When you own a house, you always have a
"To-Do" list a mile long. It seems the older our house
gets, the longer that list grows...
We decided it was time to tackle one of our BIG
projects on our list...
The Front Porch Steps
As you can see, our sidewalk has settled away from the garage wall
and in turn was making our steps fall forward and away from the house.
It's a little hard to see in this photo,
(I was trying to get a few 'before' shots
before Scott got a little Jackhammer happy!)
but there was a gap in the top step that was
big enough for me to put my hand in.
You can see on this photo that the steps had moved down
almost an entire brick row...
Scott thought about trying to break out each brick,
one by one, and save them for a future project...
Then he pulled out the Jackhammer to see
how hard it would be to tackle the sidewalk.
Did I mention that he decided to try all of this one night
about 9:30 PM...I'm sure my neighbors loved him!
He quickly discovered that this was going to be one tough
job...
He then thought he would see how the Jackhammer would
work on the brick steps...and quickly decided that trying to
save the bricks was for the birds!
Bright, but not too early the next morning he was at it!
Uncle Rick came over to lend a hand and Austin and his
friend Andrew went to work as well...
By lunch they had the steps almost done.
Many, many buckets of broken up bricks were
taken one by one to the trailer and then hauled off
to a spot down the road and unloaded.
After they finished the steps, they called it a day...
And they were right back at it the next morning...
Scott quickly discovered what should have been a 3-4 inch sidewalk
had been poured anywhere from 5-10 inches thick...
No wonder our concrete bill was so high when we built!
Jackson decided he would get in on the action
and went with the guys to unload a trailer full
of busted up concrete.
They were almost done with the sidewalk,
but after hanging on to a Jackhammer for two
days straight, Scott decided he was done for the day.
The barn-swallows we also ready for him to be done.
They were quite upset that he was so close to one of their nests!
Finally, they finished up Sunday afternoon and
were ready for the brick mason to come and do his work.
Bright and early last Tuesday morning they came to
pour a new sidewalk.
A few hours later I had a new front sidewalk.
Now we had to wait a couple of days for it to dry so they could come
and add the steps.
Friday they came and started working on adding my steps back on.
I snuck out while they were on a lunch break to take a quick picture
of their progress...it's one thing for me to stand over Scott's shoulder and
take photos of every little step he takes,
but I was not sure how total strangers would feel about
me snapping a shot every 5 minutes...
And here they are...all finished...and not falling off
the house!! Whoo Hoo!!!
So happy to have this project DONE!
Scott and I both agreed that after walking up the new steps
we realized just how bad the old steps had gotten...
Now to clean up a little bit of the mess they made...
the concrete guys splattered concrete on my
front porch planters and the
barn-swallows have made a mess
on my porch...
Like I said...a "To Do" list with a house...
never seems to get done!
