Driveway Demo

So.  Last Monday, after walking my boys to their first day of school at their new school, my three year old and I walked back home.  We waited for our driveway demo to begin, but no one was showing up.  We ran some errands.  When we got back, Rick "the bobcat guy" had begun to fill up his dumpsters with bricks from the driveway.  And the bricks were in great condition.  I scrambled to put on my work clothes and start rescuing them from the dumpster before they were taken away.  We plan to do a lot more to our yard and those bricks will come in handy in a walkway or flowerbed or something.

I was cheering and sweating as I watched the bobcat scoop out the birdsnest bushes in front of our house.  My wheelbarrow was heavy and Eric, my three-year-old was yelling to me from his bedroom window for explanations about what was going on.  And then Rick "the bobcat guy" hit a water line hidden under a bush.

Water gushed everywhere and I ran into the house to turn the main water off.  That didn't stop the gushing.  Rick plied open the water meter and turned off the water there.  The gushing stopped.  I was a little disappointed I couldn't make lunch for my darling three year old and get a shower until the pipe could be fixed.  After feeding Eric at my mom's house, I went to Home Depot and bought a $2 caps so that the water could be turned back on.  Then we could have a normal day.  I could lovingly greet my children after their first day of school, make dinner, and smile as I hugged my husband to tell him about the boys' great day.

But we never were able to go back into the house.  Rick "the bobcat guy" hit our gas line while I was at Home Depot.  He called the local gas company.  He greeted me as I returned from Home Depot by saying, "You better call the fire department."  We were evacuated.  Our neighbors were evacuated.  The gas company worked for the next 6 hours to fix the line and dissipate the fumes so that we weren't all blown to kingdom come.  And Rick knew that the gas company would hold him responsible.

Now we have hired a new crew.  The driveway is coming.  But we are spooked.  Concrete is expensive stuff that can really be done wrong.  And it's so expensive to fix, many people just deal with the cracked/peeling/misshapen product rather than spend the money.  I am not sleeping well.  In fact, three times yesterday I started crying over my son's too-short Sunday pants, a speech I saw days ago during the RNC (Pat Finlayson--watch a clip here), and the brick wall to be built some day, and I kind-of couldn't stop crying.

Can't wait to post about our beautiful driveway . . . This means that our last biggest project on the house that we have to pay someone else to do will be over.  And maybe I can get a grip on my sleep and my tears.