It's Coming DOWN!!

After weeks of planning and preparation, the permits were gathered and the equipment put in place. On Tuesday morning, the big guys rolled into town.

Our contractor worked quickly, as the sun came up. This entire electrical panel needed to be preserved. It supplies power to the Real House, the domestic well, and the ag pump/well.He worked on both sides of the wall, making sure that there was no wiring contained within. He said he'd never seen a house with three layers of wall board. Apparently each time it was damaged, they just added another layer.

By 9am, they were underway.

chomp, chomp, chomp

You're coming DOWN!!!

We'd been told there had been a fire at the house decades ago. As the roof came off, the contractor said that you could see the charred trusses. Nothing was repaired/replaced, they just roofed right on top of the mess. No wonder the roof was sagging!

By now you may be wondering about Chupa. She did well, until the big monster machine fired up. Then she hopped over the orange mesh fence, and headed for the hills. Actually, she just ran across the street and into the neighbor's orchard. I followed about 5 minutes later, called her, and she actually came running back to me. She had no problem going back in the yard. Then #3 son put up the metal fence, in addition to the orange plastic mesh, and she was fine.

She attracted a lot of attention. This worker wondered if she were a Scottish Wolfhound. hmm. Her fur looks a lot like those wolfhound/deerhound breeds. Who knows? She could be a little bit of anything.

Once she realized that the big machine was "okay," she settled down for the day.

In this picture, the house is half gone. The large truck in the foreground holds the debris. It only took two trips to the dump to remove the entire thing.

I had to leave, to run a few errands and do some computer work at home. I saw the sheepies as I drove to and from.

When I returned, the house was DOWN. Notice the electrical box, still standing on the corner. It was amazing that a machine that large could use such surgical precision when removing the bulk of the debris.

Here's another view.

I was working inside, on my laptop, when the contractor rushed in and asked, "PGE or Edison? Do you have PGE or Edison?"

That didn't sound good.

It wasn't. Somehow the underground cable got hooked, and the power box came crashing down.

Live wires on the ground are not a good thing, and the work came to a standstill. Edison arrived quickly, and unhooked the house from the line.

And walked away with the broken meter.

Today's agenda will be to (hopefully) get a permit, replace/repair the electric conduits, get an inspection from the county, and bring back Edison to restore power. Best case scenario doesn't give us power until Thursday. We don't have water either.


But the house is DOWN, and my son says this is the best it's looked since we bought it. :) From the master bedroom, one can now see trees, rather than the backside of a poorly constructed hovel.

It's a beautiful thing. I'll keep you posted.