Is there a back doctor in the house?

Wheelbarrows can be fun sometimes. Like, if you're moving cotton balls or helium-filled balloons around. When you're moving chunks of concrete patio uphill in the sun, however, the wheelbarrow is decidedly NOT fun.

We started with this:



Then we realized we didn't have enough room to put the dirt we needed to remove for the foundation. The words "we gotta wheelbarrow it out front" were spoken, and my fate was sealed. Apparently "we" means "you" in dad-speak. A few hours later, I felt like I was going to collapse, but the concrete was nicely stacked by the curb.



Now, when I first starting thinking we should do all the work on this addition ourselves, I was imagining swinging a hammer, setting cabinets, painting walls... the fun stuff! I'm pretty sure wheelbarrowing 200-lb loads of concrete for hours on end never entered my mind. For the record, this is really the kind of construction I like to do:



At any rate, we managed to get the hole dug today. Tomorrow we'll get the footing forms set up and ready for inspection. Unless we have problems drilling the holes for the tie-ins to the existing footing, that is.