Demo days

This week marks a monumental step in the progress of our house project, one that is met with mixed emotions. Our little house in east Austin is gone. In its place is an empty lot full of dirt, a special pecan tree and most of all the promise of a dream come true. 

Designing and building a modern home has been a dream of mine for over 10 years. I started Grassrootsmodern.com in 2005 to document my journey towards that goal, and after many starts, stops, reboots and full on failures I find myself now on the brink of the beginning. It's exhausting, terrifying,  and most of all thrilling. 

As we have gotten near demo time, I've heard a few (polite) critics of us tearing down yet another house in east Austin. Let me just say to all of you, I get it. I literally poured my own sweat and blood into this little house to make it a home, and while it looked great in photos, let's just say that the blue tarp shown on the roof below only begins to tell the whole story of the house. What I do know is that ultimately I feel good about the the project, and equally importantly my neighbors, and my neighborhood feel good about it as well, and that's good enough for me.

Check out the carnage below, and pour one out for the little house named Alpha.

PS Don't worry, all the goodies on the inside went to a good home. More on that later...