Something New, #85

This isn't really a Something New, just something I finally accomplished, so I now feel like I've done something.

I have to back up about 11 years, though.

When The Ex and I bought this house (he wasn't The Ex then), the backyard was in awful shape. The deck, which was about 10' x 20' was pretty much falling off the back of the house, and the patio was bordered with a 4' wall of rotting railroad ties. The Ex always said we couldn't take out the railroad ties, because it would cause the foundation of the house to shift.

Last summer, the deck got so bad and dangerous, that I took it off.

By myself.

With only a hammer and crowbar.

It took me about a week.

My CFL, knew a "guy" and had a dumpster delivered to me, gratis, to have all the wood carted off. I heart my CFL.

Four summers ago, after The Ex moved out, I had Good Neighbor Charlie take a look at my patio, and told him I'd been told the foundation would shift if I took out the railroad ties.

Good Neighbor Charlie pretty much said that was BS.

I think The Ex was just plain lazy.

I started digging out the railroad ties, of which there turned out to be about forty.

By myself.

With a crowbar and shovel.

By spacing it out over four summers, erosion helped a lot in digging them out. Most were so rotted, they crumbled.

I am happy to say, I finally took out the last five, so Phase 1 of the backyard renovation in finally complete.

Now on to Phase 2, which entails scoring about 16 cubic yards of fill dirt to fill in what I took out.

Anyone have free dirt?