First Phase Done

Here's how the front of the house looked this morning.  Notice the large shrub next to the lamp post..??  There's another one on the other side of this one, but the new staircase needs that space.

Then Chris and Miguel showed up...and sorry, no pictures so far.  They're working too hard and every time I try to get them in a shot, all I can get is the back of their heads while they hammer away with their tools.  I'll catch them before this is over.

This is where the two large, half-dead bushes were next to the staircase.  Chris and Miguel sawed them off and had them strapped to the truck before I could even take a picture.  The new staircase will go down the side of the house, instead of winding all over the front yard, hence why the gnarly shrubs had to go.

Now it's down to the real demolition.  I loved this part.  Just getting rid of the hideous, gray and decrepit porch/stairs made me feel better.

As you can see below, the only thing we have to be careful of now is to NOT open the front door and fall to our doom.  We've bolted the door, and I put a big sign across the door handle saying "DON'T OPEN" just in case we lose our minds somewhere between today and tomorrow when they start rebuilding the new deck/porch.  Hey.  Stranger things have happened and I don't want to show up on any Darwin Awards shows..!!

The remodel saga continues tomorrow.  With any luck--barring temps in the high 90s that could kill off our workers--we should have a new front porch, deck and staircase by Monday or Tuesday.  Very cool.