Posted: May 1st, 2010 | Filed under: Landscaping | Tags: deck, landscaping | 10 Comments »
…and nowhere to go.
They built the back deck at the same time as the wood front steps, but I never showed you the back because I wanted to get it all stained and stylin’ for ya. I honestly don’t know when that is going to happen…so…there.
It rains every weekend that I try to rent the pressure washer to clean the old sections of deck. When it’s dry, the oak tassels keep falling into the stain…freaking annoying. I managed to get those front steps stained by some miracle reprieve in nature…and they aren’t even finished…just good enough for a distance photo!
Here’s where we are….or were, and are, this week.
This was taken during inspection….that corner where the hose is? My nemesis. We’ve been grading that with mud etc.. to keep water from pooling there, despite the french drains. Today’s downpour showed us we were FINALLY successful. WAH freakin’ HOO! I was hoping for Madonna-esque guns after all that digging…didn’t happen, so I’ll settle for draining water.
There was just a small deck outside the living room, with plenty of mud on either side of it. Phil/lipa‘s lair was under this small deck.
And that was the other small deck off the kitchen….
We had to tear off the boards of the living room deck in order to get the new siding done, but we kept the structural supports attached to the foundation since we knew we’d re-build it eventually.
We designed the new retaining wall to act as the support for the new deck. The joists run across to the wall and are supported underneath by the new cinder block rather than sinking tons of posts into the ground.
Now we have an L shaped deck that wraps the corner and connects the kitchen and the living room on the outside. The dining room is in between with the big windows.
I took these the day they finished, and the snow came the next morning.
Here it is in all its unstained glory…one day, I’ll be able to get this knocked out.
You can see where the old deck ended and the new starts…I’ll pressure wash the old so I can stain it all at once. We also hope to replace these railings with the hog panels like in the front, but these were already there and in good condition, so, we kept them for the moment.
I took the pictures below last night so you could see the carpet of oak tassels that are falling on us daily. It was a nice warm evening and with torrential rains moving in, we knew we’d be stuck inside the rest of the weekend. No proper cushions yet…
*UPDATE: Boy, was that rain thing an understatement…things are bats**t insane here…
You guys were right – I don’t regret painting the chairs orange…
BTW….That fugly lantern? Best commercial mosquito repellent ever.
We should have bought stock in OFF Power Pads when they first came out, because it’s the only thing that allows us to hang outdoors at night without spraying down. They WORK people…and trust me…we’ve tried EVERYTHING. I am not getting paid to wax poetic about these things……REALLY.
Posted: April 12th, 2010 | Filed under: Landscaping | Tags: landscaping, prairie trillium | 6 Comments »
The weather has been cooperating lately, so we’ve started filling the beds with dirt, staining the new front steps with the hog panels, and installing a bit of drama in the way of landscape lighting. I told you we’ve been busy!
We plan to build a separate fenced (deer proof) vegetable/herb garden later on, but for this year, I’m using the new side beds for edibles. I’m playin’ it fast and loose…livin’ on the edge…risking their very lives. I HAD to…you see, I haven’t had a garden of any sort other than this for TWO YEARS.
You either get this affliction or you are baffled by it. Digging in the dirt and growing stuff is something I pschycologically need. Once you’re addicted, these little pots of methadone don’t cut it. AT ALL. My whole lettuce crop in this pot is wiped out by a single salad for 4.
I planted many basic herbs and scattered a few seeds to get things rolling…..IF they survive. It’s been almost a week and the deer have not bothered them, YET. I’m planning an elaborate redneck screening device involving bird netting and thick wire in case things go as the CC predicts. Dill, cilantro and lettuces need the cool of early spring so I HAD to go ahead and plant..out in the open….dain-jah, DAIN-JAH!!
OK…I know I sound like a crazy person, but it is, what it is. In addition to dangling my herbs out in plain view of the local fauna, I discovered a very welcome surprise in the yard.
Hiding in the scraggled, neglected vinca minor, dead leaves and bare clay…
Is this. Hint…3 leaves and NOT poison ivy!
Prairie Trillium. Wahooo! How could I have missed this last year?! It’s a pest to some…NOT HERE. I won’t go on, except that finding something salvageable, let alone exquisite, in THIS yard has been a rarity. Amongst the miles of poison ivy and dead trees, we have a few of these gems scattered in the forest. THANK YOU plant fairies.
My horsetail has been ordered for the front bed and should arrive any day, but I was afraid the dogwood will have leafed out by then, and it needed a moment. So, until a bigger tah-dah is available for the front, I give you a mini-tah-dah sneak peek on the lighting featuring said dogwood. More to come, I promise.
Posted: November 11th, 2009 | Filed under: Building Materials, Landscaping | Tags: landscaping | No Comments »
The first coat of stucco went on…and my heart sank. It looked pinkish brown…way too much red pigment, so I talked to them about mixing in a bag of black for the second coat….MUCH better. My goal is to match the color of the soil as much as possible so that the wall recedes into the hillside. When that first coat went on…all I could think about was how many hours I would have to spend staining it to tone down the color….very relieved I won’t have to do that now.
looking very Santa Fe scary to me here…..
Then the second batch of mortar mix…..
You can see the difference between the 2 colors below….
When will it end? Soon..we hope. Weather has been cooperating so MAYBE by the beginning of next week we’ll be done with all this mess….6 weeks and counting….
Posted: November 3rd, 2009 | Filed under: Building Materials, Landscaping, Our Projects | Tags: horsetail, landscaping | 1 Comment »
Things at ModFruGal Prison came to a standstill for 10 days…but we are back on track and moving forward with a reformed crew. (Long story…I won’t bore you with the details.) We’ve been calling it the prison since those cinder block walls are so cold and unwelcoming at the moment…seemed to fit.
Ugly….but I remain committed to the vision. The block will be capped and rendered with a dark brown mortar/stucco so that hopefully it will blend in with the soil. In the spring, I hope to soften the edges with modern plantings like Equisetum Hyemale or Field Horsetail.
photo from Grow Where You’re Planted
Posted: October 21st, 2009 | Filed under: Building Materials, Landscaping, Our Projects | Tags: breeze block walls exterior, cinderblock retaining walls, landscaping | No Comments »
So…the wall/s….were looking WAY bigger than the Plan dictated. I was a bit scared and freaked out, but I’ve been hangin’ with these guys for awhile now and I watch how they work..they seem to get it, know their stuff and best yet..are good communicators. Inspection time for sourced out jobs is most revealing when the crew have knocked off for the day and there’s still good daylight to see what the day has brought.
The day this wall was built had me a little unnerved, but I knew Rodger was with me…I watched as they shot the laser levels to make sure the grade was within centimeters of the plan…but it just looks SO BIG. It measured out accurately, but I envisioned the bottom step area more open, more welcoming, than the previous “rotten wall of go away” Just as I began to worry…I am reassured the following morning…..”all these tall blocks…they’ll be cut down at a sloping angle to act as a handrail to follow code”…and to be less visually intrusive. “Phew..I was a wee bit concerned.” Heh. Nah..I didn’t need an extra glass of wine last night..I was cool. Rock on Rodger.
See, I knew these boys were on my team. It may look bizarre and scary now, but I’m keeping the faith with my dudes. I’m imagining the final, SMALLER product… rendered in tinted concrete and filled with zen modern plantings…..and in the end…I just want to finally sit under my Sugar Maple without being smack dab in the middle of a termite eaten snake pit. It’s all good.
Posted: October 14th, 2009 | Filed under: Building Materials, Landscaping, Our Projects | Tags: concrete footers, landscaping | 1 Comment »
The rain is just relentless. Moving all that dirt in combination with all that rain….yeah…my driveway is a muddy river. Yesterday, the gang managed to get the concrete footers poured right as the next wave of the Nashville monsoon moved in…so we have some wet, muddy concrete footers right now. If it ever stops raining, maybe we’ll get some walls built, but I’m not optimistic it will be this week. On the bright side…my Dogwood is handling the transplant pretty well with all that water to drink.
