The Boswells: Retaining Walls for Dummies

Tucker and I enlisted the help of his sister and brother-in-law last weekend to help us rebuild a retaining wall. Sadly for us, the existing retaining wall had cracked due to the removal of some trees this past summer. We had one sweet gum and three pine trees removed. These trees soaked up lots of water apparently. When we removed them, the water soaked into the clay and had no way of draining. We had one little pipe for water to exit. How were we supposed to know that tree roots soaked up so much water?

The morning started off very well. We were ahead of schedule, making great progress. I was just sure we would finish the wall that day. Little did I know that a ginormous root system lurked under the dirt. See we had the stumps ground up this summer, and for some reason we thought the roots would disappear too. We have a whole new respect for root systems. This basically halted production. Handy husband attempted to rent a stump grinder from Home Depot. He rented the largest one they had, yet it was not even close to getting this daunting task completed. We finally had to call a professional stump grinder. Thank goodness one was available on a Saturday!

At dusk we were mixing concrete and setting posts. I also had a mountain of dirt piled in my driveway. Day 1 of building over, with not much accomplished. This left us with the realization that this project would need to be completed Sunday. At dawn, we awoke for the second day of torture. At one point, I wanted to just lay in the dirt and squall, but I put on my big girl panties, grabbed a shovel, and got busy. I don't know how we did it, but at dusk on Sunday, it was finally over. We all shoveled until every muscle in our back ached. Emily and I pounded dirt until we were sure our feet were bleeding. When the last wheel barrow of dirt had been filled and I could finally see my driveway again, I never it was over.We owe a huge thank you to Andy for designing our new wall, and another huge thank you to Emily for busting their butts. I'm pretty sure they may never help us do anything else or come visit us! I don't blame them!

I have never been more tired and sore in my life. Tucker and I are still recovering. The hubs even took off today, to landscape the retaining wall area. Thank goodness for him! It looks wonderful, and I didn't even have to get involved. Plans tomorrow include finishing up painting the trim, snuggling, and eating Mexican food. Only two more rooms to go!