65. Construction / Destruction

You may think I'm a little weird, but I like it when a word has a nice, neat antonym.  Recently I found myself disappointed after searching my brain for the opposite of the word "escalate" which should have been descalate or unscalate.  When I finally resorted to the Google I found the antonym to be "de-escalate".  With a hyphen!!  What a complete cop-out.

But today, we're talking about two nicely organized antonyms:  Construction means putting a structure together, Destruction means taking a structure apart, and I've experienced both in recent weeks.  I'll start with the construction part.

I hadn't realized that I bought a house in the middle of what was essentially party central from January until March.  Dave and I have been getting a little bit done in between Speed Week and Bike Week and Spring Break.  Here you see some lovely PVC trim that sweetens up that inside corner of the front porch.

We continued with the work on the cap for the short wall in front of the porch, which really took some thought.  You may remember all the shimming we had to do to get the top level - but this weekend we were ready to put the top on.  The first long piece was cut from a 2x10, notched to fit around the 4x4 posts that give the porch that craftsman style.  The two smaller sections around the entrance were a bit more complicated, but after making a template out of cardboard we cut this funky puzzle piece that worked just perfectly out of a 2x12.  A bonus was that when the cardboard was flipped over it exactly matched the other side - I'd call that a miracle considering the fact that nothing still exists in this house that is square or even in any way!

Here you can see the cap installed.  There are a few little pieces still needed to fill in beside the posts, and then each post will be trimmed out in a special way (ask my trim guy) to give it that finished look.  It is ready for setting a margarita glass on, or sitting, or even dancing on - that thing is solid as a rock and we're convinced that if a hurricane washes the house away this part will still be standing.  Won't it be awesome once it's painted!

The view from the front may not look so different to you, but I can tell you it's 100% better - and actually level!

I also did a bunch of landscape clean up recently - the weeds had absolutely overgrown the place and I had lost sight of all the little things I planted last fall.  Spring is here and stuff is already starting to grow and bloom.  We installed this little pathway along the parking area using concrete blocks that were salvaged from next door.  It's a great path for rolling the trash down to the street, walking on if you happen to be in heels, or most importantly getting your motorcycle into the garage without a dangerous climb over a rocky mountain!

And now for the destruction portion of our episode, which can also be called demolition!  I expected the wrecking company one Friday, but the permit was stalled.  When they finally got the permit, it was Bike Week and all the streets were clogged with vrooming two-wheelers and the whole town took the week off.  The next Monday I guess the guy with the big crushing machine was hung over or something - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday too.  Which brings us to last Friday when I had a hair appointment that I couldn't possibly miss because of an issue with my roots that was just unbearable, so I didn't witness the actual demo!  I am so sorry I promised video... I hope no one is too disappointed.

Here is what was left of the Misty Shores Apartments by the time I got there on Saturday:

Monday they were back with the loader/claw machine and I got to watch it chomp away at that pile all day long.  They took away four huge dumpsters (I'll have to ask what the size is) of trash and one dumpster full of salvaged metal.  I told them if they found a bag full of money it's the one I left in there and they would need to return it to me.  He said if he found the bag of money he would be taking the rest of the day off.  Nice, huh?

So after an entire day of hauling this is what was left - from my bedroom window (at the top right of the pic) you can't even tell anything is missing.  They will be at this for a couple of days so I stayed home today and will be back on Wednesday.

I can't even describe how the view has improved - it's as if a gross icky 3-story rat-infested building with seepy air conditioners and chipping stucco were replaced with a beautiful blue expanse punctuated with cute little cottages and a 100 year old church at the end of the block. Or maybe that is really what just happened!