This is one project I've been wanting for about 16 years and 5 months-- ever since we moved into this house! I never liked the front walkway (concrete on a fairly steep slope, not steps) and was often concerned about the safety of all the people going in and out of our door.
A couple months ago, for the first time, we had water in our basement when we had a really hard rain slanting in to the house. My dad said we really ought to have a tile under the porch to drain the water; and the perfect time to put one in is when the porch is ripped out. Thus, we did both projects at once... and boy! are we happy with the results!
My mom and dad and sister (with her 3 boys) came to spend the week last week. The first purpose was Katie's party, but we spent most of the time working on this big project. It was a bear to get all the old concrete out! Webbing and re-bar in the thick concrete. We rented a concrete saw and used a lot of elbow grease. Dad, Chad and I both were pretty exhausted that day!
The pavers and sand were delivered during the boys' rest time, but we let them come out to watch. Logan and Micah got bored with it fairly quickly, but see who stayed til the very end, bug-eyed? Caleb loves machinery and how things work.
Of course, they all liked playing in the sand.
Here's the best pic right now I have of the steps. They turned out even better than I'd hoped! Now I just have to finish cleaning up around them and then we'll plant some grass seed this fall.
These blocks are VERY heavy!
We had the perfect team to do this project: Dad has lots of experience building things and the muscle to do it, mom has great ideas and problem-solving skills, Liz did a terrific job helping us design it artistically and just making it look good.
And a couple freebie cute cousin pics...
No comments:
Post a Comment