We tore a couple of new holes in the original stone wall in front of our property, to make way for the new driveway on the opposite side of our frontage, and the walkway. We repaired the opening for the old driveway, and in the last week, have started work repairing the rest of theRead more about Completing the stone wall[…]
The landscape guys are making working on the ;paving stone and flagstone walkways. These are set on gravel or sand, simetimes with a dollup of mortar underneath, and go all around our yard. In the front and along one side of our house, we will use 24″x24″ square pavers. The plans called for 30″x30″ pouredRead more about Flagstone and paving stone walkways[…]
From the start, I was dead set on using engineered stone for our counter tops. While not a pretty as natural stone, it is about as bullet proof a material as you can get. But, slowly but surely, our designer talked me out of engineered stone in favor of natural stone. It’s true, it doesRead more about Caring for nice things[…]
Unfortunately, we discovered a rash of new plumbing issues this week. The first, and potentially most serious, is an issue with our sump pump. The sump pump is hooked up to two lines. One goes to the vent (to get air behind water to allow it to flow) and the other, the outlet. It seemsRead more about More plumbing issues, oh my[…]
The tree farm showed up early today and dropped in the largest specimen tree we are installing, a pretty good sized fruitless olive. I saw them pull up on the street. First, they put the tree upright and dropped it into the hole for placement and depth measurement. If you look at the chains above,Read more about More trees[…]
Late last week, we thought we were done with the basement reconstruction after the water leak and resulting flood. But alas, it was not to be. The company that did the repairs, did a pretty poor job at floating the walls and ceiling after the drywall was installed, and there are lots of visible issues. Read more about Basement – two steps forward, one step back[…]
It’s funny that we call this building the pool house, because we won’t have a pool for a while. We’ve made some good progress over the last few weeks, and there has been a lot to do. The painting was finished on the outside about a month ago. Last week, the roof was put onRead more about Pool house progress[…]
We’ve got the first of our landscaping installed, with the hedges and trees around most of the property line installed now. The hedges above are a variety called podocarpus henkelii. It is a somewhat slower growing hedge, but is very dense, and will not grow overly thick. Over time, it will get nice and tallRead more about Hedges & trees[…]