And the work goes on until it rains....

Busy with my bears thoughts (as if that's my excuse) I haven't been doing that much work on the house, but after two months of postponements and bad weather, there is some progress.  Today, to celebrate the first morning of sunshine I did a huge laundry.  Managed to do it early enough so that all clothes were dry before thunder rumbled the sky around 3pm.  

Much of the work, alas, is deeply remedial.  This isn't exactly  a surprise, but it is a bit worse than we'd thought.   The crumbling foundation under the dining room has been re-built and cemented and supporting beams put in place on each side of the rotting floor beams.   This should level the floor some--though I assume it will still be slanting.  I don't think anyone realized what terrible shape those beams were in and assumed they'd last another couple of centuries.  Now that they've been shored up, the floor will be much more level--an unexpected bonus, I suppose. 

Karl, the plumber, showed up.  There was lots of conversation about routing of pipes, etc., but I did not participate.   In addition to speaking, they also removed more bits of wall and put in some pipes.  I busied myself taking a picture of Karl's truck. 

Alex, the landscaper  I've signed on to get the side of the house in order showed up as well, though I did not think to get a picture of his white truck as well.  (The truck behind Karl's is George's).  For starters, he sprayed orange paint lines on the grass.   Although my phone camera does not do it justice, I did document it before the rains began.  Will the paint out-last this downpour?  We will soon find out.

Johnny and George did manage (I think) to get most of the openings in the wall closed off.  Oh--we do not need more rain--and it is coming down in torrents.