concrete crushin' should only be done by professionals...

If you can try and remember back to a time when there was an enchanted forest enclosed by a much sturdier than required concrete retaining wall.  We have hated this retaining wall and have been told that removing it will be really expensive - so we thought we would take a jackhammer to it and see just how much we could remove ourselves...you know, kind of a goodwill gesture. 

OMG...after 4 hours being thrown around with that loud, rented power tool, I am sore in places that make me firmly believe that that the aforementioned tasks should be performed only by professionals. 

We were somewhat successful in our endeavor - the part of the retaining wall that the landscaper was "pretending wasn't there" is for the most part gone!  We will definitely be feeling it for a while...but at least who ever will take over from here can now square off the retaining wall which had an awful curve before.

We, of course, hope that they make that wall go away! 

You can kind of see the terrible, awful in the photos below which I took during one of my many breaks from the power tool madness in which I probably said "oh my goodness" and "this sucks" and lots of other things which do not require repeating here.

The fella who lived here before was serious about building things to last - this retaining wall is at least a foot wide.  I doubt that it was built to code since the city had to condemn the pool that the enchanted forest was covering and fill it in - they knocked the fence down which previously sat atop this lovely concrete monstrosity.  Oh, and did I mention that the wall was about 3 feet tall...surprise!

So, I admit to saying words that probably should never be said and being way too overdramatic and almost overheated had it not been for our buddies Bobby and Alan for bringing us much needed hydration (Oh, Thank Heaven!), we were mostly successful in demolishing the terrible, awful that our landscaper was pretending wasn't there!  Since we do not possess her capacity to pretend it isn't there, I am proud to show you the fruits of our labor...

We were no longer feeling goodwill at this point and since there is still grading to be done, we figured it would be best to let Tom and his team of professionals take care of the rest, including getting that concrete into the dumpster.  And, since we do not own a tractor, this hot mess of a concrete wall is now to a point where the trained professionals can take it from here...

And, we will go back to doing the hard things, like picking out countertops!