Concrete Day

You may recall we are still rebuilding over here after the CA wildfires last November. Today I learned that the deck inspection *did* happen yesterday after all. Must have been late in the day. So I had to rush and get the camera quickly, as the concrete truck was due at 9am. Here are pics of the rebar and forms:

Freshly poured concrete deck foundation:

In the meantime, my neighbors were making mountains out of molehills:

And playing with trucks:

My house is crawling with men

Two guys are installing the new garage doors in front, and three guys are digging out the hillside to prepare the foundation for the new deck. You see that deck in the picture on the top of the blog? It burned to cinders in the CA wildfires last November. And the garage doors were damaged when the neighbors/firefighters used crowbars and feet to remove it to put out the garage fire. It was tacked back up temporarily, but today we will get our brand new garage doors. Yay! I can't wait to hear how quiet the new opener is. The old one was as loud as a jet engine.

That's 5 men working. Now all I need is for the gardeners and the pool guy to show up.

The sweet sound of jackhammers

That is what has been reverberating through my house the past 3 days. Am I being sarcastic to call it sweet? No. I have gotten to the point where I miss my neighbors so much, that I'm willing to put up with this. Kind of like a woman in her 9th month of pregnancy. The discomfort reaches a point where even labor and delivery are looked to as a welcome relief.

In the picture above, that adorable-looking vehicle has a jackhammer attachment in the front and has been tirelessly breaking up the concrete on my neighbor's property.

What will her house provide for me? A relief from the strange loneliness that hangs over this neighborhood. And, frankly, a wind-break. When the winds whip up from the east, we call them Santa Ana winds in our area, they bring with them ash and dirt from the burned hillsides. Before the fire my property felt the winds strongly, but since then it has been much worse. My house is now the wind break for the rest of the neighborhood. And my pool has a constant layer of silt in it which no amount of vacuuming seems to be able to abate.

And I am glad it is specifically my neighbor who is moving in. She has been a wonderful neighbor all these years. No more than 2 parties per year, with music and laughter extending into the night. That I can put up with. And she is a civic-minded citizen. Everybody in the area knows her because she allows her garage to be used as a voting place for each election. It has been so nice all these years to roll out of bed at 7am and scoot next door to vote.

I send my best wishes to all of my neighbors, particularly her and the 7 other neighbors who have yet to break ground on their rebuild.

More damage than we thought

Even the neighbors were saying how surprised they were when the tiles came off and they could see how much more had burned in the garage roof than we thought. Except for those who witnessed the fire. My husband tells me that folks at the time told him that the garage was on fire, not a little bit, but a LOT. And they poured a TON of water in there to put it out. Strange thing was, the garage seemed dry the next day when we came back. Must have been the heat and the wind. Anyway, here are pics showing the garage as the men took it apart yesterday, and the trusses/rafters that are going up today. And hopefully the plywood as well. Can you believe how quickly these guys are working? They only started the job yesterday (Thursday) morning.





And here are the new trusses/rafters already!

Rubble

Here is a picture of my house on the right, and the neighbor's house on the left. We lost 8 houses in the immediate neighborhood, burned to the ground.

I just settled on a contractor today. I hope we can get going on the garage repairs. We can't move back in until that is completed, because the smoky smell keeps coming in the house. It's bad for the kids. The pool fence went up today, which is a big deal for me. I'm a stickler for pool safety. The wrought iron fence needs repair as well. It burned pretty thoroughly on the hillside and between our homes.