Mono Monday : : Building

This picture shows both the noun and the verb version of the challenge....This is the last phase of building in the project which began about three years ago in a canyon which used to be a grassy hill with a creek at the bottom of it. Before the building began, it was the only place in Sonoma County where Ozzie could run around without a leash. It was originally designated as a final phase of the Skyhawk development where Dana lives, but the contractor went bankrupt in 2008 and the property was owned the bank. We always knew that at some point would take place here but it was still sad to see the earth movers come in....

Things progressed rather slowly for quite some time. We suspect that there was a lot of opposition to the project. Actual construction was also delayed by last year's extremely wet winter. This is a shot of the final phase...the last of 35 houses filling up three cul de sacs where once Ozzie and Blake and a lot of other neighborhood dogs liked to run. Rudy, whose legs are only two inches long, was game too, but he picked up burrs and foxtails like a dust mop and hated having them combed out, so sometimes stayed home....

I was able to walk Ozzie on the road overlooking this project this morning. The picture shows most of the houses from the back. They are selling for over a million dollars, and even the unfinished ones have been sold, such is the craziness of the housing market here. 

The creek is still there, down at the bottom of the hill where I stood to take the picture. I imagine it was preserved as 'open space' as part of some deal with the developer.