The second bid came from the company our builder uses to pour patios (they poured the nice but tiny pad we currently have.) Since they are down the road twice a week pouring at the new houses anyway the bid came in quite a bit lower than the other one.
Part of the reason it is so low is that we have to do some of the prep work ourselves. They would not remove the sod or level the area. So, we are again doing labor in our own yard.
We (Jason) dug up the sod and then (I) removed the mulch from the border area.
We did some digging and some big earth worm relocation and then covered our work up with a BAT (big ass tarp) and then went inside to dry off. Dry off?? Yes, since our concrete masters are coming next week we can't let a little thing like horrendous rain hold us back from being in the yard.
Yesterday, after work we picked up our U-HAUL truck and took the cut up sod to the transfer station (dump) I think it is safe to say that carrying the now wet sod in the too big rolls to the front of the house and then lifting them into the truck bed was quite a work out. I skipped the gym, but WHOA - talk about elevated heart rate and muscle movement.
The transfer station is, as always, a stinky place. It is interesting to see the other people and what they are disposing of. On our left we had a man with multiple mattresses of questionable origins. Stained and unpleasant. That is my polite description. On our right a woman with a load of junk that looked like it came from Messy Martha's before I cleaned. **SHIVER**
We were shocked to see that our tiny 60 square feet of sod weighed almost 500 pounds.
Feeling free of the sod that would have taken all summer to haul away by the yard waste people (who will only take 50 pounds at a time, and only come every other week) we set our sites on gravel.
As we drove east (or south) to Sunset Materials (the gravel store) we noted the black black sky. "Wow, I'm glad we're not working in that!" I said. "DAMN IT WOMAN, NOW YOU'VE JINXED US!!!" Jason thought but said "Shhhhh..."
Well, as per usual he was right. We drove right into the rain. Horrendous rain. Noah on a boat with pairs of animals rain. We waited in the truck for 10 minutes hoping it would blow over like most summer storms, but nope.. it was going to rain for about an hour.
We debated and debated about the gravel (with multiple opinions from the Internet and our experts in the field, Dad) and finally Jason braved the weather to go in and talk to the gravel lady.
She said we could get gravel on a rainy day, but they weigh it when they sell it and wet is far more heavy than dry. We debated some more and I let my desire to not fiddle fart around with gravel effect my decision.
We drove away without any gravel product, but with a surprisingly clean truck bed (the rain washed away all traces of the sod and dirt from our earlier outing.) When we arrived home not only was it NOT raining at our place, the sidewalks were dry as if it hadn't rained at all! That was strange considering that on our way back from the gravel store (lot...whatever) there were areas where the water had pooled and was flooding over the road.
We cleaned up, took the truck back to u-Haul and then went on our merry way.
Tonight we will be digging and leveling the dirt in our new sod-less area and tomorrow picking up a tamper thingy to pound the dirt into place.
We will have to be done by Sunday because the concrete people will come when they come next week, it could be Monday it could be Thursday and we have to be ready.
These are our before and step one pictures. More to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment