Day 0

The roughly 900 square foot addition will run perpendicular to the existing structure giving the completed house an “L” shaped footprint. Extending to about the middle of the brick planter, the inside of the “L” will line up with the left side of the double fireplace chimney.

The yard light will probably not be re-incorporated into the new landscape. But it does help to know how big the planter was:

That is a really big tree. I always thought it was a Birch Tree, but no one else seemed to be able to identify it. The sign on it advises the timberjack to leave enough stump for a backhoe to dig up.

I removed the wood privacy fence, and various bricks/plants in preparation for the following day’s start of construction

Moving inside, this is one of the two fireplaces the double chimney serves. Interestingly, when we bought the house around 1994, it did not appear that this full-masonry fireplace had ever burned more than one or two fires. Within a year or two of living there, I ran a gas line to it to service gas logs. Since this fireplace is going away in the new construction, the last fire pictured below was built just to say we built a real fire there:

… And here is the “Siamese” fireplace in the den. It will remain, and continue to burn wood as it always has:

Grilled burgers tonight because, in addition to losing the patio, we will also temporarily lose the grill’s natural gas connection point. Below, Number 1 son gets one last look at the original back yard.