The return to remodeling mentioned in the last blog entry is
now starting. We’ve held off while
learning what to expect with Don’s chemotherapy. It turns out we were somewhat optimistic in
our expectations for what Don can do, but our plan allows for that. We are now starting our porch remodeling,
pretty much as described in the last blog, with most of it hired out. We are hiring a contractor friend of ours
(Corey...his wife is Sami’s exercise teacher) to build a new front porch. Here is our rough concept sketch (which we
did):
It will provide a more inviting path to the front door from
the driveway, and also adds some interest to the front of the house. We have signed up for two small parts of the
project…removing the shrubs in front, and opening the inside wall around the
front door (to permit adding the sidelight windows and to move wall
switches). We removed two of the shrubs
today in about an hour of work together (on the left side of the house near the
garage). That used up Don’s allotment of
energy pellets for the day. We’ll
continue to whittle away at the shrubs.
Corey expects to start his work at the end of
June, and to take less than a month to build the porch. We’re pretty confident that that fits within
the window available before Don’s stem cell transplant, which will keep him out
of the picture for a while.
Here’s a ‘before’ picture, to record what we are starting with, and a couple of pictures of the hard-working laborers. To tell the truth, Sami (and the pickup pulling on the stumps) did almost all of the hard work.
Cheers!
