Davies Demolition

This is what we started with:

It was once a decent deck, but has seen it's better years now. There were two holes that broken through near the end of last summer. It had become more of a problem and an eye-sore than anything else. We did some inspecting and discovered that most of it could just be pulled off by unscrewing the boards.There were a few screws that were stripped and a nail or two in there from the previous owners. Nothing that a man with a drill, some serious motivation and a couple of pry bars couldn't handle. I helped here and there, but this was Chad's project - all credit goes to him here. My job is vision (I can truly see something before it has taken shape)

Steady and deliberate, it took about an hour and a half to get all the deck boards off. He was able to salvage 9 sets of them that will be repurposed into green bean boxes and to build a couple of smaller raised beds. Those are drying out in our garage, waiting for the weekend when then will be assembled. Eye sore out of the way, garden space gain and materials for use elsewhere = major win! That once beat up and broken deck is about to become the new home of our row crops (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, turnips, sweet peas)  From ugly to yummy, I will take it!

No demolition project is complete without a few surprises though. This was no exception. From the way other projects were done, we knew there was a likelihood of finding something underneath the boards. We didn't expect to see what we did though. An old and crumbling brick foundation, complete with cracked and falling away mortar and a rusty cast iron sewer drain. YIKES! It was exposed. They hadn't so much as bothered to toss some extra dirt on it *sigh* At least we knew what we were dealing with. Our hearts sunk. This was a project we were looking forward to seeing through. In order to fill that we were going to need a lot of rock. Rock is not cheap to come by. We were staring straight down a few hundred dollars. I did some looking around (this is a very resourceful woman) and was lucky enough to find a lot of river rock close to our house and free for the digging. Just what we needed! A couple of hours of shoveling yesterday  with some friends (and a sore back today) finds us at this point:

Most of the space between the boards is leveled out. Another truckload of rock tomorrow and we should be set to start adding dirt. Then all that is left is to add some of our sprouting veggies to the perfectly pre-spaced rows. Nevermind that broken cement mess, we have plans for that too - one project at a time! Sweat equity paid off for us in a big way. We aren't afraid of the hard work, the hard work better be afraid of us.

Sometimes in order to grow, we have to tear down something else. Come back later to see what we are growing (and destroying)