More changes in personnel

No, I still haven't fired Hubby (though it's been a close run thing a few times this week...) but we got home from our trip to the snow to discover that our project manager, Achilles, has been "let go" by the construction firm. We now have a new project manager: Jim, the head honcho and overall big cheese of Jim's Bunch. In his email he said that we could expect to see "much faster progress" on our project. We've been pretty impressed with the progress anyway, so that would be spectacular.

A Clowder of Cats

We now have three Bob Cats in the back yard, two with scoopy things and one with a drilly thing. Don't you love the way my construction vocabulary is expanding?

We also have three holiday visitors with us. Lawyer Mom and Running Dad are sleeping in the family room. They are thoroughly enjoying the gently billowing dust wall and being awoken by men digging outside the window. The Boy Wonder - their 10 year old son - is sleeping in Little Starlet's room. He seems to be fairly oblivious to the construction work.

Weather holding up well - bright sunny days yesterday and today.

Wide Open Expanses

This is a photo of the front of our house. Note the absence of courtyard wall and gate. We're amazed by how much space there is now all the bushes and walls are gone. In fact it's a shame that the house isn't a few feet further forward on the lot. Anyway, the Landscape Designer thought it would be a good idea to have all that removed so we could get a better sense of the space and so be able to decide on what hardscaping we want at the front.

Bringing in Cheaper Labor

We thought we could save money by employing the children as laborers.

Only the best pussies for us

We saw the demo guys removing their Bob Cat and assumed they must be all done. Just noticed in the garden that a different machine is tucked away in the corner. This one is labelled "CAT". I assume we've been upgraded from a bobcat to a tiger.

Action all around

It's all happening here this morning:

- men on the roof over the kitchen
- men in the family room engaging in more mysterious banging
- men in the back yard demolishing the coping from around the pool
- big crane on the drive in preparation to take down the Monterey Pine

Lots of noise. Rain currently staying away.

Kitchen again

The cabinet guys left the stain samples on our doorstep today, while we were out, so late in the afternoon. They were supposed to have left them yesterday around that time. I think they must be in a different part of the space-time continuum, because they seem to deliver everything precisely one day later than they were asked to.

Hubby is in a huff about the kitchen situation and refusing to look at the colors today. He has moved onto grommets, the all important question of where the wire management holes will be in our office desk tops and what color the inserts will be.

Outside it is raining gently.

Inside we are worn out from a two hour shift wrapping gifts in the warehouse of the local Family Giving Tree charity. They distribute gifts to 75,000 children for Christmas. I bet we only wrapped about 25 each, but it felt like many more!

Tomorrow the arborist is due to be here with his crane to dispose of the Monterey Pine.

Still no sign of any neighbors in the house next door.