Progress report -- Week 1

Progress completed this week:

--Fence and landscaping removed as necessary
--Command center established (okay, so that really just means a table and some chairs set up, along with the mini-refrigerator and porta-potty. "Command center" sounds better.)
--Lines drawn all over the garage showing where to put the footers
--Excavation begun. "This," Darryl (one of the workers) said to me as he mopped sweat off his brow, "is the fun part." It involves the laborious shoveling of dirt right around where the master closet is going to be. They have to do it by hand because that's where all the power, telephone, and cable lines enter the house, so they have to dig very slowly and carefully until they hit a line and then ever so gently pull it up without damaging it.

Obstacles confronted this week:

--Steady downpour of rain and thunderstorms one day (wouldn't you know? we haven't had any rain for the past month), which halted all work.
--Refrigerator for "command center" broke. Morale of crew threatened.
--Part of crew has to attend day-long OSHA training. Work slows. I don't mind because Safety Is Important. They don't mind because they get paid to sit in an air-conditioned seminar room rather than digging for our cables in 90 degree heat.