Well, the plumbers were true to their word – they were done by 3 PM and had said adios, leaving a trail of dirty tire tracks all the way up the street and piles of dirt where the trench went. I don’t mind the dirt piles on the rock area – that I can move around myself with a rake and then bring some new rock in to cover it.

But the lawn was a bone of contention, and I told the guy so. It’s all clay, very clumpy, and impossible to just spread over the lawn and cover it with loam and grass seed. We went back and forth on this for a few minutes before he finally agreed that I was right; but he didn’t know what to do about it. He said he would have his boss call me tomorrow with a plan to get rid of the dirt. And I’m now especially keen to get this taken care of, given the fact that they’re calling for an inch of rain or more this weekend, which would gonna turn the place into a quagmire. And with our lawn sloping towards the street it will put mud everywhere. This from the National Weather Service in Phoenix:

A series of strong weather systems will begin moving into Arizona Saturday, and by Saturday night, we could see some rain developing around the Valley.

Sunday is looking very wet, a possible washout, with rain throughout the day. Some weather models are showing an inch of rain or more through Sunday night.

We get over an inch of rain on this yard in that short period of time and, well I don’t even want to think about it.

The street in front of our house and going in both directions is already a mess, causing the neighbors to come driving by to see what’s up.

I can hear them now, sadly shaing their heads: “That’s the Richards, wait until the HOA comes knocking at their door!”

The missing cement resulting from a large cross-cut across the driveway also had to be dealt with. I mean, you can’t have a car driving over the dirt and leaving a trail of mud from the driveway into the garage – especially if it’s going to get muddy. That’s all I’d need. I had some sheets of plywood in the garage, so I laid them on top of the dirt and got two 6′ X 9′ heavy cloth tarps which I then laid over the wood to hold them down and keep them together. My mortar guy John is backed up with work for a couple of weeks so it’s going to have to stay that way for a while. John took a look at the area and has determined it’s too big for what he can mix in his mixer, so he’s going to prep the area and frame it, then call in a cement truck to pour the concrete, after which he’ll finish it off. More $.

And finally, the front yard watering system. I broached the subject of eliminating the grass and replace it with rock and desert foliage to Tracey but she didn’t want to hear of it. The whole watering system needs to be reconstructed from scratch, so I’ll have that professionally done next week while getting a quote for rock where there’s now dirt by the house. And then I’ll need Carmelo to come work his magic with the loam and grass seed. More $.

But at least it’s done and we can move on from here. Thankfully, my Vegas weekend is this weekend and I’ll have a long leisurely drive to try and forget about all this for a few days.