Wall Weekend Revisited

I usually underestimate the time that it will take to do anything. I'll start a home improvement project thinking that it'll be done in a weekend and it will wind up taking two weeks. I'll give myself a two hour window to edit the photographs from a portrait session and five accumulated hours later I'll finally finish the last one. I'll even leave the house ten minutes before an appointment just to find myself sitting at a stoplight when the clock ticks over to the time that I'm supposed to already be there.

I do this all the time. It's especially not easy to predetermine the length of time needed to finish a home improvement project. And this is why I don't do home improvement for a living. I'd be out of business in a month from underbidding everything.

Well, the wall that I wrote about last week is no exception. To clear out the space where the wall will be going I had to remove the fence and gate that were there and all the plants that called that area home. There were a total of 4 fence posts and all of them were sunk 3 feet in the ground and filled in with concrete creating a 12" diameter, 3 foot long cement block. As if digging these out wasn't hard enough, the plants that I mentioned were like small trees. They had grown into the fence and made the removal of each item that much harder.

I did finally get the whole length cleared out, but not without sweating buckets. I dug a 12" deep trench and filled it in with concrete last night to make my footing for the wall. I'm now ready to start laying blocks. It will be a lot of work, but the good news is that it should be fun since I'll be able to see the wall coming together. wish me luck.

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