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Last March I moved 97 large wheelbarrow loads of stone from the back yard to the side to make room for a pool.
Worked at it for 2 hrs a day for 4 days.
When that was done I scrubbed down the outside of the house and painted it. one story - 1950 sq ft.
That took 8 days, only worked mornings before it got too hot out.
63yo and I don't trust anybody else to do it right.
I am still working on my house remodel. A bit at a time as I can afford it. I finally saved up enough money for floors and there was a bad storm and I am using that money to replace the roof. Darn it!
We did our own hardscape. But when we finished we were 55 and 64. Not 62 and 67. But I think if you take your time, you can do it slowly. It took us almost 3 years while working full time.
We were 65 and 66 at the time and we had huge sections of our yard (sod) killed by spraying because we couldn't get the invasive weeds under control. After a bit, DH went and got pickup trucks full of sod on pallets, not those little light rolls one sees on some of the H GTV programs, but thick heavy squares of sod. We laid 4 pickup trucks full of sod in all the places needing new sod and now we have a beautiful yard.
A lot changes quickly at our ages. 2 years later, thinking about it, I don't think I could do that again.
Nothing. I live the ''apartment life'' and call the office if something needs fixing. As far as most recent physically taxing activity, I worked delivering flowers during the winter of 2014-2015. Snow, snow, snow and cold, cold, cold and I'm done with that too!
We are 69 and are installing raised beds for our vegetable garden. First, my husband uses the tractor to blade away existing soil from original garden to reuse and to level. Then, I use a rake to finesse it. We lay ground cloth then build 5'x10' raised beds of 2"x10" lumber in place. We then use the tractor to dump the topsoil we bought adding a bale of peat moss and some steer manure to each bed. Then we rake it and mix it all in then plant. We have 8 beds for strawberries, 4 double ones for asparagus, and 8 for other veggies like corn, potatoes, chard, cucumbers, squash, etc. A lot of work but I will have no more weeds. The project has taken weeks but will be worth it as I am tired of weeding. Adding mulch between the rows just encouraged slugs and the straw often sprouted grasses. We have 6 more to go. Whew! The tractor has been an immense help as I could not see dumping all that soil one wheelbarrow load at a time.
If you can afford it, can you hire someone to do that heavier work of hauling it away? Please don't injure yourselves.
at 66 years of age I put in a 35' by 5' sidewalk of pavers and 10 by 10 patio for the hot tub..dug out the old sod by hand, put down 5 or 6 inches of paver base (wheeled in by wheelbarrow), compacted it all with rented compactor and laid the pavers..turned out well enough..but when I stood back and considered I was also adding a 20' by 20' paver patio connected to the sidewalk, I said no no no..best $2000 I ever spent for labour to have it done by a crew of professionals (I already had the pavers)
I'm sixty-nine and DH is seventy-two. We went to Costa Rica and took a volcano tour.
It began with a ninety-mile drive on unpaved road. When we got there we did seventeen zip line canopy swings through the jungle and DH dropped fifty feet to the river bed and climbed back up a sheer rock wall.
At the end they pointed to two sheer rock walls with a rope swing transfer and said we would climb/swing our way out. I told them I would take the walking route out and they said there was none! Yikes.
The little Costa Rican guy who was belaying my line looked like he could let go any minute. I think just plain old adrenaline got me out of there.
Then it was a half mile walk through the jungle back to the bus where we loaded and they took us on a horseback ride to a waterfall where we swam. (I think they deliberately gave me a "grandma" horse as we took our time.)
After a very nice buffet lunch we grabbed large tubes and climbed a steep, muddy zig-zag path back down to the river where we went white water tubing. I couldn't manage the slippery walking and the bulky tube but got help from some good folks. That was way too much fun but very dangerous we both thought and I kept wondering how they would get anyone out of there should an arm or leg be broken.
Finally they drove us to hot springs high up on the volcano where we slathered ourselves with hot mud and soaked in the most lush and idyllic surroundings I'd ever imagined.
It was the experience of a lifetime but, boy, was it too much all at once for us old folks. Any one of those things would have been more than enough for a day's adventure.
It took some time to recover from all that but I'm glad I did it and I won't do it again! Well - maybe the hot springs.
At 61, DH had to tear up a couple rooms of tile, drywall, subfloor after a flood. Then replace all of that. It took him 3 months doing it all by himself. Good thing he's thin and agile.
For me, moving overseas at 62 was the hardest. Packing and moving boxes several times. We had help with the heavy stuff but still....
I am really impressed with the laborious tasks I see described here. GOOD for all of you! (no more ladders for me!)
Last March I moved 97 large wheelbarrow loads of stone from the back yard to the side to make room for a pool.
Worked at it for 2 hrs a day for 4 days.
When that was done I scrubbed down the outside of the house and painted it. one story - 1950 sq ft.
That took 8 days, only worked mornings before it got too hot out. 63yo and I don't trust anybody else to do it right.
But exactly why is that?
You don't know how to find the right person? You can't adequately explain what you want done? You won't pay someone enough to do it well? You're too picky or controlling?
Because unless we're talking about my own skilled profession, there is likely nothing that I can do better than most people who are professionals at their own thing. That's why they get paid to do it! Sure, some are bad or not conscientious but overall, I have MY thing, and they have theirs. Certainly if you get personal satisfaction from it and have the time, great...on the other hand there are many things I don't pride myself on being able to do it any better than just adequate...ha.
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