TENDING TO THE PREMONITION
Succumbing to the inevitability of erosion, death by excavator cannot be a pleasant way to retire one's house. But then the option of watching the ocean pound it into submission and then dealing with the cleanup after the house parts are scattered up and down the island's beaches is no picnic either.

PHOTOS BY JANE CARLIN

Bit by bit on Monday, an excavator picked away at Charlie Warner's 27 Sheep Pond Road house, the debris of which may be transported off island. Deciding to demolish his house after the April 16 nor'easter knocked it down onto the beach, Warner will also raze his second summer house, next door at 25 Sheep Pond Road, probably sometime this week. Warner might have continued to use this house had the storm not exposed the septic system used by both houses, rendering it beyond repair.

To dismantle his east house, Warner received an emergency order of conditions from the Conservation Commission last week that stipulated that he remove all the bluff-armoring sandbags from his beach. Efforts by Warner and his caretaker, Jeremy T. Nelson, to find someone or an entity that could use this second house have, to date, met with no success.