Construction!

With the demolition completed inside, the walls are starting to go up.

The range is in, Eric is working on fixing the depth of the cabinet and installing the microwave hood.

The opening from the kitchen to the living room, looking at the newly framed living/dining room.

AFTER - the stairwell is now part of the living room space. Eventually we'll install a handrail across the opening.
BEFORE
The three big trees in the back have been trimmed up and we actually found a fence back there. Now if I could just convince Stanley to let me borrow the Cyclone concrete drop hammer, we could get rid of the basketball court.
No more lower deck. It had completely rotted out and I was tired of getting my foot stuck everytime I walked across. Unfortunately, we also found that the vertical supports for the upper deck are also rotted. We had hoped to salvage them but they will need to be replaced along with the decking.

AFTER - the cedar tree came down. The neighbors gathered on the curb to watch. We have expected some tree hugger to run out but it came down with only a few grumbles. And low and behold now we have a lawn and a japanese maple! And you can see the house. We also took out a lot of the other trees and bushes. You can actually see the house now.

BEFORE - where's the house?