So, here's where we stand. Almost everything has been installed that is going to be installed, with the exception of digging some French drain-type trenches to lay these pipes in. The pipes run from the downspouts of our gutters to the main drain. They actually came out today, on a Saturday, to do some further work, because they were concerned about the possiblity of rain.
The yard is now pretty flat, and beginning to by semi-dry in some of the spots that weren't the wettest, but is still mucky over the spots that were wet.
The area in the foreground here is pretty firm, enough to be able to support my weight. Further out, in the left corner of this shot, is pretty wet, but that is the area we had some of the worst trouble.
And here is a really big mountain of worthless, muddy topsoil. Once again, perspective is off, but this is about 2 to 3 dumptruck loads of mud that has been scraped off of the top of our yard.
And here is where the whining commences. See, we have all this mud over here, that is completely useless as far as this project is concerned. They tell us that since this was so wet, when it finally dries out, it will be hard as a rock and they won't be able to spread it appropriately. So, they pushed all this over to the side and have brought in FOUR dumptruck loads of fresh topsoil. They said it was necessary to do that to be able to move their tractor around in the yard, and to get the soil to spread the way they want it to. And now, we have to pay to have someone come out here with another dumptruck, load all this up, and haul it off to a location arranged by us. Ummmm, I don't have the first clue how to find a location for a massive pile of mud to be dumped. Also, to be able to move all this mud, they are going to have to take the fence down on that side, so whomever is loading the mud can get to it without having to come across the part of the yard that has been leveled. And then we can either pay the workers to put the fence back up, or we can do that part ourselves. I am thinking back to a time before all this began, when Phil and I were pleasantly surprised at the planned cost of this project. I know that when you get into things like this, you have to expect that it is going to cost more than you anticipated, but I sure didn't expect to double the cost of the original bid. Of course, the contractor probably underestimated how bad a problem we had until she and the guys got out there with a tractor and nearly sank. She also underestimated the amount of time this project would take. She had planned for about 4 to 5 days, and here we are at more than a week, and they will still have to come out at least one more day, if not more than that. And the kicker is...WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THIS IS GOING TO WORK OR NOT!!!!!!!!! It hasn't rained a drop since we started all this (Thank God, because we would have disappeared under a massive mudslide), so we don't even know if this drainage system will live up to the task. And what will happen when it does rain? All this dirt that we are paying to have brought in and that they have pushed around for the past week--is it going to wash away the next time it rains an inch or two? There isn't anything holding it in place, so I'm guessing that could very well happen! I was really excited about this project when we first started. I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but I had NO IDEA it was going to cost this much. And don't forget, this is still just the drainage and dirt work phase of the project. We have yet to begin with the cost of finishing and laying new sod.
As I write this, Phil is trying his best to locate a place for all this dirt and a means of hauling it away, but we aren't really sure how to go about it. I am mildy irritated that the people we hired for this project haven't at least given us some guidance regarding all this. Perhaps she could have given us some names of people who sometimes need fill dirt, or owners of dump trucks who we might be able to hire to get this crap out of here. Just a few short words of advice, please!
And so on to the next topic I am going to whine about. How about the fact that I went to bed at 8:00 this morning and woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 12:45. That would be not even five hours of sleep before I have to carry my tired self back to the hospital this evening for another twelve hour shift. I have had a very stuffy nose that past couple of days, and so I didn't sleep the greatest anyway, but at 12:45, something woke me (not sure what), and I tossed and turned for almost 2 hours trying to get a few more ZZZ's, to no avail. So, I gave up, got out of bed, and here I sit, crabbily blogging. It's gonna be a long night.
In other news, it turns out that Amy is NOT ready for potty training just yet. We had a few successes in both the #1 and #2 departments, but then had 4 accidents in 2 hours, and that was with me taking her to the potty every 30 minutes. The last 2 accidents before I put her back in a diaper, she didn't even notice she was wet. She did love wearing her Princess panties, but I did not love cleaning up all those puddles. I was starting to get frustrated, and I didn't want her to pick up on that and get discouraged. I really feel that it was a kind of novelty for her, not that she is truly ready to be finished with diapers. We will try again after she gets adjusted to her new school, when she is just a bit older.
I guess that brings us up to speed. I am hoping it is a nice night at work, but since I have just stated that out loud (in a sense), I'm sure it will be absolutely nutso. I am off tomorrow night, but then, in an attempt to pull a little more of my financial weight, I have signed up for both Monday and Tuesday nights. I have done this before, and it wasn't very pretty, but I think they key is to plan a supper for Wednesday night that I KNOW Nate will eat. That way, I have one less thing to be irritated about that evening, when I'm going to be running on fumes. Pizza sounds good. Carryout or delivery, so I don't even have to deal with turning on the oven.
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