First warmer day

We had one of our first warm days last weekend so Sam Poppy and I headed out to weed the garden for a little bit. Obviously Poppy was the only one who spotted the camera.

Finishing up the pavers

Most of the pavers were done but we still had some to wrap around the back side of the house. This is an area where we are thinking that our grill will go. In the first picture you can see that the sand has been leveled out onto the gravel base and I have started to lay the first couple courses.

 

A little bit further along. You can see the pieces that have been left our because they need to be cut to fit. You can also see in this view the pressure treated wood that was placed between the fence posts on the left and you can barely see the paver edger strip on the far end.

And a view from the other direction. The pavers that are standing on end are my way of keeping track of how many pavers I need to use to fill in. I did not want to get to the end and have holes to fill and no pavers to cut!

And after all of the blocks have been cut and filled in.

And lastly once the sand has been swept into the cracks. We will have to do this a couple more times when this stuff settles.

Other than some cleanup and some small other projects this really does it for the back yard area. Now that it is starting to cool off I will have to move back inside with the next projects.

Grass in the back yard!

OK, so there is no grass there yet. But the grass seed has been sown. This last weekend Kristen and I made 4 trips in the truck to pickup compost to spread over the back yard prior to sowing the grass. Every time we do this it is a time consuming process to get it down to the yard. First the truck is parked at the top of the patio and the compost is unloaded into the wheelbarrow. This is wheeled only about 20 feet to the patio where it is dumped. From there we use a chute to transfer the soil from the patio to the wheelbarrow down below. Here is a picture of the chute.

Once the wheel barrow is full it was moved to a spot on the yard and dumped. This resulted in quite a spotted effect.

And once it has been spread out and seeded with grass.

And of course our little helper Samuel was there.

Back Garden Bed - Second Layer

We started to flatten out the soil in the back garden bed and realized that we would probably be taking away too much soil in the back corner around the base of the fence posts. So, we decided to put in a second level into the garden bed for the back area. Here you can see the raised area in the back.

And a close up of the corner with the second layer of bed. You can also see the lanterns that we picked up for the steps.

 

Back garden bed wall finished

The last of the blocks were put up on the wall. The last two rows were glued into place with construction adhesive and tapped down with the dead blow hammer.

 

Here is what the finished course looks like.

 

And here is a view from the yard side.

 

The back step to go into the house is going to have a small step so the blocks were glued in place to support the tread.

Next up was moving that big pile of dirt and regrading it around the yard.

It took quite a few shovels but here it is graded out over the back area. Next up we just need to put down some grass seed.

Back Garden Bed Wall

Both Kristen and I are still trying to get over our colds but we were able to get some of the back garden bed wall done over the weekend. The first step was to level the bottom of the pit and put in about a 3-4 inch base under the wall stones. Here you can see the trench after leveling and filling with 5/8" clean stone.

Then the stones were laid and were seated with a dead blow mallet. Each one was checked for level both along and across the wall. Here you can see the first stones laid.

And the whole first course laid.

Once the first course is down the others proceed quite quickly. The last couple will take a little time because they will be glued in place to lock the top of the wall. Here is a picture of the second course laid.

Back Garden Bed

We worked on defining the shape of the back garden bed that will take up the corner along the fence and the steps up to the back patio. There was a big mound of dirt from creating the wall so a cut was made through it where the wall will go. The top of the stakes represent a level point about 6 inches below where the top of the wall will be.

Pavers were laid down in it to look at the shape from multiple angles. Here is the view from above.

And from the backyard side.

We also picked up a planter and some fall plants to put up on the patio. You can see that we are still brushing around the sand to fill in the cracks on the patio.

Stairs to the top done!

The last couple of stairs to the top of the patio from the landing still had to be finished up. When we were working on the stairs we knew that there was going to be about three steps up and it worked out perfectly. First the area under the stairs was brought level with the pavers on the patio.

The next step was to cut the blocks for the base course. These had to be cut for both length and height (the bottom blocks were not full height). Here is a picture of the cut end of a block.

Here is a picture of setting out the bottom course. You can see in this picture that I was screwing up by making the stairs only two steps!... had to go back and fix that.

Next, rebar was pounded into the holes and the blocks were locked in place with gravel.

Here is a picture once all of the courses have been installed.

Next up the treads were placed on the steps. Only the top step needed to be trimmed where it interfaced the concrete patio because this edge is not very straight.

Here is what the new steps look like from the kitchen window.

Here is what it looks like from the area between the house and the garage.

And from the backyard. Next up we will be working on the new back garden bed at the base of the retaining wall.

Retaining Wall Steps

We have been working on the back retaining wall over the last couple of weeks. One of the last items is to add the treads to all of the steps. The first step was to cut all of the pieces to fit. Each tread is not exactly the width of two pieces. A string was placed between the top and bottom tread to align the outside edge and figure out how much to cut off each tread. On each step a bed of mortar was spread and the tread was placed and leveled.

Here is a view of the finished step treads.

A view from the back of the house.

A view through the kitchen windows. At some point this will no longer look like a construction site!

More work on back pavers

 We worked some more on the pavers in the back area between the house and garage on Saturday. Where the pavers end and the grass begins a edger piece was installed.

The downspout from the garage roof was extended down below grade into a dug french drain and the pavers will be fitted around it. In addition the trim piece was put under the door.

The end of the bed is going to be curved and was marked out with chalk.

And here it is once it has been cut. The edge of the bed will have some pavers mounted sailor style once everything is complete.

  Now all of the pavers are in up against the garage. The only thing left is to place the trim piece on the garage between the door frame and the corner molding.

Lattice Completion

The lattice on the patio was finished up over the weekend. The pavers around the post and at the far end of the patio were cut to fit.

 

The second piece of lattice was installed and the lattice frame was installed between the posts. The posts were also cut to height and capped.

 

A simple box planter was built for some clematis and jasmine that should climb the lattice quickly.