The first blog of the year could have been a summation of 2007; it could have been a projection of 2008; it could have been a report of the New Year’s Eve party; or even a recap of December, seeing as how my entry in that very full month was “Where did November go?” Instead I am writing to celebrate the completion of the backyard remodel/landscape endeavor, that I have been slaving at for years. It’s not fully complete and probably never will be but it is done enough for a respectable before and after.
The house from below, before we did anything.
When we first bought our house on Milagro one of the things we agreed on was that we would not do any major remodeling, at least not for a couple of years. And then ….. It started out with me wanting to shore up and make safe a couple of stairways and a small deck that led to the pool, mostly so that when we had a party, we wouldn’t have any disastrous You Tube worthy incidents. I thought this to be necessary and responsible. As I cleared away the vines, weeds and shrubs that covered the bases of aforesaid structures, it became clear that it would take a bit more than a couple of 2x4’s to make these things safe. As I cleared away more stuff, several other issues arose. There was not sufficient drainage for the existing retaining walls and they were beginning to move away from their original position. Again, a situation I thought necessary to deal with. This entailed me digging out behind the walls and replacing the dirt with gravel. No easy task, but again necessary. In my digging I gained access to part of the house that is not on the slab, an overhang. When I stuck my head under the wall, I could literally hear the termites chewing away. This had not been picked up in inspections, because prior to my excavations there was no access. Again a situation I deemed necessary to deal with. All this started because I wanted to brace up some exterior stairways and a deck, so that we could get down to the pool to actually use it. Reasonable enough, but now we have several major projects that need to be done. Along the way these essential redo’s opened up the, as long as we’ve got this all dug up why don’t we…..
The house as the excavating stage began.
Before we knew it we had an extensive herb garden with an intricate irrigation system, a dozen new citrus trees, an entirely new way to reach the pool which was now salt water and nestled under a steel structure that housed a state-of-the-art solar water heating system. The journey down to the pool takes one down a new spiral staircase, past the grape-vine covered pergola that gives shade to the outdoor kitchen with its wood fired pizza oven and BBQ island, along the brick and stone stairway that ambles past a couple of fountains through the new garden down to the pool. Now granted this took a couple of years and each addition “made sense” and now that it’s complete or close enough, I am very glad to have done it. But what a ridiculous and taxing journey it was at times.
How the house looks now, more or less.
Me literally in the trenches. I dug out several tons of dirt and replaced it with several tons of gravel, just to get the drainage sorted out.
That's what 10 tons of DG (Decomposed Granite) looks like in a pile. Eventually it was used throughout the hillside. I did a rough calculations based on the 10 40 yard containers I filled or overfilled, and then calculated the sand, DG, gravel, bags of cement and mortarless retaining blocks (300+ at 75lbs each) and realized I hauled out up that hill and into front and from the front down the hill about 60 to 70 tons going each way.
One of several deliveries, 7 pallets of block, sand, gravel, and cement.
These are all photos of the final level where the BBQ, pizza oven and grape pergola went in. This was the one with the least amount of hauling if that can be imagined.
And now the before and after pics
"Look honey, it's perfect we don't need to do a thing." Cindy says.
"But that platform and stairway are pretty unstable. Plus where will I put my garden and pizza oven?" I reply.
Pizzas and herbs for everyone.
The treacherous, rotting, termite infested stairway down to the pool.
A few potted dwarf citrus and the edge of the new stone stair/path.
This stairway, although built never could have made it up all the way so this is where and how they ended it. You can see the little gap under the house where my head fit in so that I could here the termites sing.
More potted citrus and a garden path that meanders past potted herbs and a couple of fountains.
I capped off the wall with a block wall, creating a bench area with a fountain center piece. Then I added a wall of hanging plants to create at the very least the illusion of privacy.
I added the middle orange tree. It was in a 36" box. Getting it into position almost killed me. When I did it there was no lower wall only a slope, so it almost crashed into the pool. My left leg stopped it. Luckily I have big legs or else it would have snapped it and still went into the pool. I added the tree rings to tie into the lower wall that I put it. The ground cover is marjoram, thyme and sage.
The trees are all beginning to produce.
A view from the opposite side.
And finally the pizza oven is in and I've laid the patio. I had to cut a lot of brick to get that design. I poured literally tons of cement myself for the foundations.
I did have a qualified, and very competent and thoughtful contractor do the brick work around the grapes, the pizza oven itself, the bbq and the marble work.
Otherwise I did around 95% of the work in the backyard myself, the hauling and digging and everything. I learned several new skills, that I hope I don't have to use again.
Home made pizza from a wood-fired oven with herbs from my own backyard, doesn't that just make it all worth it.
Home Sweet Home
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