excavation complete

It seemed never ending, but I can finally say my little excavation project in the backyard is done. It's amazing how much dirt can be in a few inches. Some spots only needed to be dug out an inch or two, others nearly a foot. The grading is still rough and I plan to do some final finish leveling with some good starter soil I picked up. There's no way in hell I'm letting this grass die an early death unlike before. The irrigation will be installed tomorrow and day after that my massive dirt piles will get hauled away. Then we're ready for the sod baby!

I don't know, but I think I shoveled the equivalent of two small cars.. this is one of them. :)

screen door fixup

In an effort to make the exterior of the home a little less ghetto, we finally got around to getting a wrought iron guy to replace the screens on the kitchen door and the side door that goes down to the basement. As you can see the kitchen screen door is pretty huge as it encloses the inner door and the transom. Someday I'll get the transom operational again, but for now this will be the setup. My ideal solution here would be to get rid of this screen door alltogether and replace with a period wooden screen door the size of the inner door, leaving the transom exposed. Unfortunately I don't think my dogs would let it live a very long life, so metal it is (at least for now).

Come the warmer months this will be much nicer since we always have to combat flies and mosquitos. A screen door that actually does what it's supposed to will be a plus when you don't want to have to crank the AC. Below is the new steel mesh screen that is far superior durability-wise.

Tada! I still need to repaint them which should be in the next week or two. My main priority is to finish excavating the backyard by wednesday. This backyard is going to look completely different in the next few weeks. I'm psyched!

man 1, concrete 0

I never thought I'd be so excited about a 10x10 ft piece of dirt, but oh man. Does it look beautiful. Ok so this was the last major hurdle with the remnants of the concrete slab I started taking apart last summer. This was maybe 1/3 of it. The other 1/3 is under pavers and the rest is under the unfinished corner of the yard. That's a future project. I'm not sure what used to sit on this slab, but I imagine it was something sizable. The concrete layer was about 4-6 inches thick. A storage shed maybe? Don't think it was a garage as it wasn't adjacent to the alley. Let's take a look at what my yard coughed up.

Ah progress!

man vs concrete

I've been procrastinating for a reason.

pic of the day

Some old townhouses and apartment building

the big dig

It doesn't look like much, but this kinda work just plain sucks. Like most things that have to do with my landscaping projects I do things the hard way. What, me rent a bobcat to level out the backyard? Nah, that's what shovels are for. The strategy is simple. Wet it down and loosen the soil with a pickaxe and shovel away till your arms fall off. I've got to get this backyard level and prepped with fresh topsoil to prepare for a new irrigation system and a blanket of fresh sod. And I only have a week or so to do it. No pressure. The work is nowhere near as glamorous as my new patio either. I still have a small section to go, but I'm close enough I can taste victory. Strangely, I've grown to enjoy laying down pavers. -- I'm going to have to find a new hobby to take up my 15 min here and there.

Here's a sneak peak at something else in the works. I know I said I would put the retaining wall in stone, but I'm kind of digging this off the shelf stuff.. This was always the plan for my little side flower bed, but I mocked it up against the back wall to see if it looked cheesy or not. Thankfully I think it'll fit in nicely. Those massive piles of dirt will soon find their new home in these babies.

the three C's, minus 1

Used to be this region was known for the three C's: copper, cattle, and cotton. And while the cattle and cotton industry are far less important now than they were, say 50 years ago, they still exist to some extent. The copper industry is officially dead. And while there is a bit of nostalgia attached to the old copper smelter that has called el paso home for more than 120 years, I'm happy that the city can finally move away from an old industry that hurt the community more than it helped. My hats off to you asarco, you put up a good fight. RIP.

More info here.