page 4

in the summer of '03 the szuplats purchased property on 12 vacation lane.

found here will be details of putting a structure up

written mostly by erica and photographed a lot by ben, however like most things in life there are exceptions....

for instance ben wrote that last useless sentence.

november 14

today jeff moniz poured the concrete slab for the basement. there are no pictures as of yet... and i'm not really sure there will be any pictures coming of a slab of concrete on the floor.... (ok here it is)...

suffice to say that it's one of the best looking basement floors i've ever seen. damn its sharp! erica and i (hi this is ben again) swung by falmouth lumber today and they assured us the roof shingles we are going to use are a stock item. according to the framer he will be back on wednesday and we hope that by thanksgiving we might be shingling and siding etc!!!!

so here it is- the call for arms

(erica had changed this to a call to arms but i (ben again) have changed it back to what i really intended..... a call FOR arms (you know.... to help out...we will need many arms, more than four truthfully....)(you still with me(love the parathetial thought by the way)))

any able bodied persons willing to roof or side in late november and early december (on the weekends), in exchange for food and undying gratitude let us know.... we would love your help! so email us at ballsup@cape.com

 

Nov. 15: DUB visits the site

uncle dub makes a surprisingly social southerly sojourn over the bridge and gets the grand tour. (this is like the real world epsiode where some cast member's friend comes to visit) you too can go on your very own tour without ever leaving your lazy boy recliner! this is because most of the current tour is imagination! (of course you won't get in the blog this way.)

ben and myself (erica again) make a trip over the bridge too, the other way! we go to our new favorite "destination store"

we got ourselves some old countertop that came from some school's science lab! you know the kind, the black ones. we don't know what they are made of , some seem like cement and some seem like compressed plywood board but all have the black coating that is also an unknown substance. we are assured that they are non-toxic though because, "if they were, the asbestos guys would have taken them away." we hope to use them in the kitchen but if we can't cut them or something, we will use them for the darkroom in the basement. we also paid for a clawfoot tub and will go pick it up next weekend.

this picture will not only give you an idea of what kind of grooming i do on a "work" day but also some idea of the quantity of items at the salvage place. they have just as many of any item you are looking for, be it doors, windows, school desks, chairs, cabinets and what all anything you can remove from from a building before it gets torn down. ben even spotted a breakfast nook , just like ones we were imagining. however, the items can be in pristine, restored, quality, expensive antique condition as well as rusty, rundown, and rickety. We intended to get a tub that didn't really need a new enamel finish and just clean it up ourselves. However the price was right for an already reconditioned one with feet already attached (sorry no pic yet.)

 

been wondering where vacation lane is..... well here you go

 

 

 

 

 

11-21-03 nothing going on this week unfortunantly. the framing was supposed to begin two days ago, however it will now begin on monday november 24 and take "a week and a half". This puts us on the roof on the weekend of december 6th. in other news, the water plans for bringing the town water up the street from john parker (see map above) got approved today... thats a huge relief as we saw this as one of the last remaining major hurtles!!!!

szups, erica and stach, go over the restoration plans for the newly purchase claw footed tub (anyone else wondering if these two could have coordinated better so that their hats would match too!!!) the tub looks much nicer on the inside than one looking at the outside, shown here, might guess.

here is erica (again) showing off some other new items- the new broom that she will be riding to the job and the new sink that ben will shortly be using to wash up the blood coming from his head for that last comment.

 

 

 

november 24

this is all i could think when i saw what you see below

 

 

wholey carp!!!

i arrive around 5 pm (this is ben by the way) after work (sorry about the poor quality dark flash night pictures, better ones coming), knowing that the framing crew probably would have a least one wall up.... i dont think you can ever really be ready for big dramatic changes. well i wasnt.... i was stunned to see how large a wall this is.... just the fact that we even have a wall......

wholey carp!

i mean really...... were all you readers ready for this (all 5.7 of you now). well the next week should be exciting so stay tuned. erica will likely become the photographer as i am banning myself from the lot while the framers are there.... dont want to get in the way and they scare me.

 

Nov. 25th

erica: a beautiful fall morning (it's not winter yet is it!?) brings us day 2 of the framing. the work crew, consisting of don and three other guys, build the walls for the entire first floor. these pics were taken around 8:45 a.m. on my daily visit to the job site. the framer asked that i just come by every morning to touch base. this is ok by me except that my boots are new and i think they are staring!!! ok, i'm not really that paranoid, but don asks questions and i give answers and then i go home and search the web for construction terminology that involves things like "plate level," windows and ceilings and just hope and pray that we understood each other enough that things come out right. so far it looks great! i have unfortunately given ben my horrible cold of the past week and so he came home this afternoon and played video games about the army. (except this video simulation involves toy soildiers in a backyard. hmm... that sounds strangely familiar...liek something kids used to do in the backyard?) anyway, we ventured out after dark and discovered that we had two sets of stairs! the stairs going to the basment are done as well as the stairs going to the second floor/loft. be careful if you visit! the stairs to the second floor are great, it's just that the second floor doesn't exist yet. it's like a stairway to heaven...

left: looking from the front door to the back corner of the kitchen. right: looking thru the front door to the back of the house.

 

thanksgiving day a tour group arrives

and the state of things on the site

and pete shows off his desk football goal posts

 

 

still interested... well continue on to page 5, where i think we will really get a septic sytem!

 

 

 

 

bens first attempt at inserting a counter.....provided by http://www.digits.com/