The Amazing Trailer Transformation

I have lived in my house for nearly 18 years.  It's a fairly old house, a colonial revival of the sort that was popular in the early 20th century.  I have neighbors on one side that live in another old house, but more of an arts and crafts shingle style house.  On the other side was the TRAILER.  I have no idea how it got there, as this style of home is not usually allowed where I live.  But be that as it may, it was there.  An older couple lived there and aside from the fact that they didn't really do anything to pretty the place or the yard up, I didn't take much notice of their property.

Then one Sunday morning in 1993 (I think that was the year), the trailer caught fire.  The neighbors were inside.  After an amazing and daring rescue by this guy, they both made it out alive.  The older woman never quite recovered and went on to a nursing home, the older man continued to live there (in a replacement trailer) for many years.  We referred to him forever-more as Burned Out Bernie.

Eventually Burned Out Bernie passed away and he left the property to a friend of his, who didn't want it.  He sold it to a woman from Maine who attempted to live there with her very odd son.  They only lasted a couple of years before the call of Maine proved to great to overcome and she left.  Soon the property became overgrown (mostly from thistle plants that the birds kindly planted thanks to an abundance of thistle seed from my feeders!).  I despaired at what was to become of this unsightly situation.

Then one day last week as I was getting ready for work I heard a commotion in the street.  A giant backhoe had arrived and seemed to be positioning itself near the trailer.  Could my prayers really be answered?  In fact, YES!  Before I left for work that day, the backhoe was happily demolishing the trailer!  I could only hope that a house was on it's way!

Here's what I found when I got home from work.

Trailer gone!  Although satellite tv dish oddly remains.  Just below this sloping pile of dirt and sand used to be a retaining wall.  It too is gone. 

This is a big pile of dirt at the back of the property.  I can't wait to see what happens with that.  I've never been this close to a construction project that I can monitor its progress on a daily basis.  So far, the light has been good when I get home from work so I can take some decent pictures.  I'm anxious to follow the progress.