Deck Demo- Days 2, 3 and 4

So I am a bit behind with the posts. There have been some "incidents" on the job site. Here is the rest of the Deck Demo project:

On Day 2 Randy joined the festivities, it being his every other Friday off. Travis used his little potty for the first time! That was exciting, but it was only once so we still have a long way to go.

Highlights of Day 2:

Loading all the wood from the deck into the dumpster. We also fit all the hot tub parts inside too.

Our dirt arrived!

Travis peed all over the bed when he was napping so I had to run out to the laundromat and wash the comforter. (You don't need to see a picture of that!) You recall he used the potty in the morning...



Here is the view at the end of the day:






It looked so great! All that was left was the stump and then dirt and sod. Easy, right?

Deck Demo- Day 3

Day 3 brought excitement and promise: New energy! My sister joined in, plus a few friends from church. The sod arrived and the guys did a fantastic job of clearing out the last of the greenery and they started working on the stump. Randy admitted that he needed the stump grinder so I made a trip to the rental place and picked one up. Randy and a friend worked most of the rest of the day on the stump. That left the rest of us to haul dirt and lay sod. My sister is not used to working outside very much and it didn't take long for her to start melting. I have to sing the praises of the friend who started this whole project because he is a trooper! He worked 3 days straight, from about 9-5 every day, in the HOT sun and didn't complain once. He's the one we are trying to convince to move here, and he still didn't knock our weather even once. I was VERY impressed! He only brought one set of work clothes for the entire time he was here, so I did laundry every night. He was pretty stinky, so it was good for everyone.

So stump grinding. Have you ever tried it? Not very fun. The tree has been dead for about 5 years, but apparently no one told the tree. It was still very green and did not grind easily. So Randy took a swing at it with the ax (no, he didn't hurt himself...) but he did manage to knock off a chunk and it flew into one of the french doors on the back of the house. Oh yeah, and it broke, into a million pieces. It actually took about 30 minutes for the entire window to fall out, but fall out it did. It gave us time to cover the window and put plywood up to contain the glass. And that leaves me with another project for Monday. We aren't certain that the glass can be replaced, so we might have to get a whole new set of doors. Did I mention there's a hurricane coming this week? Here's the picture:

And here's the progress at the end of Day 3:

Deck Demo- Day 4

We sent Travis to church and called my mom to watch Justin and we both attacked the project with vengeance. We had to move the dirt so the dumpster can be removed and we had to lay the sod so it doesn't die.

I mowed the lawn:

Randy ground the stump:

I made a flower bed:

Randy ground the stump:

I fed Justin (You don't have to see pictures of that!)

Randy ground the stump:

All in all, we moved 20 wheelbarrows of saw dust out from the tree stump!

We got a call from someone at church who said he would help us for a bit in the afternoon. He was truly sent by God, because there was NO WAY we could have finished ourselves. I returned the stump grinder and they were hard at work by the time I got back. The guys finished laying the sod and moving the dirt right before the sky opened up and the rain came. We didn't quite finish everything because we ran out of time, energy, and sod! But, we are well on our way! All in all I would call the weekend project a success. Randy stepped on a nail, and we are still waiting for the doctor to call to see if he has gotten a tetanus shot recently. But really, other than that, we are well and healthy, if not a bit sore. (Some more than others!) We are so incredibly thankful for all the help we received. We thoroughly admit we could not have done it without you!

And here's the final product:

(And here's the window after being secured for the night!)