Mike and Marina's House

Alice takes me by Mike and Marina's house at least once a month. She likes to see the progress on the house. Mike is almost done building it. A big load of shingles to cover the outside walls has been delivered.
Alice met Mike and his family almost ten years ago after she first moved into the house we live in. Mike was trying to get approval to tear down a cute, but tiny and very cheaply built "Summer" cottage and replace it with a house big enough for his growing family. Well, long story short, he got approval to build the house he and his family wanted and needed after thousands of people in the City came to his help, including many walking streets before an election to get a law passed to allow more new houses to be built in our neighborhood where many think houses older than 50 years should never be remodeled much less ever torn down for any reason.
So, it's a very special house. Mike has been mostly building it himself. He's worked on other houses, too, but this is the one he's worked the most on.
I first saw a perfect little stick model of it he built by the front sidewalk before the new real foundation was poured. He also had by it for many months a matching model complete with walls like something for a toy railroad.
I wonder if he will have both models inside for a toy railroad one day? One of Alice's cousin has a toy railroad which runs around a Christmas tree. It's fun to watch it go round and round. But it's even more fun to see houses and the land they are on used and loved deeply like Mike's house will be. And the *best* is when there are interesting smells of life to sniff there.