1 Person, 3 Days, Average Temp: 97 Degrees...And No Shade

Before:
Pretty stark, lifeless and cold. "The slab" is just the perfect height for Caleb to ride his tricycle off and really need the helmet he'll be wearing.

During #1:
You see that jackhammer on the left? It was my friend for 24 hours. I had to make use of every minute since I was paying for it.

During #2 (After...for now):
Anyone who has done this kind of work will appreciate the blood sweat (and tears) that went into this.

And, since I had the jackhammer, I figured I would make the pathway for the Bobcat that will need to get to the back of the house to get all of the rubble and dirt out. Otherwise, I'd need to either rent it again, or just get up plenty of speed in the Bobcat (and rip off the side of the house probably).

So, how does this all happen in 3 days? First, I had to pry up, lift and carry about 200 pavers, about 20 pounds each. Those are all now stacked on the side of the house and being sold on Craigslist right now. That took a whole day, and destroyed my hands.


Step two, rent the biggest jackhammer you can hold sideways and start blasting away. I was optimistic until I saw that they had put rebar down about every 5th hole in the cinder block wall and poured in the strongest cement known to man. It didn't help that the rebar/cement went down below ground level, so that I was jackhammering blind when the the dirt would vibrate down into my working hole. As I type this, my hands are swollen from inflammation because they've been vibrated to death. I would like to think they are just muscular now, but the inability to make a good fist disabused me of that notion.

While I was apologizing to the neighbors for the jackhammering, they filled me in with all kinds of info. We found out that those "stair rails" are actually parts of a bed. We'd had our suspicions, and now they're confirmed.

"Hurry, Bri, get the camera so I can look really strong when I pull these things out."

Like uncovering a dead body (which we still think might happen), we found out that the cinder block wall is really just a facade over a previous railroad-tie wall of similar proportions. Previous owners will never cease to amaze me with their poor decision-making abilities. And no, I'm not faking it - railroad ties are really really heavy.

Even Bri, at 8 1/2 months pregnant got in on it for a few minutes. That just proves that she is the TOUGHEST woman out there period (well, except for my Mom, who is probably a tie, since she moved about 40 wheelbarrow loads of dirt a couple of years ago all on her own when she was working on our back yard in Moraga!). I've got a true pioneer wife.


Here's the gate pillar on the side of the house that had to go bye-bye so that a Bobcat could get back and carry away all the dirt and rubble. It also had the rebar, especially big cinder blocks, and the other-wordly-strong cement. You'll also notice the stack of pavers to be sold. There are two kinds, the big, heavy 12 by 12 flat ones and the smaller crooked-brick ones. Note: this is only less than half of them, the rest are on the other side of the house!

Here are my piles. I'm pretty proud of them if I do say so myself. For about 5 minutes after I finished today I just sat and looked at them. The pictures might not do them justice, but for little old me, working all by my lonesome, I felt pretty good. That is, until I collapsed on the couch.