As anyone who has ever visited us will remember we have the leaning wall of death in the backyard of the house we are renting. Okay so maybe that is an exaggeration but the wall is ugly and always seems like it could fall at any moment even with the "sturdy" board they stuck a foot into the ground to keep the wall in place. It is such an eye sore and has left Abe to ponder for months what he could do to it or what he would do if it was our house. But it is quite a wall and quite a project so he has just pondered it. Well flash forward until this month when Abe has had a great schedule at work and has had many afternoons off to sit outside in the backyard with the kids and contemplate the wall. Obviously we do not do well with too much free time so he recently came up with a plan that (in his mind) seemed feasible. The plan involved a means of straightening the wall all at once. I didn't think it was a good idea but one day I got done working to find Abe outside digging out all of the dirt behind the wall to put his plan into action. Needless to say Plan A didn't work like he had anticipated so this "simple" project turned into 4 days of really hard work as Abe took down all the middle section of the wall and then had to rebuild it and secure it. I will have to say that Abe is pretty amazing. Those railroad ties are incredibly heavy and they are so strong that it took him hours to cut through a single row of ties to level them off. I was already envisioning the conversation we would inevitably have with the homeowner about how we were going to fix the wall that we destroyed but we never quite got it done. But after 4 days of sweat, a new chainsaw, the use of every tool Abe owns, Abe conquered the wall. And we are so proud of him!
Here is a picture of the wall before we moved into the house. It doesn't truly depict how bad that wall was leaning. And I would just have you note again how impressive Abe's grass is compared to this picture.
Abe using the metal tube he found abandoned in the yard to pry the ties apart.
What the kids did for the 4 days that they playset became too close to dad's "project" to play on and the sound and smell of the chainsaw made us all want to stay inside.
And the finished project. Abe did tell me that next time he gets a great idea to "fix up" someone else's house that I should just say "Remember the wall, honey". But I truly doubt that will stop him, so maybe this is why we just shouldn't rent.
Here is a picture of the wall before we moved into the house. It doesn't truly depict how bad that wall was leaning. And I would just have you note again how impressive Abe's grass is compared to this picture.
Abe using the metal tube he found abandoned in the yard to pry the ties apart.
What the kids did for the 4 days that they playset became too close to dad's "project" to play on and the sound and smell of the chainsaw made us all want to stay inside.
And the finished project. Abe did tell me that next time he gets a great idea to "fix up" someone else's house that I should just say "Remember the wall, honey". But I truly doubt that will stop him, so maybe this is why we just shouldn't rent.
4 comments:
Way to go Abe!! What a project that was!!! And the yard is looking awesome!! Glad no one was hurt from the Wall of Death!! :) We miss you guys!!
Dang! You should tell the owners you need a discount for growing such nice grass and fixing that major hazard.
That was quite the job. Looks good.
I must say that he's totally a typical OCD Fish boy. But the wall does look much better and much safer!
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