Adventures in Remuddling

When we bought our house, we planned on fixing the front step as soon as possible. Two years, and two winters later, the step still hasn’t been fixed yet. In fact, the step - and the concrete pad in front of it - seemed to sag even more. This spring, we decided it had to go…

Because the last garden bed will butt up against the left side of the concrete pad, I couldn’t install the bed without fixing the step and concrete pad. Serena and I talked in circles for a couple of weeks about how to fix the step. Should we pour a new concrete step? That requires building forms. Should we buy a granite step? That would easily cost us $200+ to have it delivered, not to mention the labor of maneuvering a 675 pound piece of rock. Should we build a wooden step instead?

Finally, we decided to replace concrete with a wooden step - we felt it was easier to work with wood than concrete or granite. Also, with wood, I don’t have to dig down as deep to create a gravel and concrete foundation.

I was very fortunate to have my parents’ help during this week-long project. After an overnight trip to Martha’s Vineyard, I put them to work. Dad assisted me in taking out the existing wooden steps. The treads and risers, as you can see in the above picture, were extremely worn and warped. They probably haven’t been replaced for at least a decade. Since the stringers in place only supported two wooden steps, I had to cut new stringers to hold three steps.

But first I had to tackle the existing concrete step. I was fortunate to borrow the rotary hammer again from my neighbor, L, who happens to be a contractor. We have some wonderful neighbors on our street. As a side note, L walked by one day and saw our raised beds and immediately identified them as Square Foot Garden Beds!

Dad and I hammered away at the concrete for at least an hour to break it up into smaller more manageable pieces that we could move. I originally wanted to sweep the concrete under the rug (so to speak) by dumping them under the front porch, but Serena wouldn’t have any of it. She thought it would be be bad feng shui or something like that. After clearing everything away, we started on a gravel and concrete foundation.

To be continued…