back patio project

By the driveway BEFORE:

AFTER:

Back Patio BEFORE:

AFTER:


Work IN PROGRESS:

Dave decided to sledge hammer the old patio and sidewalk out. When people offered to help, he would decline. He said it was his Gold's membership. And he actually enjoyed doing it.

Dave took 5 truck loads of concrete to the dump. Audrey was often his tag-a-long buddy.

Audrey helping throw the concrete in the pile.

One time I went along so I could see what it was like.
Maddi, Swicey, and I stay in the back of the truck.

One weekend Jill came over and tried her hand at the sledge.

We have to keep a big stock of popsicles to keep us cool.

Thank goodness we have the hammock to relax in after all that hard work.

We took some of the flat rocks from out of our yard and put them around some of Janna's trees.

There were still a bunch of huge roots in the areas where we were going to be pouring concrete. The tree stump guy would not return our calls. Dave didn't know what to do to get them out. He called our old Bishop who does excavation. He just so happened to have a job fall through and came over that afternoon. It was a small miracle. He came with his mini backhoe and dug out the tree stumps and roots and dug a trench for our deck footings. It was a HUGE relief to Dave to have it dug out.

This is the back of the truck fill completely with roots. They were so huge they looked like branches and trees.

We spent a long time (since we are amateurs), measuring and setting the tubing for the footings.

The girls helped push dirt back into the hole.

Maddi got REALLY upset that they were ruining her mountain.

Almost done. Dave got a major head and backache from tampering down all the dirt.

We don't know when we will be able to do the deck, but at least we have the plans and measurements done, and the footings are in underneath our patio.

More AFTER pictures:

 Dave's awesome wood pile on our wider sidewalk, sloped away from house.