Day 1 of the Great 2007 Backyard Makeover Project

Well, the Great Sewer/Garage/Sidewalk Makeover Project of 2007 got off to an early start today. Jeff Neal, our contractor, and a heavy-equipment team of three arrived around 7:00 this morning. After they left this afternoon, Leslie went out and took photos of their first day's work. Here are some of them.

In the first photo, the scraped patch in the back corner marks the location of the new garage. All of the fencing from the Glenview side around to the side of the next-door garage apartment has been removed. So also has the concrete driveway, the Glenview curb, and the retaining walls on either side of the original drive-under garage. The second photo is looking east on Glenview, on the north side of the house. The curb is gone at the alley corner, where the new driveway will be poured.

Wouldn't you know it? Two weeks ago I told Jeff Neal, our construction manager, about the buried telephone cable in our backyard, which runs roughly parallel to the sewer line. This morning before I left for work, I reminded him about the buried cable. Guess what? They accidentally cut the cable while digging! Jeff patched the cable, and AT&T is sending someone out Wednesday to fix the cable. It's a good thing Jeff patched it, because apparently AT&T doesn't care that we would be two days without phone and DSL service! But we're OK, as you can see now.

Here's another photo taken by Leslie. This one is from the yard by the tree, looking northeast to the corner of Glenview & the alley. We had removed the concrete pavers that had been the sidewalk to the alley for many years, and had stacked them beside the tree and around the concrete seat by the pond. Leslie has plans for them later.

To the right you can see the beginning of the front yard sidewalk replacement project. The steps at the street are gone, too. Note the nice compact car parked out front--it's the replacement vehicle while the Honda is being repaired. I admit: I encountered a utility pole that wasn't supposed to be there in Webster Groves two weeks ago.

Well, as you can see, we are off to a ripping good start after Day 1 of the great garage/sewer/sidewalk project. More tomorrow, I am sure.

Leslie began a report and saved it to work on later. I forgot and did this. Tomorrow the entry is hers!