I split the first half of June into 'wall-pictures' and 'non-wall-pictures' for the sake of the blog so that it's easier to see the progression of making the retaining wall in the backyard. I should also preface this by saying that my 4 wheelbarrows full of gravel (which I made Alex move for me) constitutes about 1% of the work, and Alex did the rest by himself. I like to point out to him that he couldn't do it without my help, but this was a remarkable amount of work over about 8 days to get from zero to wall.
Right after the cement dried for the patio, we realized we have this slight problem...a low spot. Yuck. We are newbies, and this one definitely got us. We will have to get a grinder and fix that in the future at some point, but for now we just sweep off the water every time it rains :).
This is the hole for the wall before anything went in. It isn't before any work happened, because Alex worked for hours getting the hole dug, dirt semi-level, gravel put in, and gravel level. But it is the first non-block picture we took of the project :).
On the weekdays, Alex was only able to put a couple hours in after the kids went to bed and before dark, but on the weekend he worked pretty much non-stop. This is a lovely picture of his sweat stain that I took on Saturday afternoon when he came in for some food. Pretty impressive!
Getting that first row of blocks in was painful. Everything had to be SO level, and it was going against a patio that wasn't level, so it was hard to see the line without actually using a level about 50 times per block. I was frustrated at that point (mostly because I wanted to be able to let the kids play in the backyard, but every night Alex spent outside was one that I did bedtimes and cleanup by myself, which is a big chore these days). I was being selfish, and just wanted the project done, but Alex put in the extra time to make it really well, which will be crucial to its durability and longevity. Thanks Babe!
The steps were the other HUGE problem. I didn't want unsymmetrical lines on the blocks, and I wanted a flat front face. Apparently these are two things that are hard to accomplish with blocks that are the same height as the ones we were using for the wall. After looking at about 100 different options, and me insisting that no, they had to be symmetrical, we found this solution which worked well, even thought Alex had to cut a few extra blocks and squeeze some in where they didn't want to go.
Every single night, I would go out after dark and make him come in, because he could barely see what he was working on. Slowly but surely, the wall was getting put in, and I was able to find a few things, like shoveling gravel and cleaning up messes behind, that I could help with.
The kids were quite 'helpful' on the weekend when Alex was working during the day. So helpful, in fact, that I wondered if any work was getting done! I am so happy to have a husband that loves being a dad and takes the extra time to play with the kids, even when he is working as hard as he is.
After 9 days, the wall was finished. We still need to fill the dirt in behind the wall and make a 1/2 wall going down the other side of the patio, but for now this is enough. For now we are thrilled to have a patio that we can sit and eat on, and a wall to hold up the yard which we will be able to make significantly more flat next spring.
What an amazing back yard end result! So much better than our sloped mess of a yard before he started.
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