The Big Dig Continued… and Finished

So the flood ended, but there was a campaign and a trip to Chicago and illness and catching up with work so we haven’t had a chance to write an update.

After the flood, we had a front mud and a back mud and were eager to get things back to functional. Of course, all of this was going on the week of my re-election campaign (In the future, we’re going to make an effort to better schedule work like this).

With all the rain dried up and the busted concrete gone we had this:

Mud. Lots of mud and there was much doubt as to what we had done. We still couldn’t visualize everything and we kept adding to the scope of the project.

So we always wondered how all the old pieces of concrete got there. Strange slabs at strange angles. Cinder blocks buried under nearby grass.  Even after everything was jacked up, there was still more concrete. We found the original sidewalk and brick pad. After everything it took to get rid of the other concrete, we decided it was deep enough that we left it and poured over it.

We were still pretty stressed about the state of the yard at this point, but by that afternoon the forms and gravel was in and we were better able to visualize the final product.

The next morning, the concrete arrived.

 

The next day it was dry enough to walk on.

Carrie had them etch a traditional bungalow pattern on the front walk way.

They used the bit of left over concrete to make a little pad for our rain barrel.All that’s left is seeding the entire yard so we have some grass.