Facelift
Well, it's not a time-ordered entry into the journal, but it's an optimistic thing...
The front steps of the house were falling apart. Literally falling apart. They consisted of a 3-step poured concrete unit right at the sidewalk, two awkwardly-sized steps made up of leftover bricks from somewhere, and then the stoop was prick faced and covered with a 3" concrete cap. No rails, but a tacky big-box store handrail to bring it up to code.
Well, the mortar in the steps was returning to its original sand-like state, and I hired a contractor to tear it out and replace it with a larger, all-wood stoop & stairs. What was expected to be a 3-4 day job became much longer (gee, what a surprise)..
- Despite the shoddy work on the steps, the concrete cap had reinforcing steel in it - it was going NOWHERE.
- The stoop was backfilled with what we guess is waste brick from the house across the street: whole bricks, broken pieces, pieces with a little brick on them, and even 3 and 4 brick chunks that they just threw in! Thank goodness we had a big dumpster.
Speaking of the dumpster, we reserved a 10' dumpster, but the dumpster company accidentally rented out their last 10', so we got a 14' dumpster at the same price. We emptied out the garage (bags and bags of trash, some from previous occupants, the scary carpet that had been pulled out of the living room, etc) and basement (ugly plastic flowers, trash, and even old display shelves from the pharmacy that a past resident owned). Cleaning the garage entailed breaking into the garage, but that's another story.
The front steps of the house were falling apart. Literally falling apart. They consisted of a 3-step poured concrete unit right at the sidewalk, two awkwardly-sized steps made up of leftover bricks from somewhere, and then the stoop was prick faced and covered with a 3" concrete cap. No rails, but a tacky big-box store handrail to bring it up to code.
Well, the mortar in the steps was returning to its original sand-like state, and I hired a contractor to tear it out and replace it with a larger, all-wood stoop & stairs. What was expected to be a 3-4 day job became much longer (gee, what a surprise)..
- Despite the shoddy work on the steps, the concrete cap had reinforcing steel in it - it was going NOWHERE.
- The stoop was backfilled with what we guess is waste brick from the house across the street: whole bricks, broken pieces, pieces with a little brick on them, and even 3 and 4 brick chunks that they just threw in! Thank goodness we had a big dumpster.
Speaking of the dumpster, we reserved a 10' dumpster, but the dumpster company accidentally rented out their last 10', so we got a 14' dumpster at the same price. We emptied out the garage (bags and bags of trash, some from previous occupants, the scary carpet that had been pulled out of the living room, etc) and basement (ugly plastic flowers, trash, and even old display shelves from the pharmacy that a past resident owned). Cleaning the garage entailed breaking into the garage, but that's another story.