This was the original set up for several years and just grew wild while the sprinklers stained the house so much we got a warning from Code Enforcement.
This is what it looked like after I dug it up and removed the sprinklers when I renovated the driveway.
I never took a photo of the prep work but if you zoom in, you can see that we installed rebar by drilling holes into the house slab and the concrete driveway. We then cut the rebar to size and connected the house to the driveway with rebar. More rebar was then run the length of the garden and tied to the other rebar.
The prep work was done on a Friday in June 2016. We could have poured the concrete the next day, but the prep work (foundation) had to pass inspection first. It passed inspection the following Monday. Then my schedule never matched up with my friend from work who helped me. Then I went on vacation and sprained my ankle. Then he went on vacation. Then it rained every day for the next three months.
We tried to get it done on one of those days that rained. We bought a pallet of concrete at Home Depot (that's 6,720 pounds of concrete) and loaded each 60 pound bag by hand. It took three trips in my pick up truck. I guess I could have done it in two but didn't want to break my truck.
I also rented a mixer and we started working on the slab that morning. Then the rain came down hard. We spent another hour saving the concrete to keep it dry. It was a mess. We poured 4 square feet that day and had to stop.
So finally in October 2016 after the hurricane, we were finally able to pour the new slab.
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| Had to load each 60 pound bag into the mixer. We did four at a time. |
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| Pouring concrete. |
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| Load with water and mix again. |
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| Keep adding concrete. |
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| I just did the labor while my friend levels and smooths the concrete. |
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| Pour again. |
I ran out of concrete and bought another 20 bags that day. I was a mess at Home Depot. Thankfully there are a lot of dirty, dirty people that shop there so no one looked at me funny.
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| Keep mixing... |
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| ...and mixing.. |
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| Pour again. |
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| It passed inspection |
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| Still drying days later |
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| View from the street. |
This is a pile of tree branches we cut up the same day. I took this picture a few days later, but this is to show that me and my friend's teenage son did some tree trimming before I began laying concrete. I also rented the mixer and dug up a bush before they got to the house.
What does pot roast have to do with anything?
I talked to my friend the next day at work. Everyone was sore and tired after that day. Tired to the point of exhaustion. I was fine. I did not work out for two days after we worked but I was not sick. I have to credit the pot roast. The picture is how I prepared the pot roast the night before. The morning that we started, I turned on the crock pot and let it cook. It cooked while we worked. I didn't need to cook dinner that night and ate as much fresh meat, vegetables, and rice as I wanted. I went to bed full after eating real food. If I had to eat take out, I think I would have been sick.
