Retaining Wall is nearing completion!

During a break in the rain, we finished the wall. It looks pretty good all things considered. This is the third time, at least, that a wall has been erected with these stones. I'm hoping it's the last for about 15 years. 

We paid a friend of a friend to lug 3 tons (i.e. 6000 lbs) of gravel up the hill and dump it behind the wall. He was tired, sweaty, bloody, and bruised by the end so I'm glad we overpaid a bit. It's the first time we've paid anyone to do ANYthing at this new house, and man was it worth it. 

I think Alex felt weird hanging out inside while someone toiled at his house, but it would have taken the two of us 3 days of brutal work to do this job.

Alex did dig the drainage trench while Chris was lugging rocks. This will help take the pressure off the wall when it rains, which it does every day. 

Meanwhile, I lugged a few extra stones to outline the new melon bed we're planning for next year. We're doing it now so we can make the soil nice for next year. That, and we have tons of dirt and nothing to do with it. 

All that's left is to shovel some dirt back in, and clean up our mess of a yard. "Easy," she says with some reservation.

Stalled!

Normally rain is a great thing. I have not ONCE watered the garden in the month of July, which should help our water bill tremendously. The problem, though, is that is rains. every. day.

We've excavated all the dirt from the wall and moved all the bricks, so our yard has piles of soil and cinder blocks everywhere. But we need a dry day to level the soil, add sand, level that, and put down the first row of bricks, which is what will take the longest and matter the most in this project.

Unfortunately, this is the view from outside my bedroom window. And yes, we are expecting more rain in the next hour.

We've also encountered other cool setbacks, like the builders of the previous wall building it on uneven brick pieces, throwing two tons of broken stone in with the dirt, and not removing a huge concrete slab that was probably a grounding piece for an even older wall. The piece means we needed to pull up some of the brick pavers from the patio to have enough room to re-lay the wall on solid ground. Which also means we'll need to do a lot of work on the patio when we're done with the wall.

We can't find any day laborers in Pittsburgh, so I think it will be Alex and myself hauling 3-5 tons of gravel up the hill. Bah!

Retaining Wall - Day 1

The chaos has moved outside. This morning we took down all the cinder blocks and wall blocks and stacked them elsewhere in the yard. It only took about an hour and a half, but my back is currently indicating that it was a lot of work.

I tried to remain brave in the face of a million huge spiders, centipedes, snake skins (which were pretty awesome, actually) and unknown monster bugs.

Tomorrow begins the digging. Then we'll re-stack and secure with liquid nails, back fill with gravel for drainage, and take a BREAK from home improvements for a week.

Our porch has really gotten a lot classier in the last few hours. 

I think the previous owner just threw all his garbage behind the wall for a decade. 

Battle scars

Where the wall once was.

I have battle scars too.

Alex enjoying a victory sandwich on the porch - which we both agree feels like the most vacation-y part of the house.