I win.

Yep, I'm declaring victory.

The crew showed up around three yesterday and jumped right in and started tearing my chimney apart. Off came the siding, and as I predicted, the underlayment of wafer board was black from top to bottom. Out it came. About this time, my builder's rep showed up and he and the boss and I stood around and watched the guys work. Heh. The guys doing the work asked the rep if they needed to pull out some of the damaged wood on the front face and po' ol' Dennis just shook his head 'yes' and told him if it was damaged they need to get it out and fixed. [Insert image here of me mentally sticking out my tongue and doing the Dance of Ridicule] One corner stud in particular was completely waterlogged, as if it had come out of the river. You can squeeze it and water comes out, and it's been over a week since it last rained. I just wonder how much other stuff like this is hidden behind the paint.

(An interesting sidenote is that the boss man's cousin's crew is the one who originally framed the house six years ago. Big jokes about him owing Dennis some money. Laugh it up, fellers.)

Anyway, these guys hit it hard all afternoon, and didn't knock off till 6:30. The crew foreman, the big guy from yesterday, asked if they could leave their tools and stuff for today, and asked what time I woke up. "Around 5." He and the rest of the crew just laughed and he said they would be back at 7:30 today to finish up.

And right on time today at 8:00 they showed up. I had been up and got out and started cutting my grass giant carpet of weeds. Holy moley at the weeds. And unfortunately, they were all ready to go to seed, so every pass of the lawn mower shook of great clots of fetal weeds alllll over the yard. Time for some Agent Orange, I suppose. Spring is here in a big way--the wisteria is blooming, Jonathan's little pear tree is covered with blossoms, birds and bees are giving their kids the old "bipeds and quadrupeds" talk, we have a bluebird who has taken up residence in the box we put out last year. Which means large amounts of yard work beckon. Eww.

Oh well, time to go do some more standing and scratching and looking and pointing, and some weed killing and ant chasing. If I don't get back to the keyboard today, I will see you all bright and early Monday.

Before I go, I wanted to point you over to The Ghost of a Flea, written by Nicholas Packwood, who sent me an e-mail about a Canadian group called Friends of America who are planning a Rally for America in Toronto on April 4.

Many thanks to our friends in Canada, and thank you for your support!
posted by Terry at 10:13:00 AM