A year to give thanks
Oh, what a year it’s been.
This time a year ago my wife was 8 months pregnant and our house was on stilts. We were living in a rented apartment with a subset of our belongings. Suffice it say my nerves were somewhat on edge. (On the bright side I didn’t have to worry about building a room for the kid-to-be. We just bought a pack’n’play and put it next to our bed. Newborns really don’t need much space.)
Here are some photos from the early days of the project. 
After clearing out the kludged, decidedly not-to-code internal walls the previous owner had put up, we found roots growing through the 1880s-vintage brick, and that our house, while a survivor of the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes, was resting on earth in places.
We thus had affirmation that our project was indeed a good idea - given that the house had made it 120 years, there had seemed to be some logic to if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it - and also had corroboration of our worst suspicions.
Just for kicks, I will include my favorite shot from the project - that of the Bobcat. Imagine coming home to this. Honey, there’s a Bobcat in our garage. 
I believe in family and friends, the Golden Rule and my own abilities. Those tend to be sturdy pillars and despite an area studies educational background with ample religious exposure (above my desk as I type: the New Oxford Bible with Apocrypha; The Bhagavad-Gita; What the Buddha Taught; and, for good measure, The Prince, The Book of Five Rings, and The Aeneid. No quizzes, please, I’m rusty) and a dual faith wedding ceremony I don’t spend much time pondering or seeking the presence of the Almighty, whatever name you may assign it.
But during a trip to Washington last December about three weeks into the project, I did pause outside of the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, feeling every bit the supplicant. I was returning to my hotel in Eastern Market from an event at the Hart Building, which means a beautiful walk south past the Supreme Court and Capitol Hill. The air was winter crisp and the Capitol really looked the part of the shining city on the hill. A photo from that night - unfortunately not a very good one - is here. 
The church was unfortunately closed and I trudged back to my hotel feeling both humbled and frustrated. Humbled by the sense that events were now beyond my control; frustrated since the events were, in the end, of our choosing and creation, and we are two highly educated professionals who knew what we were getting into. With that all said there’s a protector instinct that comes out during pregnancy and knowing that our home was basically in the hands of our contractor was tough to stomach, even if he was a known quantity with whom family had worked for years.
Through the combined good graces of an uneventful pregnancy and delivery, family support, a fairly resilient kid (touch wood) and a good contractor, we made it through unscathed. Ten truck rolls of concrete, two bathrooms, two bedrooms and one office later, our reconstruction project ended on time, to the day. (more…)