Concrete Work

In all our efforts of house updating and remodeling, Kenny and I have been putting off one job that seemed pretty daunting. There is a spot in the back yard where the rocky patio meets up with a concrete patio and there is a triangular place in the middle where there is NO concrete. It is just dirt. Like this...

Besides it looking kind of odd, rain water runs off the roof, puddles in this spot and is making the concrete around it start to sink down. Eeeek!

So, this Saturday Dad happily agreed to come over and help us repair our concrete. We started early in the morning to keep things cool, set up Dad's huge canopy to keep the sun off and got to WORK!

Dad made some perfect straight cuts in the concrete for us to butt the newly poured concrete right up against, and Kenny set to work jack hammering away the extra concrete.
We (Dad & Kenny) eventually discovered that man power was stronger and faster than the jack hammer, so my hubby (Thor the god of thunder *winks*) sledge hammered with all his might and busted that stuff all up!
And so while the men did the heavy work I got to try my hand at the jack hammer...*laughs* I lasted all of about two minutes, whew, that thing is HEAVY!

After we got all the excess concrete out of the way we put some wire mesh down to reinforce the new concrete.

Then Dad and Kenny hefted bag after 80 pound bag of concrete into this awesome mixer of Dad's.

Talk about heavy! I couldn't even lift one of those bags and Dad and Kenny lifted over 45!!

Well, we mixed and we poured, mixed and poured, mixed and poured...

Made some plans...

Then Dad and Kenny ran a smooth level board over the surface to "screed" (my new word) off the surface and make it perfect.

Next we began the whole process over again to fill in another spot...

Whew, this was an ALL DAY project! We were so thankful Dad was willing to help us! We never could have done it without him.

And now voila! Our back patio is picture perfect! Yay!