I know, I know - I’ve been a bit behind. But on this, my last official day of vacation, I’m catching up, finally.

Well, they ripped off our old porch this week. Kind of sad to see it go, but we’re really excited about our new one.  Note another Cracolicci relic - he painted the lattice directly on the porch, leaving us this wonderful criss-cross pattern.

The good piece of news is that the foundation was in GREAT shape under the porch.  It should be, at least, since it wasn’t really exposed to the elements.

The debris that used to be our porch.  Also note the green grass.  This doesn’t last too much longer, as things get really hot and humid soon, and the many vehicles driving on the yard prevent us from really wanting to exert too much effort on maintaining this appearance.

Rest of the porch - gone.  The roof is held up by these great old brackets.  We’re going to keep them and use for the new roof.  In the meantime, the old roof will stay until the new decking is put in.

Here’s my buddy (and one of our tenants) posing in the driveway.

Something about this picture just makes me giggle and think that this machine is playing hide-and-seek.  Tee-hee.

The aforementioned machine in the trees was used to drill straight down into the ground. Thus began the concrete footers. Also note the groundhog hole.  They’re everywhere. I think our home is just one big decoy hiding a den of iniquity and foolhardy woodchucks.

Joe began working on replacing the siding in our living room / laundry room corner.  This is where the porch will be wrapping around, so it’s best to get these things out of the way now.

If I had a dollar for every time Joe cursed Cracolicci for his shoddy workmanship (loose term), I’d be a very rich woman.  Here, Joe is bemoaning a poorly constructed (actually nonexistent) door frame and outside lighting.

More bricks. Oh, goody.

Joe removed the brick then replaced it with insulation, sheathing, and tar paper.  We’re getting there!