she started, but it looked more or less like this (except that the hydrangea was fully in bloom, & the parsley in the back was about to go to seed):

Goodbye Monster Italian Parsley:

Goodbye hydrangea:

By the time she was done pulling the parsley, the hydrangea, and a ton of grass and weeds and scrappy looking lilies, she had filled our 32 gallon compost bin.

Throughout the day, she was also visited by just about every neighbor on the block, stopping by to chat. Irene, the neighbor who had built the white picket fence originally, wasn't very pleased that AJ removed the hydrangea -- she said, "oh, that's disappointing." Um, sorry..?

Sunday

AJ spent Sunday planting all the various succulents that she has -- some she's had forever, & others she's been collecting for a year, for just this very purpose.

Here she is, hard at work, covered with dirt:

Here's the final product, from above:

And from the sidewalk:

The white posts remaining from the old fence will go away during the renovation. After that, it's just up to nature to take its course.

Coming up this week: the guys will be putting in the rebar, and the electrician will put in some kind of crazy ground wire. After that, the concrete!