Progress

Back at our Laguna Beach cottage, we discover that work has progressed in the ten days of our absence. Here's what we found:


The ceiling in the kitchen has been cut open to reveal the structural work of the roof: if it's possible, we'd like to raise the ceiling to give a greater sense of space. As the photos suggest, there's not much room there, but a little.



Meantime, down below, the foundation work proceeds. Here are the new support walls on the south and west sides of the excavated area to the south of what was the garage...


... and the furnace and water heater have been moved from their original location to a new concrete platform, now also supported by newly poured concrete walls.


The brick fireplace, previously supported only by compacted dirt, now sports a whole new support system of its own, below the brick and to the right in this photo.


The north wall of the garage, to the right, has been replaced, and the floor has been leveled out and strengthened with rebar, ready for the pouring of the slab which is due to take place this morning.


Outside the garage, the construction junk--and the charming blue "throne"--make a mockery of what used to be a little "Zen" rock garden I created a few years ago (see the only remaining evidence, the granite rock toward the lower right corner in this picture.


We found the kitchen draped in plastic sheets and the floor knee-deep in dust. By this morning, though, we were almost back to normal. In the next few days, we'll need to pack everything away in preparation for the next adventure: the demolition of the kitchen. We plan to purchase a mini-fridge and perhaps a little burner, so that we can camp out in the house at the times we need to be here. Next month, however, August, we're leaving the contractor to get on with the job while we take that road trip up north with George the dog.

Thanks for joining us at The Buddha Diaries. More later--and I promise that it won't all be about our remodel.