Hangin' With The Homeys

It may appear that I am destroying my house, but there is method to the madness.

On this beautiful morning in May, I was out in the 'hood, hanging with my crew, which consists of 30 or so women, and 100 or so little kids. Ok, so gangsta I am not. Some of the dads were there, but I typically avoid talking to them cuz, you know, they have jobs and all. Seriously, sometimes I feel that my status as homeschool dad places me into this sort of netherworld where I can't hang with the dads, and can't hang with the moms. Case in point - later, in the afternoon, some of us went to a homey's crib to hang out ("homey" is street for "homeschooler"). I spent an hour or so going over curriculum for next year, and my head was spinning - um, I don't think it was the wine, though it was rather good. Those other moms - they are ALL OVER THAT STUFF (the curriculum, not the wine). They flip through book after book after book, detailing what it is, how effective it is, how it fits in to the comprehensive curriculum, what supporting materials you need (er, consumables), etc etc. I can't hang. No way. My head spins after the first minute or so.

Later, they all sat down to review pictures of "Mommapalooza", which is a homeschool mom's weekend at the beach (picture "Homeys Gone Wild"). No way my eyes could see THOSE pictures. So I watched from a distance. It sure looked fun!

There are times, in the middle of a day like today, that I have a MIFLAW moment. Remember that Shania Twain song, Man, I Feel Like A Woman? When I have a MIFLAW moment, that's when I come home, crack a beer, put on a dust mask, and fire up my saw.


So here is where we are with the house replacement project.

First, continuing the work I'd done on the front of the house, I had to undercut the sixth course of brick along the north side of the house - Tyvek Central. That done, it was a simple matter of using a large pry bar to start pulling those top six courses of brick off. Except that didn't go very well - the first ones to fall tore a huge gash into my carefully installed tarp.

Several rolls of duct tape later, the tarp was repaired, and I had to devise a way to pull it up onto the roof, out of the way. That was done by attaching long strings to the bottom of the tarp, and then attaching bricks to those strings. The bricks were thrown up onto the roof, where I was able to pull the tarp up a little at a time, by the strings.



With that out of the way, I could remove the remainder of the brick. Except that I had to rig something up to protect the new door and light in the stairwell. This is what I came up with:



With that done, I had to cut the brick monolith into smaller sections, to minimize the damage it might cause when it fell. I accomplished this by making vertical cuts every three feet or so, all along the top portion of the wall.



Then the brick came down. LOTS of brick. I'm estimating one ton of brick ($65 at the landfill), since the front of the house was 3/4 ton. Now I have a nice new surface upon which to install the new stone window ledges (when the windows finally come in, and after I actually make the new stone window ledges).



Once the ledge is in, I can lay the stone. Three tons, to be exact. I ordered it yesterday. Here it is, from the stone retailer's website:




So, I'm going to have to take a second job to pay for it. I'm thinking of selling cosmetics. Its a very popular brand - the stuff practically sells itself. Ever heard of it? Its called MIFLAW Cosmetics.