Zanna drives the Bobcat!

Today we overcame another big obstacle! Up until this afternoon about 1/3 of our yard was a concrete slab that spanned from the house to the garage. There were many reasons why we wanted to rip up the slab but the main reason was to give us access to the buried oil tank below. This oil tank was left empty in the ground beneath the slab in our back yard. During the inspection phase, before we closed on the house, we got soil samples to assess the health of the tank. We confirmed that it was not full of oil and more importantly is not leaking into the ground. While after receiving such favorable soil samples Oregon department of environmental quality do not require us to do anything to the tank. However, in a progressive and environmentally conscience state like Oregon we were recommended to do due diligence and decommission the oil tank once and for all. Since such obligations may only change in the future we did not want to send time and money to build a small patio only to be required to dig it up before we potentially sell the house many years from now.
We first thought that we would have to rent a jackhammer for days on end and haul pieces of the slab to a dumpster. All that changed when we found out about a local company called The Wall which reuses old concrete slabs to build new retaining walls. They subsidize the hauling fees because it is basically free material for them! Further, this again diverts construction debris from the landfill. Randy and Ryan from The Wall came in with a bobcat (which Zanna and I both got to drive!) and tore out the slab in about 2 hours! It was pretty incredible to watch. And now we have all this open space to plan our gardens!
Oh yeah check out the master bedroom with out the chimney and Zanna christening the honey bucket!