The Challenge of November: Fresh Snow

Snow is not a word landscape and concrete guys like the hear. Last night we got some, the first of the year. It looks like 2 - 3" came over night and blanketed everything. Completion of our yard by November 11 is now looking less likely. This should melt off today, hopefully pretty quick this morning. This is the advantage of a south facing backyard. But more is coming for tommorow, and monday and tuesday of next week. Winter is here!

Rainy Day

It's the first day it has really rained since the project formally started. That's okay though, because all of the "hardscape" stuff has been completed, with the exception of a final coat of sealer on the patio.

Yesterday, work was done on the sprinkler system (to be finished today hopefully,) the yard was cleaned up and concrete curbing was set around the grass areas. You can see the curbing in the images below. This comes out of a specialized machine, and then is finished by hand.


Here is a shot of the entire yard. You can see it is all leveled out, and trenched for the sprinkler lines. The next things to be done are: complete sprinklers, bring in top soil, add sod. This should all be done by saturday. The flower beds and mulch areas will all use rock mulch. Why rock? It's so windy up here on the mountain in the winter, that we're concerned regular wood mulch will just blow away (like it did in the front yard.)

Second Day of Concrete: Pouring the Fire pit

Today was a busy one, and a lot got done. It was the second day the concrete guys were here, and today they poured the sidewalk, firepit and dog run, with standard grey concrete. I have a few pictures of the progress of the firepit, from form to complete.

In the first shot, you can also see the compeleted retaining wall:


Here is Ty working on the firepit mud. He did most of the work on this part of the project, and he did a remarkable job.


This is the completed patio surrounding the firepit, complete with symetric radial pattern:

Working on the Retaining Wall

Yesterday saw a lot of work completed on the retaining wall surrounding our future firepit. This is time consuming, tedious but detail oriented work as the rocks must be positioned perfectly. It looks like putting together a puzzle to me. Here is a shot of the beginning of the wall. Today I expect it to be completed.


One of the neat things about this retaining wall is the stairs. They will be made out of rocks, creating a very rustic feel. Here is a picture of the lower three stairs:


And another shot of the patio, which still appears to be getting lighter all the time. This is under an early morning mostly overcast/ hazy sky.