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Endsleigh specialise in Home Contents Insurance for people in the UK

Confronting my fears

Annex/Kitchen

Ladies, the “But I have no upper arm strength!” excuse has just been blown to bits. It turns out a jackhammer isn’t as heavy as you might imagine…..

For weeks, we’ve been talking about getting rid of the concrete porch foundation that lingered outside the kitchen door. It was the last piece of the porch left standing, and we knew that making it disappear would be no small task. Teague tried breaking it up into smaller pieces with a sledgehammer and nearly broke his arm off. Luckily, our friends at Home Depot rent pneumatic drills.

On Saturday, the weather was gorgeous and I was motivated. Teague was working all day (sunshine means long, hard days at work for him) and I wanted him to come home to some major progress on the back of the house – like, no more concrete. But I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to hold a jackhammer up long enough to get much accomplished. All morning I puttered around the house trying to talk myself into it. I was afraid of failing; I hate to fail at anything. But I kept reminding myself that all I’d really lose if I couldn’t do it was a $50 rental fee. Finally, around 10am, I hopped in the car and drove down to Home Depot.

I rented a 60lb Hilti demolition drill, similar to this. It was about the size of a leaf blower, and plugged in to a regular electrical outlet. Holding it up wasn’t hard at all, and it made quick work of the concrete – even the parts that were over 4 inches thick. In fact, breaking up the concrete was the “easy” part. Carting it around the back of the house and heaving it into the dumpster was much harder! It felt like the concrete was multiplying – I had no idea how much of it was actually hidden there. Check out this pile and then roughly double it (I tried my best to distribute the concrete evenly throughout the dumpster):

I broke the concrete into chunks small enough to push over the top of the dumpster. Since the dumpster is on the opposite side of the house, I carted it over with a wheelbarrow like this:

It was the most physically exhausting day I’ve put in at the house thus far. The dumpster is now full, the neighbors think I am insane, and my back and arms are screaming in pain. But it was worth it – when Teague came home that night, the concrete was GONE. He was very surprised! Best of all, I faced my fears and tackled something I thought I couldn’t do (and didn’t fail).

The comparison photos:

porchOldthumb.jpg

Comments, Thoughts, and Feedback

Kasmira had this to say on 03.28.05:

Awesome! Looks great. I’m sure you are hurting. :)

Kristin had this to say on 03.28.05:

Now it’s official. You are Wonder Woman!

The back of the house is looking WONDERFUL now!

deb had this to say on 03.28.05:

you go girl!!!

Mary had this to say on 03.28.05:

That’s awesome!!! You’ve given me courage to tackle some similar things here!!! Great job!

Jocelyn had this to say on 03.28.05:

Way to go girl. Isn’t it amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it? And afterwards you’ll look back and be like, “I can’t believe I actually did that!”

mindy had this to say on 03.28.05:

Haha – yes, it was extremely empowering to find out that I wasn’t the weakling I imagined myself to be. I suggest you all go tackle a project you’re afraid of, then try to wipe the smile off your face when you tell people ;)

merideth had this to say on 03.28.05:

dude that’s awesome! we have some jackhammering of our own to do…our front stairs and driveway…so basically, i’m glad to know it didnt kill you! i like it better when you’re not dead and all

Trissa had this to say on 03.28.05:

You rock! What a huge accomplishment. You’ve earned bragging rights for a long time.

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