Parking Permits

Thanks to the eccentricities of Arlington County, our little block-long street is the only one in our neighborhood that does not have zoned permit parking. This means that no one can park on the street on weekdays and anyone can park on the street on evenings and weekends (but only on one side, as it is a very narrow street). It also means that we do not have permits to park our own cars anywhere else in our neighborhood, nor are we issued visitor passes to allow guests to park on the street. This hasn't been a huge problem for us since we only have one car and usually only have people over in the evening or on weekends, but it is particularly irksome for some of our neighbors who have multiple cars and have to park them tandem in the driveway -- which requires lots of shuffling around when someone needs to get out. They have been complaining to the county about this for years, but to no avail.

Of course, now that our house is under construction, this has also been a headache for us. If I want to visit my own house during the day, there is no place for me to legally park since my driveway is always full of construction equipment, dumpsters, and/or the builders vehicles. It's only through the generosity of my neighbors that I've been able to park in someone else's driveway or borrow a visitor pass from a neighbor around the corner. But what about our builders, architect, subs, and other people who need to come to the site during the day? The county told me that commercial vehicles are allowed to park in zoned areas if they are providing a service to a resident, but they've been ticketed a couple times nevertheless. Our builders have been talking with the parking people at the county for weeks trying to solve this problem. As a result, it helped draw their attention to the plight of our street. I got confirmation from a very helpful and sympathetic woman at the county yesterday that they will be sending everyone on our block visitors' passes and an application for a parking permit. Yay!

I was so happy about this that I baked some chocolate chip cookies and brought them over to the house yesterday afternoon. I handed them to Rob and asked him to share with the rest of the crew, but based on how many I saw him eat right then and there, I'm not sure if there was anything left to share.

Meanwhile, the house continues to look more and more like a house.
The latest addition is a trailer parked on our front lawn, which doubles as a secure place to store tools and equipment and a sign for the builders.
Outside, the crew was digging a trench along the south (driveway) side of the house for the waterproofing and the new basement window well.
Inside, they had finally started building the stairs. This is the first set coming up from the basement to the main level. The stairs to the second floor will go above these.
It's a good thing they are doing that, because the old basement stairs from the kitchen are now gone -- as is the kitchen floor. There was hardwood flooring under all those layers of linoleum, but Rob said the old adhesive made it impossible -- or at least extremely difficult -- to refinish, so they had to pull it all up (hence the pile of wood).
Coming up next week: Plumbing!

What? That doesn't sound all that thrilling? Well someone's excited about it, because I've been told they are going to be videotaping and photographing the plumbing installation. I'll try to find out when so I can snap a few photos of my own.