Chopping off the 1840s addition

In early August, the crew returned to the site to remove parts of the farmhouse we are not saving – the 1840s addition that was built without a foundation, and a small room on the west side of the house that was subsiding into a rubble wall. Though we visit the farm daily, we missed the big moment when Josh put his Kubota operating skills to use, tearing down the walls. When we left in the morning, the house looked like this:

When we showed up in the afternoon, it looked like this; the 1840s addition had been subtracted.

Happily for us, our neighbors up the hill heard a commotion and came down to record the destruction in this video.

After the destruction came the clean-up and we saw what Josh can do with an Kubota. He scooped up the debris with surprising delicacy and loaded it into the dumpster to be hauled away. He used the machine to pick up and move heavy granite steps and the stones that lined the old sills were and stacked them for future use in our landscaping.