First Day of Action on the Project - and the Walls Came Tumbling Down

At 11 AM all was quiet on Seminole Drive

By 2 PM - 75% of the house was gone. 

DAY 1 SEMINOLE DRIVE - I love Monday mornings - and today was no exception. At 11 AM - things were quiet at 1816 Seminole Drive. Then one man and one loader arrived. By noon the brick house was almost history.

The loader was using the south side of the house like a coal bin. He kept piling the debris from the rest of the house into the two south bedrooms. A big truck arrived at 1 PM and they started loading the debris in the truck. Debris was separated into clean fill and dirty fill. The clean fill was mostly brick and concrete. The dirty fill was mostly wood - windows - and shingles.

As I type I hear the loader scooping the second truckload of concrete and brick into the bin. They have places where they can dump this clean fill free of charge. The rest of the stuff must go to the recycling center south of town in Woodville - and I must pay.

By this time tomorrow I expect there will nothing there - not even a hole. When they finish grading the lot it will be hard to pick out where the old house was.

I was surprised this morning - from 10 to 12 there were no gawkers or sidewalk superintendents. A few cars slowed down as they passed but that could have been because we have a speed bump there.  In the afternoon - two neighborhood housewives and their kids showed up to see the action. Manny and Mia came by because I was complaining no one was visiting.

The demolition company is doing a very professional job. The operator can move the loader bucket like his own hand. I have seen him pick up single boards and single wires. He can separate the wheat from the chaff as he works - saving time later. I got everything I could out of the house - the wrecker is not trying to save anything. I told him if he finds a pot of gold - it is mine. He said I would never know :-)

I have been fretting about tearing this very nice house down for 3 years. I have looked at every option. It feels good that the decision to remove it has been made and cannot be reversed. Tomorrow we will have an empty lot and construction of our new house will start right away.

The new house will be south and west of where the present house is/was.

The loader takes the first bite

A house that took several months to built is taken down by one man and one machine in a couple hours