But enough about the 10,000-square-foot monster homes [0] and the swift water taxis of Lake Como [0]. The destructive among you will be pleased to know that the old, decrepit studio [0] has finally started to come down. For real this time. After much hemming [0] and great hawing [0], I finally busted out the decon tools [1] and pulled down some walls.

Minutes after I got through this entire pile—a rough guess would be 413,986 nails—my wife came up and said “Why don’t you just get a de-nailing gun for that?” A de-nailing gun [2]? “Yeah, that’s how the deconstruction teams from Resource [3] and all the salvage yards [4] get all the nails out. Otherwise it would take forever.” This is why I married my wife—she’s much smarter than I am.

She’s also the one who’s been nailing it into my head that I need a firmer schedule. I’ve been sort of floating along on notions of arbitrary dates and deadlines, pulling down a wall here or some insulation there—which is something you can’t really get away with in construction. For instance, I rolled out of bed the other day thinking that I was going to tear the cedar-shake roof [4] off the studio that day, but—uh, I should probably tell the neighbors that I’m going to be shoveling shingles into their back yard this afternoon. Another example: The studio’s exterior west wall is buried about six inches into the surrounding dirt. In order to pull that wall down, I have to dig out that wall. But there’s an electric line and a gas line that are also buried there, meaning I can’t really start hacking round with a shovel—I have to call the local utility and have them come point out where my lines run so I can dig around them. “Hey dudes, can you come map my utility lines for me? Like this afternoon?” doesn’t really work with the big utility companies.

With great humor I look back on my bonehead predictions [4] of a few short months ago—that I would have the studio torn down and a new foundation in place by this time. As if. I still haven’t pinned down what the foundation walls are going to be made of.