One minor holdup was the fact that although the demo company was able to remove one of the stumps in the space, we had to hire someone else to come in and get rid of the rest. We could have done it ourselves but it turns out hiring a local guy was cheaper than it would have been to rent the machine! The holdup happened when the guy didn't show the Friday he was supposed to, and then by Tuesday I was flipping out about it so Dan called only to be told that "there's dirt in the way that you have to move before I can remove the stumps"... to which I flipped out about even MORE. Dirt in the way? Seriously?? It's a backyard, what do you expect?! Fuming mad about it and unsure of what to do with Dan out of town, I did what I always do when I have NO clue about something house related - I called my dad... who proceeded to go to my house while I was at work and spend 2 hours moving said dirt out of the way for the stump guy. Go ahead and applaud, cause I have a really great dad.
Finally, the guy showed up that evening and promptly pointed out several other stumps that my dad had found, and I was too frustrated to even argue the dirt issue so I wrote him a check and he did his thing.
Minor holdup number 2 came when the concrete company didn't know we had the stumps removed (even though Dan had assured them we would take care of it), so they also did not show up when they were supposed to. And yes, I flipped out a little again. Maybe I was over reacting, but a $12,000 project isn't really the kind of thing I want a contractor to putz around about. Dan called again and they promised they would come to excavate Monday bright and early, and have the inspector sign off immediately so they could pour the concrete same-day.
Guess what happened Monday morning? NOTHING.
So, Dan called again, and they informed us that the inspector had canceled his appointment with them for that morning, so they figured they didn't need to show up as early. At this point I was about ready to call them and tell them to shove our contract up their over-promising rear ends because I am just not that patient and I eat, sleep, and breathe timelines and deadlines and expect others to uphold the same standards... but I didn't, Dan stayed calm enough for the both of us, and they showed up a bit later on Monday to get the land all ready.
The inspector still didn't come until Tuesday, which for one reason or another pushed the pouring to today, but I digress. We have concrete, and I think the fact that we are clearly about to get a new garage and that old eyesore 1-car is gone is making all of our neighbors secretly want to jump for joy. In fact, in the last picture below you can catch our neighbor across the alley checking it all out before getting in his van. Ha!
Since I eventually had to leave for work and missed the end of everything, Dan was sure to write our initials for me in the corner inside the doorway after the workers left, which I'm pretty certain will make me smile every time I walk into the garage for as long as we live here.
The concrete has to sit for 7-10 days, and then it's building time!
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In other news... the beloved Pottery Barn rug has finally arrived and I am loving it more than I thought I would. I'll be posting a picture as soon as I put the finishing touches on the living room, which I'm hoping to do this weekend.
I'm also (gasp) quickly tiring of the turquoise bathroom that I just had to have. In my own defense, when I did it the color was still fresh and difficult to find, but it has since become wildly popular and I'm finding myself wanting objects in it instead of an entire room. It's such a perfect accent color, and I plan to use it as such... and let's be honest, Dan despises the bright bathroom, so it wasn't difficult to talk him into repainting in the next couple of months. There are already patches that need paint anyways since they were done after Dez and I originally tackled the walls, so at least I'm not taking a perfectly fine room and changing my mind about it. Manda has urged me to paint a green, to match the brown and white shower curtain we bought at Target tonight (which I'll post a picture of soon). Considering my color palate in the room is currently turquoise, with green and brown as accents, I love the idea of just switching the green to the wall color and using turquoise as an accent so I can still utilize things we already have - such as great brown towels and these Ikea vases in turquoise that I scored for 10 cents each:
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