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.
Posted: October 8th, 2009 | Filed under: Landscaping, Our Projects | Tags: landscaping, rotten timbers | No Comments »
Buh Bye rotten entry. You will not be missed.
Monday…rained out. Tuesday, rained out after 2 hours. Wednesday….hooray it’s dry! Rotten wood was removed with the discovery of a corn snake and the biggest yellow jacket ground hive any of us have EVER seen. As bad as that hive was….I was expecting some more heinous discoveries in the snake category.
My precious Dogwood is supposed to be transplanted today..I really hope it survives.
