Day One

It feels very strange writing "day one" when we've been working on this for a year and a half, but today was the first day anyone (other than Dawn or myself) did anything to the mansion. And what did they do? Not much. :-(

Because of the leaks over the years, the contractor wants to check the condition of the roof beams, which means pulling down all of the plaster in the attic. (It was in pretty bad shape, anyway, thanks to the aforementioned leaks.) Rather than carry that out, they built a chute from the dormers down to the trash container. They also put down something that looks like linoleum to protect the floors. And then for some reason, that was it for the day.

The electrician also hooked up a 400-amp circuit and snaked extension cords throughout the house, so nobody is plugging their circular saw into the 1940's knob-and-tube wiring. He's also going to replace the attic fans in Aquarius to try and help with the heat buildup.

Ray Erb started the septic design, plotting all of the lines that need to be run throughout the farm. We thought we could contain the work to the mansion area and protect it with a rental fence, but it's obvious now that we'll have trenches across the entire area. We're not sure what to do about the horse. If she trips and breaks a leg, we'll never forgive ourselves.

I promise not to report on the day-to-day minutia of the project. It just seemed that "day one" should get some kind of special treatment.

Tomorrow Gary is taking Dawn "shopping," words that fill me with dread...