On September 5, I went down to Duck to see the lot, which has now been cleared.

The "Before" picture:

This was 9 August 1997. Note that my lot is clearly the preferred location to place trash cans. Guess we'll change that soon…

Here it is after clearing. Note also the amazing difference having a polarized filter (and shooting in the afternoon with the sun at my back) makes.

Standing near the dune by the house to the left and shooting ne to sw, it looked like this before being cleared:

Looking roughly along the same line after clearing, the lot looks bigger:

Again, that polarized filter is a wonder.

Some bad news appeared in the form of the dune line -- I can't build the house as close to the dune as the guy to the north (left, looking from the street). Here's a view of the lot along the dune line:

Take a look at the three houses you see here -- the one on the right, which you can only see some deck on, the house on the left, a standard two-story house, and the one in the middle, the one-story house. The two on the outside were apparently built when the rules were different, as I won't be able to build any further up than the guy in the middle.

Looking from the dune to the street, it looks like this:

About where the soil color becomes lighter is where the house will start. Where the person is standing (that's Kaz Romanzcyk, the builder) is where the house will end.

The lot turned out to be in something of a hole. The lot of the guy to the north is higher than the lot of the guy to the south, and I'm below both of them. Standing in the lot and looking to the north, you see this:

Kaz is going to get enough fill dirt to make it level with that lot.

They found some interesting plants on the lot. The bayberry isn't surprising:

The surprise was the cherry trees:

They're a bit vine-encrusted, but cherries nonetheless.