" This is an impressive set of plans obviously. How many pages is it?"

" I think it's a hundred and thirty."

" Hundred and thirty pages of drawings and that's just for the mansion proper. That doesn't include the out buildings such as the cottage and carriage house, right?"

" Right."

" And how much time have you already spent on this project before groundbreakings?"

" Well the plants themselves took about 4 1/2 months, and then we did a month and a half, almost 2 months of investigation before we start the process."

" This is a historic building, it's early 1800's. So imagine there was a lot of detective work that proof [unk]"

" There was, we did column search. For the analysis of that, we investigated the structural system throughout the entire house,"

" Yes."

" did a lot of test borings, things like that."

" At what point does the contract you're getting involved?"

" We've been involved in the project from the beginning. It's been a cooperative effort between ourselves and the occupants of the building, and we've worked hand in hand with the owner to help them with the investigations and getting the drawings down, do budget updates and scheduling the things of that type."

" Now what are some of the areas that we're discussing right now? Is this the basement?"

" This is the ground floor, and the dark [unk] post shade partitions indicate the original walls, which are gonna remain. And you can see, all of these will be demolished. All these dotted partitions. They'll all be taken out and the entire place will be reconfigured for a more efficient operation."

" Now demolition is well under way almost completed but some of the shaded area here, which is the original structural area. That's the,"

" Yes. The shaded walls are the walls that are the original ones. They depict masonry walls, they will remain and the ones that are soon dotted are all the ones that will be removed. Where you see an opening in the thick masonry [unk], that's new openings to create openings into the new areas, for the new use of the building."

" Yes."

" The kitchen is going to be back in this area and we're opening this area up to make it easier to get the food prepared,"

" Right."

" and eat it upstairs."

" And for a contractor, it's always great to have this level of detail in your specifications. Telling you exactly what's happening, where and how it's supposed to be done. I mean, I know there's some underpinning work has been done here right?"

" Yes. That's true. In this job, we add a multi-level, basement level and you have two steps rise here and we'll going to excavate the floor out, and take the floor down, and you can see the underpinning on this place has a specific sequence so that you don't damage the building, you do it in sections. The UP ones is underpinning ones. So you do all the ones."

" Right."

" And then you come back and do the twos. In that way you only have a narrow part of the bottom of the wall open at any one time."

" At any one time."

" That's to ensure the safety of the building."

" To make sure it doesn't come tumbling down."

" That's right. That's right."

" So it's a very important thing. Keep part of preservation right? John Paul[unk] Then the other thing I wanted to ask you and I noticed there's some demolition still going on in the roof and in the attic. What's planned up there?"

" There's a tremendous amount of work in the attic. At present it's full of dock work and pipes, and all of the dock work is gonna be removed and the systems are all gonna be replaced with new, more energy efficient systems. Such that we have better heating and cooling throughout the entire facility."

" This is the original early heat-proof right? The flat-type?"

" And this is the old dining [unk]"

" And this is the older dining room edition which has a standing scene metal roof?"

" Right."

" Great. Well, we're standing in front of what has been the formal guest quarters for the Governor's Mansion for a long time."

" Indeed."

" And there's a great deal of work that's happening on this. But I understand that all the offices that were in the basement are being moved to the carriage house, that's under construction right?"

" That's right. Both of those are under construction,"

" Right."

" and this we'll use temporarily as offices during the construction of the mansion."

" Okay."