Tear down the wall...

If you've been to our house you may have noticed a little brick flower box around our front lantern. It looked a little worn when we moved in, but over the last year or two it has really started to disintegrate. It got to the point where some of the bricks were falling out on their own, so after hemming and hawing about it for a while, I decided that it was finally time to tear down the wall (Bell-side say it with me..."Oh no....there must always be the Wall!") So, last Sunday afternoon I decided to start the process (explain to me why I get the urge to start major projects around 4pm on Sunday?). In some ways it was frighteningly easy...whole sections of brick came off with a gentle tug. Actually for 'Phase I' the hardest part was transporting the dirt from the flower box as layers of brick where taken off. (Second hardest part was figuring the the exact number of bricks I could put in the wheel barrel and still push it up the incline of the driveway without it tipping over.)

When I was envisioning this task I figured I'd take down the bricks, perhaps digging a few out that were partially underground, plant new plants and if needed touch up the paint on the part of the lantern that had been underground...little did I realize that part about "partially underground" was the major chink in my plan. Not only were there bricks partially underground, but their are at least two layers of brick completely underground! Note the present tense..I spent two hours yesterday digging out a layer and there is still more there. My neighbors (one of whom used to live in this house) came by and told me that the first owner of the house put it in -- so the flower box is older than I am! Which made me appreciate more how long the mortar had actually held up and feel a little sad that I had to take it down. I'll post the final product when I finish the chore...but it is raining today, so blogging about it was the best I could do :)