I happened to stop by the forum to look up information on cement dyes & lo & behold my old post was on the first page, so I took a look & apparently all of my photos are gone. I don't know where the original CD's are right now, but we just built yet another wall that is at least 300 feet. (This is the wall I am looking for advice on cement dyes) [URL=http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/deesphotos_photos/300%20foot%20hypertufa%20wall/CIMG9665.jpg][IMG]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/deesphotos_photos/300%20foot%20hypertufa%20wall/th_CIMG9665.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/deesphotos_photos/300%20foot%20hypertufa%20wall/CIMG9663.jpg][IMG]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/deesphotos_photos/300%20foot%20hypertufa%20wall/th_CIMG9663.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/deesphotos_photos/300%20foot%20hypertufa%20wall/CIMG9664.jpg][IMG]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/deesphotos_photos/300%20foot%20hypertufa%20wall/th_CIMG9664.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I am working on a project that sounds similar to what you have in mind. Sorry, I have no camera, so words will have to do. My yard is a long narrow valley, 300' X 80 wide, whose sides are three to six feet above the ground level in the center. There are high wooden fences along the crest of the hill on each long side. Last summer I arranged to get broken-concrete chunks from a paving company working in the area (I paid about $50/truckload to cover the labor of loading and unloading, even though I saved him the cost and gas of making dump runs) and used the three truckloads I thus obtained to make the first/outermost level of three terraced rows of beds I plan for the two long edges of my backyard. This first level consists of about 75 feet of walls about a foot thick, two to four feet in height, in long looping curves punctuated by a couple half-rounds that look like ruined castle towers, to bring the outermost beds level with the surrounding yards. These upper beds vary from four to twelve feet in width. I laid out hose to determine the curves (wider is always better!), used a Mantis tiller to dig foot-deep foundations, which I shoveled out and lined with landscape cloth and 6" of gravel, before I started dry-stacking the chunks. I was careful to slant the walls back into the hillside a bit, maybe six inches for every two feet of height. I used no mortar or other leveling gravel; instead it was important to me not to move on to the next stone until the one I was working on was well-balanced and unwilling to shift. If it wouldn't fit, I used a different chunk, or tried that chunk elsewhere. I was also careful to look to establish smooth linkages between stones on the face of the wall folks would see, even if there were jagged backsides. Whenever there was an available crack in the face of a row I was capping I tucked in an egg-shaped local stone or two, mostly stained orange by the local clay, for contrast with the rough rectangles of the grey concrete. I also built a wide flight of broken-concrete steps to climb the slope from the back yard to the side of the house, with a paved slope adjacent to allow wheelbarrow access to the side-yard beds. Once the beds were built, I filled them lasagna style: layers of leaf mulch, well-rotted horse manure, local clay tilled up with sand and leafmulch, and so on, tamping them down a bit every couple of feet of depth and making sure to fill the beds a foot or so above the walls to allow for further settling. It took an amazing amount of stuff to fill those beds, and about 2/3 of it was free for the hauling! I have planted the top row already: several flowering trees I got in the fall sales (purple plum, crepe myrtle, tree lilac, a Briotia horse chestnut) and tall shrubs like lilac, eleaginus, kerria and the like, shorter shrubs like goldmound spirea and dwarf blueberry in front, and all underplanted with lots of shade-lovers like hellebores, gentians, ferns, hostas. And bulbs, especially along the walls themselves. There are clumps of various daylily planted hard against the walls too. This summer's project is the next row -- 18"-high walls in counter-curves to create three garden rooms on the right-hand edge of the property, and incidentally refresh the iris beds along that side. I have to be done by May 22, when my local garden club is holding a planning meeting at my house... Oh yes. To cut the recurrent labor of edging/weedwhacking lawn along all those beds, I plan to plant a foot or so swathe of ajuga against the lawn-edge of the bottom-most walls. What d'you think? Does this help any? Lynn

Kristen- I see a Screened Porch on the deck above to provide a dry area below. Seems like a perfect fit for your nice home...and you did say that this could be a multi-phase project :) I would add lattice work around the posts underneath and gravel as a base for storage accessed by a lattice framed door. Electronics could go against house midway back. Can't tell from the photos how much headroom you will having after excavation down to the footers. You may indeed have enough height for a use an enclosed room. Doug

First, thanks for the replies. The wall will be CMU with stone and brick facing. And yes, there is some thick #6 rebar sticking 2 ft out of the footer. It's shaped like an L with the foot of the L facing away from the backfill side of the wall to offer additional support. I sent a note to the engineer about the issue. His reply was "with the ultra low bearing pressures, you might consider igoring it". Not sure what "ignoring it" means. It's too dang short. I can't totally ignore it. This section of the wall is 4ft max and will likely be only 2 feet above grade on either side of the wall at this end of the wall section, so I think the idea of drilling a hole and inserting rebar into the existing section of the footer and then extending (with rebar in the new section, as well) will be a sufficient fix. Thanks, again.