Here is the front of the garage.

They've started work on raising the floor level. First step: raise the masonry! See on the left side, how the blocks only come up about 2' above the ground. Now see the pillar in the center, which has been detached from the garage framing (see the gap at its top) and extended to about 6' above the ground. The wall on the right, which you can't see here, has been extended. They're going to do something similar with the other walls, then bring in several dozen tons of gravel and fill dirt to raise the ground up to the new level.

And here is the core of a giant oak tree we had cut down from in front of the house. It's close to 3' across. It was a beautiful old tree, but it was leaning over the house. We never understood why the first builder left it there when he initially cleared the lot. And now that it's down and we can see the rot in it, I'm doubly glad we took it out. A tree that big with that much rot in it was going to fall, soon - right through the middle of the house.

Met all our new neighbors at a Super Bowl party last night. They seem nice, and include an equine surgeon, a retired musician who is building a recording studio in his back yard, a bunch of people retired from IBM and a couple of triathletes. Yipe.