Butterflies in the stomach — but none in the front yard, which looks vaguely moonscape-like, with holes where I dug up plants yesterday.<\/p>\n
Got a call about 11 from Will, saying they were gathering forces to arrive.<\/p>\n
The Port-a-Pot arrived.<\/p>\n
Will arrived with a truck full of boulders, which he then dumped in the front yard.<\/p>\n
The workers arrived with their mobile HQ, which will be parked in front of the house until the job is done.<\/p>\n
Will talks with the head of the work gang. I hang out, make a few comments, offer a few reminders.<\/p>\n
We discuss the steps to the front door.<\/p>\n
Will heads for some sales calls. The work begins.<\/p>\n
Later … digging! Chopping! Removing! Mini-dozing! Toppling! It’s landscape madness!<\/p>\n
I can hear vibrations and thugs. Hear cutting of concrete.<\/p>\n
I hate it.<\/p>\n
That’s an exaggeration, but I am a control freak, and I know enough not to get in the way while they’re doing their job, and I feel (rightly or wrongly) that it’s all “out of my control,” so it’s intensely frustrating. And, of course, I’m fearful that I’m not going to like what they do, and that it will all end up costing eleventy zillion dollars beyond what we bid, and I’ll end up living out of a cardboard box.<\/p>\n
Well, wait, that latter part isn’t likely. But … unlike home improvement projects I’ve worked on before, I’m not actually working on this one. And the deck was, of course … well, sort of a big Lego construction set, basically. It was straightforward what it was going to be and look like and the pieces involved.<\/p>\n
But this — this is thee parts engineering, two parts art, and one part doing whatever it takes when it comes down to it. Which, since it isn’t me doing it, is just darned scary.<\/p>\n
As it stands, it looks like, by the end of the day, all the demo work will be done.<\/p>\n
Then it gets interesting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Butterflies in the stomach — but none in the front yard, which looks vaguely moonscape-like, with holes where I dug up plants yesterday. Got a call about 11 from Will,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-improvement"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12857,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/16\/landscaping_day_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":12870,"position":0},"title":"Landscaping – Day 2","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Sep-08 4:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The crew arrived at 7 a.m. Surprise! They're working on getting the deck done today. Biggest problem first thing in the morning was that they had managed to misplace \/...","rel":"","context":"In "Home Improvement"","block_context":{"text":"Home Improvement","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/home-improvement"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9351,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/24\/rock_around_the.html","url_meta":{"origin":12870,"position":1},"title":"Rock around the house","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Jul-06 6:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"For a weekend I'd thought would be largely tied up with City of Heroes, I ended up doing a lot of household activities.\u00a0 Two stand-outs: I finally got out into...","rel":"","context":"In "Home Improvement"","block_context":{"text":"Home Improvement","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/home-improvement"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42366,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/04\/rt-margiekleerup-front-yard.html","url_meta":{"origin":12870,"position":2},"title":"RT @MargieKleerup: Front yard …","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Jun-14 10:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"RT @MargieKleerup: Front yard in full bloom! http:\/\/t.co\/0C5ztFOzg7","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128202,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/01\/seven-years-ago-the-front-yard.html","url_meta":{"origin":12870,"position":3},"title":"Seven Years Ago: The Front Yard","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Oct-15 12:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been enjoying Google Photo's automated bundles of nostalgia shots. This one recently popped up for me -- it shows our front yard after all the stone work was added and before any (or nearly any of the plants had been put in. Seven years on, plants have filled in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/P1030313-COLLAGE.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/P1030313-COLLAGE.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/P1030313-COLLAGE.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30585,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/15\/pumpkin-patch.html","url_meta":{"origin":12870,"position":4},"title":"Pumpkin Patch","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Oct-12 11:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So my church (Good Shepherd Episcopal in Centennial, http:\/\/gshep.org) has been doing a \"pumpkin patch\" fund-raiser\u00a0the past few years, proceeds of which go to our various outreach (community charity) programs. \u00a0It's been a surprising success, which is very cool.Sunday was supposed to be the date when the pumpkin truck arrived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13032,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/12\/between_our_ideas_and_you.html","url_meta":{"origin":12870,"position":5},"title":"“Between our ideas and your money …”","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Aug-08 3:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Prospective re-landscaping design for the front yard....","rel":"","context":"With 16 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 16 comments","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/12\/between_our_ideas_and_you.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3154\/2758247462_47aee38c56.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}