Machine Gun Statue Installation

🕛 Time - 2 Hours
💵 Cost - $50

Materials

• Cement (Existing)
• Twine (Existing)
• Gravel

Tools

• Sledgehammer
• Shovel
• Bucket
• Rental Truck ($50)
• Gloves and Safety Glasses

My grandmother was an eccentric artist and when they moved out of their Frank Lloyd Wright-style home, I took one of the pieces of art out of the yard and put it in my previous home in Madison. It's been there since then. Now that may sister is selling the old home, I decided to move the piece into our new yard.

I was able to just tip it over in its current location and pull it up out of the ground. From there, I took a sledgehammer to remove the existing cement to make it easier to transport.

Once it was a little lighter, I moved it into the back of a rented truck. I drive a Jeep and it wouldn't have fit. Menards has a great rental truck offering. You can just show up, pay $19 for the first 75 minutes and 50 cents a mile. I ended up having the truck for about 2 hours and spent $50 dollars. I only drove 15 miles total.

Once I got the statue back to our house, and returned the truck, I dug a 15-inch-deep hole in the back corner of our lot. I tamped some gravel into the bottom of the hole and placed the statue. It actually stood pretty well on its own, so I didn't build a brace for it.

Once it was in the hole, I leveled it and used some twine to ensure it would stay in place over the next 24-hours. We were forecast to have pretty mild weather, so I wasn't too worried about bracing it further. With it good to go, I mixed some heavy-duty cement and poured it around the base. About 12 inches of the statue was buried in the cement.

After the cement dried, I filled in the top with topsoil and will hopefully stay out of this flowerbed for the rest of the summer. I'm glad we could keep the family heirloom in the family, and I like the way it looks in our yard.