jeriendhal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jeriendhal) wrote2006-05-29 10:02 am
jeriendhal) wrote2006-05-29 10:02 am
Feeling better now
I'm feeling better than I did Friday. Thinking it over, I know I've got skills I can apply outside my current job, and like I said, anything has to pay better.
Besides, I found out that I'm not the only one who can make bonehead errors in judgment. This morning I got the bright idea to tear up the cinder block flagstones in our backyard. They were put there by the previous owner to make a sort of patio. Unfortunately every time it rained, water tended to pool there, creating a nasty, mossy mess that we had periodically scrape up. So I decided to pull them up, set them aside, and next weekend haul them to the dumb and hit the garden center to lay down fresh grass turf.
So pulling up the flagstones is not trouble, they were un-mortared, so it was just a matter of levering them out with the shovel and setting them aside. As I worked, I found a layer of sand underneath. Thinking that the previous owners had just done a half-assed job of it, I turned over the sand so I could lay some fertilizer and grass seed as a temp solution in case it rained next weekend and I couldn't hit the garden center.
What do I find when I turn over the sand? A layer of stones, just like you're supposed to have when you lay down flagstones. Thinking WTF?, I keep turning over the stone until I hit dirt. Unfortunately, what I also hit was the plastic tarp.
Yes, under the flagstones, the sand, and the layer of stones, these idiots had put down a double layer of thick non-permeable plastic tarp, thereby guaranteeing every time it rained the water was sure to create a nice little lake on our patio! *headdesk* Amazing!!
So now I don't feel so bad.
Besides, I found out that I'm not the only one who can make bonehead errors in judgment. This morning I got the bright idea to tear up the cinder block flagstones in our backyard. They were put there by the previous owner to make a sort of patio. Unfortunately every time it rained, water tended to pool there, creating a nasty, mossy mess that we had periodically scrape up. So I decided to pull them up, set them aside, and next weekend haul them to the dumb and hit the garden center to lay down fresh grass turf.
So pulling up the flagstones is not trouble, they were un-mortared, so it was just a matter of levering them out with the shovel and setting them aside. As I worked, I found a layer of sand underneath. Thinking that the previous owners had just done a half-assed job of it, I turned over the sand so I could lay some fertilizer and grass seed as a temp solution in case it rained next weekend and I couldn't hit the garden center.
What do I find when I turn over the sand? A layer of stones, just like you're supposed to have when you lay down flagstones. Thinking WTF?, I keep turning over the stone until I hit dirt. Unfortunately, what I also hit was the plastic tarp.
Yes, under the flagstones, the sand, and the layer of stones, these idiots had put down a double layer of thick non-permeable plastic tarp, thereby guaranteeing every time it rained the water was sure to create a nice little lake on our patio! *headdesk* Amazing!!
So now I don't feel so bad.