Hurray for Housework …

Posted by blainegarrett on Aug 11th, 2008 | View Comments

Today was a good day for house work. After a looong weekend at the awesome Garrett Family Reunion, I was anxious to do some physical work. I kicked things off last night by going and working out at the gym for a bit.

Today during lunch at work, I went out and poured another plaster cast of the lizard paver mold. Then I delimbed this little swamp elm growing in the back yard.

Afterwork, I started hacking up the roots of the big swamp elm I cut down in late June. This proved to be a huge feat and I gave up after a bit. In the process I did hack down all the little suckers that were growing and pull up a few smaller root systems. I moved from this to one more swamp elm root that was growing from underneath my sidewalk. This was a big pain in the butt. However, I managed to pull it all up.

After that, I raked up all the leaves on the side of the house and cleaned up a pile of leaves I raked up when I moved in. All of this I put in my compst pile and then I soaked it down.

After that, I started planning the walk way on the side of the house that I just raked. I started shoveling up either side where I will plant something or other – probably the raspberry bushes that Toni’s parents are going to give me shortly.

Next, I pulled the previously poured lizard cast out and poured another one.

I then started estimating how many bricks I will need. I used a stake to guestimate. The stake was approximatly 2 bricks long. The side yard was 18 stakes long and probably needs 3 bricks wide. Thus, the side yard needs 3 * 18 * 2 = 108 bricks. I then used the same measuring system to guestimate the driveway area. This was around 11 by 11 stakes long. Thus, 11 * 11 * 4 = 484 bricks.

Assuming I can get 3 bricks per bag of concrete and the bags are around $4, the side pathway will cost $108 and the driveway will cost $645. Given the cost of the concrete, and the $114 I spent on gravel so far, this project is still more nearly $2000 less than if I were to pour a slab and have someone else do the grading work. SCORE. This is the first time, I really got a handle on the money situation for this. Granted there is around $300 in costs of supplies to make the mold thus far, but that was more fun than anything.

Anywho. All that took me until aroun 9, when my buddy Eric called to go out for a drink. It was a nice break from doing house stuff. When I got home around 11, I talked to Toni for a bit and then caulked the tub in the other bathroom. Wee.

Anywho, it was a good day. Time to hit the hay.