Hotties in the landscape
Jun. 7th, 2011 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynAll the single ladies (all the single ladies) in the neighborhood have been over, asking me about the hotties working on my landscape, specifically Chad the lead, wanting to know whether he's married or not. So yesterday I asked Marc, the owner, the all-important questions -- who's married and who's not? Most of them are, but Chad is not! So of course, I have to tell my neighbors, and hope there isn't a free-for-all on the poor guy. But I confess, I have been enjoying the eye candy almost as much as I have the changes to the garden. And Chad is super-friendly and pet-positive (loves cats AND dogs), so I think he'll make quite a catch. I brought them all cupcakes yesterday & he got all verklemmt. It was cute.
Anyway. I didn't intend for this to be such a huge picspam but... I fell down the back stairs Friday night and really messed up my ankles badly, and haven't had the energy to make a post. This is why I told them to make as much hard, flat surfaces as possible. I don't think they really believed how dangerous I am to myself until that happened (and of course, they were terrified it was their fault; I just said, no, this happens to me ALL the TIME). It's really amazing I still have all my digits and limbs, to be honest.
(And of course, the format of my LJ cuts off the sides of many of these pics, so if you're at all interested, you can just click on them and see a wider pic.)
After the remodel, I was left with this big empty space out back that I tried doing some plantings with and was hoping to landscape a bit, but nothing ever really developed. So when they said, put a deck back there to connect to the landing, I was all O.O but then I thought about it, and it made sense. It's a hugely expensive part of the whole project and it turned out the material they used for the landing (a recycled plastic and wood composite) was hard to find. I always make things easy!
They've taken a lot of my plants out and pushed them in a corner, and even though they say they'll be fine without soil and water, it makes me really really nervous -- I've been watering them when the guys leave for the night, and I know they've watered in the morning on sunny days.
Mr. Blues inspects the trench dug for the water line. I wasn't all that keen on a water feature, it feels very... suburban to me, but one they showed me caught my minimalist eye and so they've had to dig a trench out front for a water line to that -- there's no water line in the back of the house, something that's caused me problems for years. They'll also give me a spigot toward my back gate. Here you can see the trench in the back and toward the front where they had to dig around the house (I apologize for the weeds, this is why I've hired pros), and the little pond for the waterfall.
One of the major things I asked for was as much hardscaping as possible. Every year I get older, I have less energy and strength to maintain, and the nice thing about pavers is, you don't have to do anything to them. When they're done right (which my little brick reuse projects have never been), stuff doesn't grow between them, and you can actually put chairs and things on them and they will miraculously sit level. Initially, as you can see from one of these pics, by following the landscape designer's plans, the curve of the path around from the new gate next to my house would be really narrow -- and with a rain barrel there, and my proclivity for tripping over my own feet, I just didn't like it, so they changed it to a straight, wider path and patio area. I am going to LOVE this part. But the poor guys -- every time they level out the sand base layer, the kitties come through it and put paw prints in.
The deck gets closer to reality every day. They're going to extend the pavers over to the deck stairs, so I'm losing a lot of lawn, but gaining safer footing for my clumsy self.
One of the things that precipitated this, besides my growing unhappiness with the fact that I've lived here over 20 years, and never once sat in my back garden and just enjoyed it, because it was always a disaster and I felt guilty if I wasn't working in it, was that the ancient side fence was rotten and falling apart. I knew I had to fix it, and just decided to wipe out the whole thing and start again. I LOVE the new fence. I'm still not sold on the new gate being next to the house, but maybe when the lilac's pruned back and the roses are out of the way, I'll like it more. It's just that it's through muddy, wet grass and ground on the side yard, and the old entrance, off the sidewalk, was totally paved up to the gate. But it's awesome and I can't wait to plant some vines to grow along the wire.
Though, it's not without sadness. This is my beloved golden chain tree, which is going to come out because it's diseased, and the way the roots are rotting, which I can see now, it will fall on my garage. This is the last of my inheritance from sis_r, and the budget is limited, but I know that the extra expense is needed because if it does take out the garage, that's the first part of the money I used and that would make me feel pretty crappy. So. Bye-bye, beautiful tree, may the next one grow as tall and lovely as you did. The bees will miss you, the squirrels will miss their old nests, and the kitties will miss climbing on you.
Anyway. I didn't intend for this to be such a huge picspam but... I fell down the back stairs Friday night and really messed up my ankles badly, and haven't had the energy to make a post. This is why I told them to make as much hard, flat surfaces as possible. I don't think they really believed how dangerous I am to myself until that happened (and of course, they were terrified it was their fault; I just said, no, this happens to me ALL the TIME). It's really amazing I still have all my digits and limbs, to be honest.
(And of course, the format of my LJ cuts off the sides of many of these pics, so if you're at all interested, you can just click on them and see a wider pic.)
After the remodel, I was left with this big empty space out back that I tried doing some plantings with and was hoping to landscape a bit, but nothing ever really developed. So when they said, put a deck back there to connect to the landing, I was all O.O but then I thought about it, and it made sense. It's a hugely expensive part of the whole project and it turned out the material they used for the landing (a recycled plastic and wood composite) was hard to find. I always make things easy!
They've taken a lot of my plants out and pushed them in a corner, and even though they say they'll be fine without soil and water, it makes me really really nervous -- I've been watering them when the guys leave for the night, and I know they've watered in the morning on sunny days.
Mr. Blues inspects the trench dug for the water line. I wasn't all that keen on a water feature, it feels very... suburban to me, but one they showed me caught my minimalist eye and so they've had to dig a trench out front for a water line to that -- there's no water line in the back of the house, something that's caused me problems for years. They'll also give me a spigot toward my back gate. Here you can see the trench in the back and toward the front where they had to dig around the house (I apologize for the weeds, this is why I've hired pros), and the little pond for the waterfall.
One of the major things I asked for was as much hardscaping as possible. Every year I get older, I have less energy and strength to maintain, and the nice thing about pavers is, you don't have to do anything to them. When they're done right (which my little brick reuse projects have never been), stuff doesn't grow between them, and you can actually put chairs and things on them and they will miraculously sit level. Initially, as you can see from one of these pics, by following the landscape designer's plans, the curve of the path around from the new gate next to my house would be really narrow -- and with a rain barrel there, and my proclivity for tripping over my own feet, I just didn't like it, so they changed it to a straight, wider path and patio area. I am going to LOVE this part. But the poor guys -- every time they level out the sand base layer, the kitties come through it and put paw prints in.
The deck gets closer to reality every day. They're going to extend the pavers over to the deck stairs, so I'm losing a lot of lawn, but gaining safer footing for my clumsy self.
One of the things that precipitated this, besides my growing unhappiness with the fact that I've lived here over 20 years, and never once sat in my back garden and just enjoyed it, because it was always a disaster and I felt guilty if I wasn't working in it, was that the ancient side fence was rotten and falling apart. I knew I had to fix it, and just decided to wipe out the whole thing and start again. I LOVE the new fence. I'm still not sold on the new gate being next to the house, but maybe when the lilac's pruned back and the roses are out of the way, I'll like it more. It's just that it's through muddy, wet grass and ground on the side yard, and the old entrance, off the sidewalk, was totally paved up to the gate. But it's awesome and I can't wait to plant some vines to grow along the wire.
Though, it's not without sadness. This is my beloved golden chain tree, which is going to come out because it's diseased, and the way the roots are rotting, which I can see now, it will fall on my garage. This is the last of my inheritance from sis_r, and the budget is limited, but I know that the extra expense is needed because if it does take out the garage, that's the first part of the money I used and that would make me feel pretty crappy. So. Bye-bye, beautiful tree, may the next one grow as tall and lovely as you did. The bees will miss you, the squirrels will miss their old nests, and the kitties will miss climbing on you.
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no subject
Date: 2011-06-07 06:46 pm (UTC)I am a little concerned with the water feature. Make sure that there is a simple mechanism to drain the fountain and the water line to the backyard. We do not get real cold winters around here, but one frozen water line will undo a lot of the work back there. That trench looks a little shallow/ Cost for a drain and water shutoff now? Very little.
Other than that, fantastic!
Jay
no subject
Date: 2011-06-07 08:37 pm (UTC)The nice thing about the pavers is there's a gradual slight slope so the water will drain out toward the yard. It means my gutters have to be rejiggered with all kinds of elbowy things, but hopefully that will work out. So much for my plan to get rain chains!
I'd love to have you come over and check it out when it's done. You missed my addition-warming party; you have to come to this one!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-07 10:33 pm (UTC)From what I can tell it looks like it's going to be a little oasis of relaxation now. I can't wait to see pics of it completed.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 11:02 am (UTC)