Gutters! The gutter people came on Wednesday and Thursday to install gutters on the garage.
They also directed the downspout on one side to one of our nifty new rain barrels. We've been getting lots of compliments on these rain barrels, mostly because they go so nicely with our house, I think. These barrels hold 65 gallons of water, which we can use to water the plants and save some money on our water bills, I hope!
It was a rather unexciting week, garage-wise, but I do have a couple related stories to share that are far more entertaining. Some good friends of ours are building a new house about 2 blocks from ours, where they found a great lot with a terrible house. The previous owner had made few improvements and had many cats -- the smell was atrocious! So they didn't feel too bad about tearing down the existing house and building a new, 'green' house -- using our same builders (SAI). The demolition started on the 17th, so Josh and I walked over to check it out. The house still looked the same from the front...
But not so much from the back!
Since our friends were out of town on the following Monday, I went back over at lunchtime to take some progress photos for them. All that was left standing were the exterior brick walls. I chatted briefly with the guy operating the excavator (I had to look that one up!) while he was taking a break to refuel, and he explained that they recycle the bricks, so he has to wait until he clears away all the other debris before knocking the walls down. They also recycle all the metal, and it was pretty impressive to watch him pick out plumbing pipes and radiators with the giant claw and put them in a separate pile.
He told me he could probably pick up a dime with this thing, and then asked me if I wanted to give it a try. At first, I thought he was joking, but he said he showed his 5-year-old son how to operate it, so he was sure I could do it, too. I was still pretty hesitant, so he said, "What could go wrong? We're tearing down a house? It's not like you're going to break anything!" It was challenging enough just to climb into the thing, since the floor of the cabin was about 5 feet off the ground -- and I was wearing sandals -- but once I hoisted myself in, I was ready to wield some power. Most of the controls are in two joysticks, so he just held his hands out and showed me which way to move them to rotate the machine and operate the claw. I just moved a big claw-full of debris from one pile to another, but it was pretty darn cool. (And Josh was extremely jealous when I told him about it.) I sent this photo to my friends to show them that I was helping to demolish their house, but I had to follow up with the full story before they got that I wasn't just posing for a photo.
Yesterday was Clarendon Day, which is an annual street festival celebrating the local businesses in our neighborhood. This is a popular tradition in the DC area -- lots of neighborhoods have similar events at this time of year -- and since this one happens 2 blocks from our house, it's hard NOT to go. They have music and dance performances on several different stages, food from nearby restaurants, a crafts fair, kid-oriented stuff like face painting and a moonbounce, and various local businesses promoting their services. As Josh and I were scouting out the food options yesterday afternoon, something caught our eye.
It was a poster with photos of our house! It turns out our architect, had decided to reserve a booth to promote her business. She said many people commented that they recognized our house, which wasn't too surprising since it was literally 3 blocks away from their booth. It's a little odd to see your house on someone's promotional materials, but kind of cool.
We popped back later in the afternoon and gathered with all the dudes in brown flip-flops to watch a performance by rapper GoRemy, who became a local celebrity after releasing Arlington: The Rap on YouTube last year. He apparently lives in a condo right down the street from us, and most of the video was filmed in our neighborhood. He recently did a similarly funny rap video about the Metro, but like the Arlington rap, you won't get most of the jokes unless you live in the area.Coming up this week: a driveway! And maybe even: electricity! Stay tuned...
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