Behind the Stucco: the True Hancock Street Story

A couple weeks ago we made the decision to remove all the original stucco from the house so the builders could repair any hidden damage and give us a new, fully integrated coat of stucco when the house was done (rather than trying to patch up the 85-year-old original stucco and match it with new stuff on the addition). It added a significant cost to the project, but when I went by the house yesterday afternoon, I could see it was well worth it.
The wooden structure of the arches on our front porch had rotted away to the point that they were basically held up by the stucco , and water had been seeping through into crawlspace below. There were several other areas where the wood was rotten, including the sill plate along the bottom of the house. They had to build some makeshift flying buttresses on the side of the house to stabilize it while they removed and replaced all the nasty bits.
The house looked a lot better from the inside on this occasion -- probably because everyone was working outside. I don't think I've taken a photo of this before, so here is the 'office' they created just inside the front door (where our hall tree was). The desk is just a piece of plywood and a stack of drawers from our kitchen with sections of PVC pipe attached to the side to store rolled-up plans. Very efficient!
This is the view of our stairwell looking up from the basement. Our old basement stairs are still in place, but you have to climb up that long, wobbly ladder to get to the second floor. The square area in the ceiling is where our nifty remote-control skylight will be installed. In the summer you can open it up and let all the hot air escape from the house, and in the winter the sunlight coming in will help warm up the house.
During our "open house" on Saturday, someone noticed our old garage door sitting out in the back yard and suggested it might make a nice screen for the port-a-john in the front. I passed the suggestion along to Rob, and he thought it was a good idea. Little did we know how heavy the darn thing is. Paul told me it took 6 guys to lift it! But they wrangled it into place. Not sure how much of an improvement it is...
Josh and I went back to the house this morning to go over the electrical plans with Marta and the builders. Josh and I had originally marked up the plans with the assumption that all the existing outlets, light switches, and ceiling fixtures would stay, but since they ended up removing everything, we had to put all that stuff back in on the plans. The electrician had also come through and had a few questions and suggestions that we needed to address. Although it was incredibly noisy, it was much easier to go through the plans in 3 dimensions on site rather than just looking at a drawing.

The crew was hard at work removing all the rotten wood and bracing the house. It was a little jarring to see the porch without the arches, but they assured us they had the technology to rebuild them better and stronger than before. (In fact, we might start referring to it as the "6-Million-Dollar House", although hopefully it won't cost us quite that much...)

That little semicircle jutting out on the second floor is the base of a small "Juliet balcony" for the upstairs bedroom. I'm looking forward to standing up there and calling for my neighbor's cat. His name is Romeo.
You know that expression, "You make a better door than a window"? Well, I'm not sure it applies here. I like how they've removed all the damaged wood from this corner of the living room, but left the window in place.
We were hoping to finally have all the planets align so Lauren could come by and see the cement truck this morning. They told me it would be there at 8:30 am, so I passed the info along and Elizabeth said she'd swing by on her way to work. When we got there for our 8:30 meeting, there was no sign of the cement truck -- but the pump truck was there. Josh and I got a kick out of the name emblazoned across it: Putzmeister.
Unfortunately, the cement truck driver got lost and didn't show up until nearly 10:30. I took a photo so I could at least show Lauren that the truck came to my house. 3-year-olds are not always easy to impress, but I try my best...
I got an email from Elizabeth this afternoon saying they got a late start in the morning and didn't have time to come by, so I assured her they would have been disappointed anyway (unless Lauren is intrigued by the Putzmeister). Well, there may be one more chance next week to make it happen. Fingers crossed...