These guys working here today have been nothing short of amazing. We’ve been so blessed to have found good workers – all the way from the guy who did the dirt work, cut the trees, built the foundation for the shop, the guy who built the shop, the guys who finished the inside of the shop, the guys who are working here now and the young man who came and put the gutter guards on for us.
The guys today took all the hand rails off the deck and the big stairs. They completely removed the short stairs.
This area in the photo above is where the short stairs were. The bottom step was way too high for old folks with short legs. Then, because of overgrown plants, you pretty much had to step off a really high spot there those bricks are in order to get to ground level. Vince had removed most of the shrubs but there were still roots and shoots and it was easy to trip so we rarely used those stairs. They’re going to pour concrete here and make the stairs start facing the a/c unit, then turn and go up onto the deck. We may have room there to put the grill and get it off the deck. You can see the other stairs in the background.
This is where the trash can will go and when I’m using the smoker, I’ll roll it over here and use it where it will be level.
There were two crepe myrtle trees that got removed from the area where the new stairs will be. One is very small and one is very bushy but I didn’t want to let them die so we planted the bushy one on one side of the driveway. Vince didn’t have time to plant the other one but the guy dug a hole while he had a little trackhoe. I think that’s what it was. Vince just told me it’s an “excavator”.
We had a guy a while back cut down some of the overgrown shrubs in the front of the house so the guy with the trackhoe today got those roots out.
What started this whole project – the pad for the pergola.
This is where he will build the pergola/gazebo. I’m still not sure exactly what it’s all going to look like or what we’re going to use it for but I guess we’ll all find out together.
He also dug up the last of the pampas grass. I do believe we are now completely free of pampas grass.
They’re hoping to get concrete poured in the morning. We’ll see.
He’s also pouring concrete on the ramp going into Vince’s shop and they’re replacing all the hand railing and treads on the deck, some of the deck boards and then re-staining it. I think we’ll see these guys around for a while.
Cindy F says
That is all going to look great when they’re done! Staggering the stairs so there is a turn/landing will definitely help climbing them. We had one going down to the basement in our previous house and this house doesn’t have that. It’s much steeper and no area to change it. When we redid our deck the contractor also fixed our stairs back there so it was an easier step to use. It’s so wonderful to find good workers.