Between a rock and a hard place

People suffer natural disasters all over the world, such as hurricanes, landslides, earthquakes, fires, etc., often losing everything they own, including their lives. 

While we suffered what I call The Disaster, it doesn't compare, and we are capable of digging ourselves out and starting over.  After a year and a half, with help from a few friends, we finally got started on that task last week.  As you might imagine, it wasn't easy, both emotionally and physically, but it's a relief to finally be making progress again.

Bedroom half

Sewing corner/office corner half

When it first happened, we turned our energies to something completely different.  Despite my confidence in my masonry abilities being totally shattered, we laid our new bedroom tiles, a first-time endeavor.  I think we did okay.

My beautiful sewing corner

Having created a really nice sewing corner for the first time ever, I got started back into sewing, something I'd let drop for over ten years.  I started with my new drapes and bedspread.  I realized I did not have shattered confidence in sewing, it was good for my soul, I knew what I was doing in my sleep. 

Sabrina enjoying sewing

When my sister gifted me with a whole bunch of new, modern patterns, she had no idea how healing that was for me personally.  I'd forgotten how comfortable I was with fabric construction; it's nothing like the stress of trying to succeed at building construction.

But finally, our friends forced us into facing reality.  We didn't want to use our main outside dining table, we couldn't access our upper level, we let the whole area just turn back into the weedy natural state it prefers.  And we stayed stressed wondering about the fate of the Babes.

The first concern was to excavate the Babes before doing anything else that might hurt them even more.  A section of wall had broken off when it fell but stayed whole, the guys jacked it up, and there was one Babe looking almost whole!

Raising the slab

Destroying the slab

Uncovering the left Babe

Pretty face

The Dreamer didn't fare so well, as she was completely sandwiched between the concrete wall and the stone steps.  As our favorite, that's sad.  While we might be able to learn how to fix her feet well enough and reattach her arms, she's lost her pretty nose, and I don't think I can sculpt a new one.

I'd love to just replace her, but it's probably going to cost a similar amount to get my camera fixed.  Sigh.

With a little help from our friends

We had no clue exactly where to look for the last Babe, so they just started carefully breaking up more wall in the general vicinity.  First, they had to shovel off a whole lot of dirt and rubble, so it was nice to have so many extra hands.

An amazing miracle

It's absolutely amazing what we discovered.  She had fallen just inches from both the side and the front of the lower concrete wall, right in the dirt.  While her feet got separated from the base, the rest of her is just fine!  One or two inches to the right, and I'm sure her whole form would have been shattered.

Access again to the top!

And now we have steps again!  There's still a lot of work to be done to develop anything pretty, but at least we have access to the top level. 

It still startles me when I walk by that it's so open above the house level wall after feeling so enclosed with the extra bulk on that wall.

This is the corner where the one Babe just missed being totally smashed. 

A Mediterranean igloo

Filling the igloo

I already have had a lump of dirt in my patio from the original construction, waiting for continuing the refinement of the level and not wanting to have carted needed dirt too far away, but now I have an igloo holding a ton of dirt.  How clever of the guys!  The igloo provides a place to store the blocks that might come in handy somewhere later plus keeps all the dirt from just spreading all over my yard.  I've also raked out a lot of the rocks and rubble, which will make using the dirt later much easier.

And now, here are the recovered Babes.  One needs an arm reattached to her body, one needs her feet reattached to her base, and the poor Dreamer, well, she's pretty injured, but she's not completely destroyed.  She'll just carry more scars than we'll care to remember.  However, it could have been so much worse.

A broken arm

A broken base

A whole lot of breaking

We won't be able to rebuild the wall as it was, but we're developing some new ideas that might end up adequately attractive.  They'll have to wait their turn in line; we'll have to just deal with an eyesore a bit longer.  But yes, life does move on, and finally we're moving on with it.