Quest for a dry basement: post the second

The concrete man was supposed to come over on Friday evening to go over with Quin what we want done, but it rained so he cancelled. Ironic.

In the mean time, Quin has taken all the long nails and is working on taking out the stairs himself:

I've been told that I have to walk around the house to water the plants now. I said, "Yes, dear," but secretly I'm still jumping out the sliding glass door. I have to get these chores done during school time, and if I went out the front door I guarantee all school activity would halt. By jumping out the back door, I am in visual contact of the table where they're working at all times.

Quin also trimmed back the shrubs and trees around the patio so they wouldn't get in the way when the concrete man starts ripping things apart:

It's weird; we can see the whole yard now. I would have taken a "before" picture but he didn't forewarn me that he would be doing this. But those of you familiar with our house can see, it's a big change.

I tried to get a picture that showed the crack in the pavement. The patio is really two separate slabs, and we're only replacing the one under the stairs with more concrete. This pic is really too dark to see it; the new patio will end where the basketball hoop is now: