Hi all!
Sorry I didn't come back with the new pics as I promised... the block layers did not finish until about 6pm on Oct 21, which was only 3 days shy of a full month since they had started. I think I might have had a little bout of situational depression set in, either that or the really bad allergies I've been experiencing sapped me. Maybe both.
So, anyway, let me bring you up to speed with a couple of pics:
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The blocks are done! This was taken from North east corner of the front porch
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Because the excavator dug us too deep, we are now below the sewage and had to have something I very much did not want installed -- an expulsion pit -- so, I get to live with and pay for his mistakes for the rest of my time here. (The electricity to run the pump - a backup electrical supply to run the pump during power outages and routine maintenance and replacement of the pump.) Oh, plus, the big walk in storage closet I had intended for my Halloween and Christmas decor (I'm one of half a dozen houses in town that are known for our trick or treat mini-haunts.) I was already having to re think how I wanted to lay out the interior of that small room because that turned out to be the best place to put our sump. Now, the expulsion pit is in there, too and together they take up such a huge chunk of that area that I don't think I can use that small room for anything at all. So, yay Mr. Not Really An Excavator But Solicited A Bid As One -- you've made me hate a part of my house and I don't even have the house yet. Good going.
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| Taken from inside garage area looking to north west toward back. The basement has been water sealed and, to the right of the center of this picture, you can see the expulsion pit (the tall one) and the sump just to the right of that. These pits are standard in homes in surrounding cities - one reason I won't live in any of those cities. Had the original house had one when we were house hunting, we would not have purchased it. To say I am extremely unhappy that it is now necessary that I have one is an understatement. |
And here's what's going on, today (October 29, 2013:)
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| Either an Imperial Walker disguised as a cement pump truck has arrived OR a pump truck has arrived to pour our basement floor! (As you can see, it's supposed to rain -- let's hope it holds off as rain would be bad!) |
The pump truck is actually a happy surprise. I usually drive by the (not a house yet) every morning after I drop my youngest off at school (our real house is just two blocks from the school, our rental house is on the other side of town from the school.) I didn't expect to see anyone there, that early. Then, there it was. So, I pulled into the culdesac to snap some pictures, intending to get out of the van and snap some from closer up. However, a few seconds after I snapped this, the circle began to fill with work trucks arriving for the job. So, with parking extremely limited in the culdesac, I decided more pictures could wait and I freed up the space I was taking up. Here's hoping the rain holds off -- rain right now would be very, very bad.
In other news, as I mentioned, we were the Halloween House on our side of town. In addition to outside decor and bits and pieces of things I use to make decor from, I had a very extensive collection of costumes, capes, makeup, wigs, accessories and things to make all of the above from. And I lost every bit of it in the fire (I did have a very small amount of outside decor in the garage instead of the basement and some of that was retrievable - very little of it, it's in bad shape, but it's set up on my porch here at the rental along with two new - not styrofoam -tombstones I purchased to begin my collection anew. Anyway, as of the other night, I hadn't found enough to work with to put a costume together for this year to go with my micro-mini-haunt and I was getting pretty depressed about it as this would mark the first year -- in my ENTIRE life (including infancy) that I had not had a costume for Halloween. I happened to be having a private online conversation with a small group of my online pals from my t-shirt adventure and mentioned that I was probably going to cry a lot on Halloween as my goal had been to dress up for Halloween every year until I die of record-setting old age and that the fire had robbed me of that, too. One of my pals, whose Corgi had been visiting me in my dreams (I rarely dream of my own pets, so it's very weird that I would dream of one of hers,) started firing off low-budget-quick-to-throw-together ideas and her brainstorming got me perked up out of my doldrums enough to think maybe, just maybe, I could make one more run through the shops to try to get some cheap department store halloween makeup to work with in addition to minimal supplies I already have here and put something together. The original plan was a zombie, but I've been watching skull face tutorials online, some of which use a mix of real makeup and the cheap halloween junk and if I can steady my hand enough, I might be able to draw myself into my micro-mini-haunt. If not, it all washes off and I know how to do a zombie, I'll just be using different materials for the rotting flesh than I've used before, but the basic principals are the same as confirmed by my friend. Thanks Friend -- give that Corgi a big hug from me. :)
Here are some photos of Halloweens past... and one at the end of what's left.
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| I think this goblin ate hubby. |
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| This DIY chemical peel stings a little, I hope it's working!! |
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| Mr. Graves was my newest dummy. This was his debut year, 2011. We tweaked him considerably, last year, so that he looked more like a real person pretending to be a dummy. |
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| The gloves I have on with my reaper costume are (were) professional studio grade costuming. Hoping to find another pair. LOVED them! Actually built this costume around them. |
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| Me with my (floating illusion) ghoul dummy (only her mask made it out after the fire.) |
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| Thug afterlife. |
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| And this is all that's left. The two tombstones are new. You can't see my giant reaper (I call him Guido because his face structure and black robing reminds me of Father Guido Sarducci) but he sort-of made it out OK after the fire, too. I had to do quite a bit of repair work and when I'm home again, I'll do more extensive/permanent repairs on him. Bonesy and the Jester will have to be completely rebuilt and re-costumed. Their body forms are rotting and mildewed. The hanging bat's face is partially melted - he actually looks gnarlier with it that way, so I thing I'll keep him as-is. But his electronics no longer work. The stick is a sign post that will point the way to the graveyard on Halloween night. No sense putting it out til then. Now I have to figure out how to light this with no outside outlets and all my lighting stuff gone. :( |
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