Laboring in small spaces

Having fun in the tiny outdoors

An important finishing touch to Scott's new man-cave was to clean out and repair the basement's window wells in the backyard. Thankfully, he is a rescue paramedic and so is trained in "small space rescue." Glad to say he did not need rescuing on this project.

Who knows when these window wells were last addressed or even cleaned out. Perhaps in the 1850s when the house was built. The flooding which buckled the brick walls ended many years ago, but it was still nasty. This project was incredibly filthy and took more days than anticipated, as all of Scott's projects do. It also took a lot of concrete, wire mesh, and all of the antique bricks that have been piled in the backyard for most of my life.

Smiling about the endless trails of dirt
soon to be tracked all over the house?
It's like living with PigPen from Peanuts!

One of my favorite moments in this project occurred as Scott was using a good hammer on the many masonry nails that now attach the wire mesh to the brick so that he could spread the concrete, more of which was always needed for this job so he was constantly going back to the hardware store for another 80-pound bag.

Me, shouting from the 3rd floor down to Scott in the backyard: How's it going down there? Would a hammer drill have helped?

Scott: I'm alright. Yeah, a hammer drill would have been perfect for this.

Me: Not like I didn't offer to get you one. You turned me down that time, don't forget.

Scott: I had really hoped to never again have a need for a hammerdrill. Oh, well. I'm doing it!

The man-cave will be covered in a future post. It's a scream.