7 A.D.: Universal Pain Assessment Tool

Sitting in the doctor's office waiting for the results of our son's flu test, I drifted to the handy chart on the wall to self-assess not only the fever boy sitting in my wife's arms, but the general state of our family after one week of construction.

We are decidedly in stage 4, the not-so-happy-but-not-so-sad-yet face.  Living in smaller quarters is a bit of a trick, as we have absorbed the demo-ed areas into our life.  The kitchen now doubles as a home office.  The living room houses outside toys.  And the dining room is a domestic United Nations, with a little bit of everything.

1 A.D.: A Slow News Day

The demo guys seemed to have expended all their fun tearing frame down yesterday, because all they sent today was one lonely soul with a jackhammer who had to jack, pry, and haul all by himself for 8 hours.  As a result, the awesome gush of progress from yesterday was down to a trickle today.  Oh well.  Pool guys come tomorrow to start framing the new footprint.  Click through to the pics, and to more on the 1963 newspaper.

0 A.D. (After Demolition)

Woo-frickin-hoo.  Tomorrow became today.  A new time begins that marks in process rather than waiting to process.  As exciting as demolition was because it marked the start of something new, it was equally exciting for what it signaled an end to.  The months and years of fretting, reworking, new architects, new plans, new engineers, new contractors, new bids - all preparation for something else.  For today.

1 B.C.: Un-Realtime

1 B.C.  One day B.efore C.onstruction.  B.C. represents an ancient time, a prehistory before an epochal milestone.  And while I'm fairly certainly we won't be birthing the Messiah in the next 24 hours, we enter a new era nonetheless.  No matter how exciting the new age will be, today is a moment to reflect on the age that ends.

2 B.C.: Trench Warfare

Monday is the day, or so we think. It’s been pushed back so many times I’m having trouble getting psyched about it. But now, there are no more plans to revise or permits to acquire. No more contractor schedules to dovetail, at least for the demo. Just over two months after we thought we were starting, Monday is it. Amazingly, we still have things to do to be ready for Day 0.