Hammer Time!

No, I am not going to bust out my hammer pants and my sweet circa 1989 dancing moves, but there is video of me wearing the pants and doing the dance at a cousin's wedding. Thankfully, I do not know where that video is.

I do, however, want you to meet my new best friend, Jack. We spent a lot of quality time getting to know each other this weekend.

We busted up 4 random areas of our all-concrete-and-deck backyard to make room for a little grass. And no, I am not just posing with the heavy machinery; I actually busted up all the concrete myself while the hubs loaded it into his truck to take to the dump.

Here's what we started out with:

(Don't mind the doggy butt.) And here's our handiwork:

The concrete juts out now at a weird angle, but we are hoping that by re-potting the lemon tree and moving it, we can camouflage that awkward corner. In addition, we are hoping the eye gets distracted with the lush green grass we are planning to plant between the patio and the fence.

Here's the plan for next(?) weekend: rake out all the small pieces of concrete that didn't fit in Ryan's packed-to-the-brim truck bed, go back to the dump to get a ton (literally) of topsoil, spread out said topsoil, and sow some grass seed. It will be nice for the pooches (and us) to have some grass; they really hate peeing on the concrete/deck.

Oh, and here's an action shot of Jack and I.

Glamorous, no? Actually, whipping that power cord around reminded me of the train on my wedding dress, and I've got to be honest, there is something thrilling and a little bit sexy about handling power tools. (I am pretty sure the husband thought so too!)

But it's a good thing that Jack and I get along so well because we made a disappointing discovery this weekend: underneath all that deck...

is concrete. My jackhammering days are definitely not over!

Oh, and for anyone wondering how much the demolition derby cost, here's a breakdown:

• Jackhammer - free (borrowed it from the guy's company)
• Dump - $5.00 (it turns out that they break it down and resell it as aggregate so it's cheaper than a normal dump run)
• (Wo)Man Power - free, but if you ask my shoulders today, they would tell you a different story

Grand Total - $5.00

We expect next weekend's project will run us another $50.00, which will cover the topsoil. We already have the seed, so we are going to start with that and pray that it sprouts so we don't have to buy sod.