4.07.2010

pagoda 4...

Now that we've seen the inside and outside of our crazy Pagoda house, let's start tearing it down!  Tearing down a house completely, or doing some internal renovations are one thing.  This was bigger than that.  This is the beginning of what we lived through.  Just looking through these photographs reminds me of the dust, the sleeping on a mattress on the floor, living out of a boxes and eating many microwavish (new word) food for a few years blah blah blah.  I better not get started with that list.

Let's just start clearing away the outside lot.  First you must remove the rock and 52 tons (so NOT kidding) of old railroad ties to get to this...


then this arrives...


and this begins...




That's where the Pagoda was.  I remember when this was going on, Andrew Henry called me from work for an update "what's it look like out there?" he asked. 
"Well.........let's see..........worse than our daughter's bedroom!"  I'm not sure he believed me because that could only mean it looked like this...



That was the view of my house from the street.  Inviting isn't it?  Okay, our daughter never let her room get THAT bad (I do have photos of that mess if she starts calling foul).  Oddly, we got no trick-or-treaters that year.  Probably because people couldn't imagine we were actually still living inside!  After the wall comes down, you must remove the footers for said wall...



that's my size 7 /12 shoe on there for scale.  Those are GIANT footers, concrete is heavy.  Really, really heavy.  Can you taste the dust?  Are you feeling the pity?  We haven't even started on the actual HOUSE yet...


I'm still living in that thing remember.  We'll leave that for next Wednesday's installment of "Pagoda".

come back later today to see my sassy find...

10 comments:

Maria said...

I LOVE this! It reminds me that I am NOT the only slightly off one in the family! That I am NOT the only one who has done a "live in it while you rip it apart and put it back together" stint in a house oh so worth saving! It must be in our blood girlie! And while I did nothing close to what you have done here, I do remember having visitors at the exact moment that we gutted our kitchen and I learned to cook everything from pizza to eggs on the gas grill outside! I lost 15 pounds that summer ripping out layer after layer of carpet to get to the original 1906 wood floors that were waiting to be re-planed and refinished - they were SO worth it! We had to first clean and then sleep in the unfinished basement whilst all of our "re-do" was going on - so fun! Anyhow - memories and I digress! I look at THESE lovely photos and I think that your neighbors must have been praying that whatever came out of all that mess on the other end, would somehow be better than what they had started with! Something so much better to gaze upon. I KNOW you get visitors at Halloween now! Beauty rising out of the rubble- that is what I'm seeing here! True visionary you are! I wonder though - when you envisioned what it could be - did you know what it would take to get it there? Did you have a REAL grip on what was about to take place??? Did you ever find yourself thinking "What have I gotten myself into?" or "This is never going to be finished?" I've so been there! Bravo for sticking it out!

jeanette from everton terrace said...

"What have we gotten ourselves into" usually only happened when we would find out how much the next thing cost!

sunshine said...

It's hard to imagine that anything was left standing!! Where did all of that concrete, dirt, rocks etc. go?

jeanette from everton terrace said...

The concrete and rocks were hauled away to parts unknown (that is surprisingly costly) and the dirt crept into every crevice of my life.

Henley said...

I don't even know what to say about this. That mess alone would have made me walk away.

KR said...

I don't think I would have kept my sanity!

MJM said...

My room gets close to that bad sometimes. Fair call. Also, I am SO GLAD I was in New Orleans for this.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see how this turned out. Your neighbors must have hated you. Really, I can't wait to see what you came up with.

MaiPie said...

Wow! Those footers are huge! There are a lot of things I didn't see during this renovation since I was in Colorado.

P.S. Concrete weighs 150 lb. per square foot. Ridiculous, eh?

KC said...

Wow!!