New, new, new!!! Steps, lights, landings, pathway, planter boxes

14 years ago

NEW, NEW, NEW --

Hardscape in the front yard.

New lantern light.

New front steps.

New front landing.

New porch landing.

New front path.

New planterboxes.

ALL NEW !!!!!

I had the crew here for literally two weeks. They started work two weeks ago Saturday and finished and packed up around 1PM today.

All this started two weeks ago Friday when I had asked the boss of the landscaping crew (the one that does ALL my projects) to look at the landing off my front porch which was bricks and crumbling. I knew it would not make it thru the winter. So he said he could patch it using the same stuff last maybe 2-3 years or take it all out and totally redo it. I figgured patching wasn't going to work, lets redo it from scratch. But I didn't really like the brick landing so I thought pavers would be nice. He brings me samples of pavers. There is one I really, really like. Thicker and much better looking and much more expensive than the others. I figgure we are only going to do this fairly small rectangular area why not go for the good stuff.

Saturday morning comes and they come to work. Take out all the old brick and find the thickest concrete slab under there you ever did see. What a time to get that out. Lots of bricks too. Heres a bunch of them stacked up at the end of the project-

I had told him a rectangular landing. He lays out the landing in a semicircle because he tells me it looks better. Believe me, I am no doormat and would make him do it my way if I wanted but darn it, he is right, the semi circle looks much better. Ok, go with the circle. Get to the midlle of the circle. Tells me we can either have it not closed (looks really dumb) or he can cut the concrete alittle in the path. Fine cut the concrete. Done. Tells me it looks cockeyed because my path is off center. How to fix it? Well, do the path down to the old really bad looking crocked steps. Ok, do that. When the slab that connects the steps and the path gets cut, the cement steps fall apart. Ok, I can path this he saiz but its still going to look pretty bad. You should put the new steps in now and we can go down to the landing. Landing is nice and solid but will not match the other new stuff so I say in for a penny in for a pound and lets take out the landing too. You should have seen them trying to get that old concrete out.

Don't get the idea this was going on in one day, took days. Well over a week in fact. Then I wanted planterboxes on the one side which took more time and last but not least, they did my stone wall in the backyard that I have the other post about. In fact I felt like they would never get done and never leave. But it sure does look good. Cost an astounding amount of money because I had picked out the really expensive blocks. Then there was two ways to do it, one making for a stronger end product but using more material but I went for that way as I figgure I have the extra piece of mind. And of course the project took much longer than anyone though because of the unexpected snags along the way. Like ANOTHER of my famous boulder size rocks when they started digging. They cut some off of it and left it in place. This after much deciding on what to do. Then there was the well over two foot tree stump found underground near the rock. I remember that BIG pine type tree from 30 years ago when it was cut down. Couldn't believe the darn stump was still there.

Oh, by the way, if I had gone with my original idea of a rectangular landing no cutting of contrete and none of this would ever have happened.

Pictures of finished project coming next in a few minutes.

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