More Good News, Bad News

Good news- We have lots of construction going on! :)
Bad news- So does the lot next door! :(

I'll start with the bad news... after lots of calling the developer, calling the city, waiting, calling people again, emailing people, seeing people next door doing destruction so stopping to make sure they knew about our lot line only to find out that they didn't know what I was talking about, calling people again, talking to city people one more time, then calling the developer again, the developer didn't really change their plans at all and the only thing that we have going for us is that they can't touch anything on our side of the lot line. So, today, they're out there ripping down all of the greenery that divides our lots that is on their property... which is a majority of it. As I was outside taking pictures, a scared little bunny went running out of the green away from the big mean machines. :( So, here's the view of the lot next door from the balcony in the back of our house now:

Fortunately, the back part was the thinnest of the greenery on the lot, so it gets thicker as you to toward the front, but it's still nothing like the 20 ft. thick sound and sight barrier that we had before. It makes me sad. :(

Now on to the good news...
There's SO much activity going on on our house! The contractor said they thing the garage should be ready for final inspection by the end of next week! That means we'll be able to start moving thing out of the workshop and into the garage (YEA for my first big decorating/reorganizing project of this renovation!) so they'll be able to start on the interior of the workshop! The frame is all complete, the roof just needs shingles, the panels are going up, and the soffits are installed. As I type they're replacing the front windows in the house with double-hung windows that will open from the top and they will use some of our old windows in the new garage. (Side note about the windows: The crank windows that we have now look great, but they are totally not practical in our house because the windowsill is SO low that Annabelle can climb up in it so right now we can't leave the windows open with only the screens - which fall off easily btw- to protect Annabelle from falling out. Additionally, since we get such a strong breeze the windows get blown off of the crank often, and it's no fun to try to hang on to a window that's 25 feet up in the air while trying to reinstall it!) Here's the side of the garage that has panelling already installed (they still have to cut the openings for the door and mini-garage door though):

And here's what the front of the garage looked like a few days ago:

That whole area upstairs is floored in for storage! Unfortunately, the trusses only leave 5ft of clearance so you have to lean over when you're walking around up there, but it's still great to have SO MUCH storage space!

I'll post about the progress on the house really soon!