Denise the Destroyer

Yesterday was Hauling Day! Yay! People came to take all the crud and scary stuff that fell out of the walls. At 7:45 am yesterday, a big truck pulled up in front of our house and three men came out with shovels, wheelbar

rows, and trash cans. This was the first great event of the day - they were scheduled to come at 8, but showed up 15 minutes early! How cool is that? Since people in construction have somewhat of a reputation for being flakey, I was prepared to be impressed if they showed up at all.

But show up they did and immediately set to work. These guys are fantastic - not only do they take away your stuff, they also load up all your crap into their truck. As our previous pictures have indicated, we had been throwing stuff anywhere we could, not bothering to be organized. 

We wanted to post pictures of the actual truck they used, but the battery on our camera was dead. So here's a picture of a truck that was very like theone used to haul away the martian dust.

So the way this works is that these guys load up all the crap, haul it away, and charge you by the number of truckloads and number of trips to the dump. So obviously, in order to be as efficient as possible, you want the trucks to be crammed with as much stuff as possible before taking it to the dump. Since Ryan had to work, I was designated to hang out all day with the hauling guys, and watch them clean up my mess.

Well, actually not. I felt funny standing around just watching them, so while they filled their truck, I puttered around, tearing down other walls, brushing off insulation that got stuck in the corners, pulling out nails, etc. Toward the end of the day, a second crew of guys showed to help the first group finish up. One of them passed me as I was yanking nails out of some studs, and asked, "Did you do all this?", indicating the missing walls and heap of wooden planks piled on the floor.

"Yeah, some of it," I answered. 

"Wow - so you're a destroyer." 

I think I like that: Denise the Destroyer. Unfortunately, I am probably not a terribly formidable destroyer. I think the hauling guys were actually pretty amused watching the tiny little Asian girl pulling with all her might to get a plank of wood off the wall, something any of them probably could have done with their little finger. Ryan actually thought I could use this to our advantage and ask them to haul out the old bathtubs. Apparently, in order to remove a bathtub, you have to take a sledgehammer and smash it to pieces first. This sounded overly-daunting, even to the Destroyer, so as the guys were shoveling martian dust into their trash cans, I asked, in my best I'm-just-a-small-little-girl voice, if they could take the bathtubs. "Sure, no problem."  Score! Bathtubs gone!

This is a picture of the kitchen after the debris was removed. The puddle of water is from a leaky valve where the kitchen sink used to be.

And finally, Denise the Destroyer!

We wanted to post more pictures of the house now that the debris is cleared, but apparently, Denise is a terrible photographer. More pictures to follow.