320 Pounds of Concrete!

The local weatherman has been having fun with me. I'm starting to get annoyed! He keeps telling me that storms are coming. I've been wanting to get the stones finished and move on to the next step of my project.


Ali and I went to Lowe's today and bought four eighty-pound bags of concrete mix, hoping to be able to use it someday soon. After dinner it still hadn't rained. I got online and checked the forecast... A slight chance for spotty light showers. I'll take the gamble!


Hubby is still on restrictions, but he offered to mix and shovel. Ali helped me get the heavy bags out of my car and into the wheel barrow. (Did I mention the project area is at the opposite end of the house as the driveway? And since it's rained a lot we can't drive around to it!)


We each had our job. Papaw shoveled the concrete a little at a time. I was on my knees with a small garden shovel, filling in the gaps, cracks, holes, etc. Ali used a bucket to carry the crushed brick down and smashed a layer of it into the wet concrete. It took all four bags to finish this part of the job. I still have some stones edging the other side of the patio that need mortared, but it will have to wait.


We've made it this far! Yea! Next comes the plants for the other side and staining the rest of the wood... But that will be a few days. I've promised Ali that, come hell or high water, the cover comes off the pool tomorrow! How does it look so far? The big dark spot is just some very wet mulch that was left in the other wheel barrow.

And remember the new wood steps? Makes a great spot to sit and sample the chives...

Step 1 completed!

Girl power! Never underestimate it. Papaw has been 'out of commission' for a while, so Ali and I have had to do the hard labor by ourselves. The heat has slowed us down a little, but today we finished placing the stones for the steps from the lower patio up to the landing. They are all leveled, interlocked, and packed in with clay.

How do they look?

The next step is concrete. We'll pack the edges and gaps and smash the crushed brick into the top of it to match the way we did the slabs. Then we'll smooth out the slope, and put in some plants and mulch.

There's still lots to do at the top of the steps. We've got to level and secure the deck that is presently just laid on the ground, add a couple of steps from the top slab to the pool deck, rebuild the wood walkway on the other side of the deck (spaces are too big between boards - it's a scavenged piece), and finally, redo the landscape and stepping stones where they dug through to install the pipes for our outdoor boiler last fall. Wow, that sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

Anyway, the pool cover is coming off tonight or tomorrow! A dip after our work today sure would have been nice!

progress report

Even with shade and a breeze, the humidity was unbearable this morning. A storm was rolling in and I wanted to get the new dirt covered before it was washed away. Ali and I put down landscaping fabric to help with weeds, and then mulched the slope under the steps. Ali also used the hoe to make a little trench to anchor some landscaping timber pieces as edging. Papaw overworked on the stones so we gave him the day off. Maybe tomorrow we can get some more into place before the heat returns.

Work a Little, Play a Little

G#2 (Ali) is here for the summer, and likes helping with the projects. Here Sadie is supervising while Ali learns the intricate fitting process of building a stone stairway. After a couple of hard hours, it looked like a good place to take a break...

Hard work does have its rewards!

Diamond in the Rough

How do you like my stone stairway?

Ok, I know it needs a little work... I didn't put in anything for scale. These rocks are huge! I've had them for two years now. (Freebies) The new steps I put in go from my deck down half a flight and up to the pool. The bottom landing will turn off to go to the lower level, where there is a waterproof bathroom for the Grands when they exit the pool. It is the last side to begin landscaping, so I don't have many pictures. I'll have to make a point of shooting the 'before' mess. That end has been a storage area for my boulder collection, etc. Grand #2 comes Thursday. I don't think we'll have it done...

baby steps...

My asthma treatments are slowly working... I snuck outside today to help Hubby with the next step of my project. I wanted to concrete around the top slab so the sand base wouldn't wash out.

Hubby readied the site by clearing the sand around the slab. He then mixed up the concrete while I was a safe distance from the dust. (He's great.) That left me with an easy sit-down job. He shoveled the concrete mixture into the larger areas, so I could just use my little gardening shovel to fill the gaps. I then pressed the crushed brick into the top layer of concrete.

The crushed brick will soon replace the mulch under the steps. It will flow down around the bottom slab and on down to surround the stone steps to the lower level. I was hoping to open the pool this week since Grand #2 will be here for the summer. (she is a water rat-the one being flipped in the video) but we've got a ways to go and I hear the thunder coming closer. That's good news though... Hopefully God will wash all these little puffy things from my airspace and I can get some work done!