Isn't that the truth? The devil finds work for idle hands! You've just got to keep some people busy every minute, or who knows what will happen?
Here's the way it went down:
The DHubby realized that my vehicle was overdue for an oil change. I would have waited for a week-day, but he phoned the Ford dealership and they told him it was pretty quiet for a Saturday, so he hustled on over there. By the time he arrived, several other customers had beat him to the punch, so he phoned to let me know it would be an hour or two before he'd be finished. "Do you want me to come pick you up?" I asked, hacking and coughing behind my Kleenex.. "Oh, no," he responded selflessly. "I'll just walk around the dealership--it'll be good exercise. I'll probably be home about noon." So I went back to blowing my nose.
A little before noon, the phone rings, and it's the Ford dealership's Service Department. They are looking for the DHubby. "But he's there!" I exclaim. "Well, he's not in the waiting area," I was told. I was urging a wider search--"Look on the sales floor"--when I realize that the miracle of modern life, the cell phone, can make all of this simpler. So I dial up the number, and there he is........"Oh, I'm next door at the Hyundai dealer's," he explains.
Fast forward a wee bit, and he's back home, explaining how he decided to walk over and take a look at the new Hyundai models, but then he spotted a fairly-new-but-used Elantra.....
Now, the faithful old Saturn (which we bought as a used car eight or nine years ago) has been having issues recently--not counting when the windows were shot out--but the DHubby had resisted my suggestion that he consider selling it. Apparently his little window-shopping expedition had given him ideas. "Would you trade in the Saturn?" I ask. "No, I wouldn't get enough for it; I'll sell it myself," he tells me. "But I asked the salesman to talk to his boss and get a rock-bottom price for a cash sale on that used Elantra touring car."
There's no suspense left, is there?
The sequence was: phone call; lunch; return to dealership; test drive (stop by to let wife drive car around block and point out tire that needs air); return to dealer. Somewhat later he gets back home and I ask, "So, when are you picking it up?" "Oh, it's in the driveway," he tells me. "Where's the Saturn?" I ask. "Oh, I sold it to 'em," he says happily. I didn't even get to say good-bye!
If you squinch your eyes up, this car looks pretty much the same as the silver Saturn.
Do you like the new driveway?
Ah, yes. There were days when the weather did not cooperate, there were days with visible progress, there were days when no one showed up (or arrived late and left early.) Even so, it's inevitable: if you move just one inch a day, you still arrive!
The new steps went in; the old pool liner went out. Leak detection service found that three of the lines serving the pool jets were in need of replacement. More digging and swearing ensued, especially after the contractor mistakenly hooked the old line back up.
The soggy yard, under the stress of the heavy equipment, became impossible, so the muck was scraped up and piled to one side, and a new pathway of shale was created. (We do hope this old live oak survives.)
And finally gravel base was ready, forms were in place, and concrete was being poured around the pool. There was some disgruntlement on the part of the contractor, who did not care for the silver-gray concrete color we selected...so he poured a darker color that he preferred! (I still can't believe anyone would be so dense, so contrary, and so lacking in business sense that he would do something like that. The current plan is for the contractor to use a tinted sealer that will lighten the color considerably. We shall see. Right now, hen it's wet the pool deck is jet black.
In general, this bunch seems oblivious to customer satisfaction. We understood that there would be damage to the (weed-patch) lawn and the margins of the project, but they've managed to mangle areas of the yard they had no business to go. Add tossing trash into my flower beds, garden boxes, and the empty pool, backing into the ivy beds on the side of the house, and breaking limbs on the live oak that shades the pool, and you have a partial list of offenses. I am curious about how their own yards look, you know?
Here's the pool filled to the winter level; once the concrete is sealed, the cover can be put on the pool for the remaining cold months.
The yard guy is supposed to start on the landscape restoration tomorrow. At least we know this guy very well--reliable, honest, hard-working, respectful, and always interested in a happy customer. Refreshing!
Christmas is officially over-- the decorations are back in the trunk, the left-overs are eaten, the guest room is empty. We are left to contemplate the progress--or the lack thereof--on our back yard uh, renovations. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right?
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| The Eve of Destruction |
Here we have the calm before the storm--the patio and pool deck as originally inherited-- acres of concrete (some in poor condition.) Problems with the pool dictated a major undertaking: tearing out the old and making way for the new.
Enormous backhoe begins breaking up concrete; pieces are loaded onto a Bobcat and trundled out to a dump truck to be hauled away.
You will just have to imagine the noise-- backhoe, Bobcat, two jack-hammers, and a certain amount of yelling when there were disagreements about how to proceed.
The mess is epic.
And the weather turned uncooperative.... snow....
....and then rain
..........
and holidays....
...and more rain!!!
