Recent Activity
I believe that the OP is looking to do something like this (apologies for the bad photo editing - "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing"). 2 levels of stilts!
Mark 🤣
There are height restrictions on building to keep you from blocking your neighbor’s view. I doubt that 3 story idea with a weird deck under the house would pass any type of approval process.
Are you set on having grass/lawn? Would you consider a more diverse set of plantings? See examples below. Examples are just to give you ideas -- you'll need to pick plants suitable to your zone, amount of sun/shade in that area, wet vs dry, etc. If doing something like this, it's best to create an overall plan that you can implement over time.
@dchall_san_antonio thank you thank you thank you!! This is the step by step I need!! I do like the idea of taking out the stones - just need to consider my budget. As I asked in the other post, do you have experience with seed? It’s a little more budget friendly than sod.
Either way, I need to spray the weed killer, right?
My latest reply to your front yard post should cover you for front and back. If you had unlimited funds, then I would say "Yes", to the weed killer; however, if you want to skip the weed killer for this year, you can get going on the St Augustine pieces planted in the shade and let them start to grow. Weeds may not be pretty, but they are green. In the interest of your budget, for the price of the weed killer you could buy 2 more pieces of St Augustine and get that started spreading.
St Augustine will spread once it takes hold. Due to the coarse texture of the blades, it provides a canopy of shade over top of the soil. A dense canopy of tall St Augustine will choke out most of the grasses it encounters. It cannot compete with broadleaf weeds like clover, dichondra, or horse herb. The horse herb can be pulled easily if you catch it early (it's a pathetic weed), but clover and dichondra reseeds faster than you can keep up. If you get those in the mix, then that herbicide is the best way to get rid of those, permanently. If the St Augustine makes it through the season without the broadleaf weeds, then you can rethink the herbicide for next April (2025).
A waterfall does not fit well in a small kitchen - which is what you said you have. I would skip the waterfall - not only because your kitchen is small, but also because of the hundreds of posts on this forum with tales of woe about botched island counters waterfall installation. Unless you have the most top-notch fabricator, it leads to problems. Problems with island waterfalls that have been posted here: having the stone pattern not flow at the seams, scribing the waterfall unevenly to the floor with gaps (evidently, scribing is hard!), unsightly gaps between the waterfall side panel and the island cabinets, chipping the edges, required electrical receptacles problematic in waterfall sides, reduced seating space at the island that people didn't take into account. It's really depressing to read these, the dollar amounts are a lot, and people often just end up living with the botched waterfall they spent multiple thousands on.