The great summer summary

Once upon a time, we tried to update this blog on a near-weekly basis.  Then it became a near-monthly basis.  And now?  Now it's August 31st and I see we haven't posted since, er, mid-July.  And yet, we really have been working on the house here!  So here's the summer update as we head into (hard to believe it's already) fall.

Starting where we left off, we went ahead and installed the Trex on the back landing.  The landing - I can't quite bring myself to call it a deck when it's only about four feet wide - will eventually be the pathway from the double French doors in the kitchen to the outdoor patio/grill/firepit area.  But first, we had to get the landing itself built.

Getting started

Now that's something we can walk on!  (Even if there is not yet anywhere to walk to...)

Then we moved inside for a bit to install the sliding built-in screens and finish trimming out the French doors:

Installing the screens on the untrimmed doors

Figuring out how the trim is going to fit together

That's looking better

Putty, caulk, and paint and this will look nice

And then it was back to the great outdoors to finish the front patio trim:

Our contractor made some odd decisions on this front porch originally so we took over on the finish work.  Boxing out the edges here.

And adding some more detail

Over to the other side

Getting the underside squared away - I have to note that we paused in order to exterminate a hive of wasps that had taken up residence under the bead board.  But with the trim on, they shouldn't be able to get back in again!

Nearly done

Ta-da!  Still need to install a non-construction mailbox but looking much more finished now!

Then it was off to the backyard again to work on building a patio.  This was another project that we can't imagine doing without a bobcat:

Very much a "before" photo.  This yard is not good.

Not any better from this angle either

Step one: clear out the mess

Step two: start flattening out the patio area

More step two, now with gravel pile on the driveway

Go bobcat go!

Getting the string lines in place for the right slope

Delivery is here!  Pavers and sand and wall block and fire pit, oh my!

Not going to be parking in the driveway anytime soon

Getting everything staged

Finally building!  Starting the small retaining wall on the side

Wall in place

Starting the gravel pad

This is a big patio space!

Now for the sand base

And getting the pavers in place - these are Nicolock Rustico in Granite City color.  We used 6x6 and 6x9 in an alternating pattern

Moving along

And still going.  Starting to rethink the size of the patio at this point!

This shows how long the patio really is

Finally almost done

At last!  Pavers in.

Time to put the edging in and cut the curves

And now with the firepit at the end

Another angle 

We still have a lot of work out here - stairs to the patio, more landscaping (grass, mulch, more trees, etc.), finding the right place for the boulders, and probably the biggest project - building a countertop and adding a built-in grill.  But we've made a lot of progress in a few weeks!

And one more indoor project before we end this incredibly long post:

We started tiling the master bath floor.  We're still picking out the rest of the tile but are starting with this encaustic-like ceramic.  Since we'll add a solid border around it, we had to make sure everything was perfectly centered.

Getting the floor laid out

Setting a straight edge 

Now we're moving

Encaustic-like tile installed, trying some border options - more to come!

Decking the Yard

Between travel (business and pleasure) and a bad bout with summer flu/ear infection, we haven't gotten too much done but we have made some limited progress with the backyard.  Latest project was to start the deck so we have some way to get from the French doors out to it the (currently existing only in my head) patio area.  This is really more of a landing than a deck - it's only about 4 feet wide and exists mainly to provide the required landing before the stairs begin, plus room for the outswing doors to open.  But, it still required all the foundation and structural integrity of a deck so it took us a couple of weekends to put it all together and get our inspections (footers and framing) done.  The pictures:

Getting started - figuring out where to dig the holes for the footers and making sure they are in line

Concrete base - three 80 lb bage of concrete per footer

Now this looks like something that could support a deck

So far, so good - all nice and straight

Getting the posts ready

Framing going up

That looks like a landing!

And now in safety version with posts for eventual rails.  Next up, decking and stairs...

Front Yard Before and After

I'm trailing about a week behind on posting updates but since we spent most of this weekend doing basic organization and house maintenance (plus building a side fence and gate for one neighbor and then helping to assemble outdoor furniture and a grill for the other neighbor...because we are the neighbors who own all the tools...), it's probably good that we have something to post!  Last weekend/week, we spent a good bit of time (mostly) finishing up the front landscape.  That meant planting the remaining trees, adding landscape fabric to the flower/grass beds, and mulching everything to keep it nice and tidy.  And it all adds up to some good before and after pictures below.

Just for effect, let's start with a "before" picture from last summer.  The second story is built but this still looks very much like a construction site...

And then it looked more recently like this:

And now this!

Since this blog has proven useful for our own records (and perhaps it'll be interesting/useful to others), here's the rundown on what we planted: most of the grasses are maiden grass, with some smaller blue arrow grasses in between.  The trees are: a plum thundercloud (the red one on the corner), three heritage birches (interspersed with three burning bushes), and a stellar pink dogwood in front of the window by the porch.  The evergreens to the side are a mix - we planted three smaller and two taller Emerald Greens, one Spartan Juniper, and two Green Giants.  Along the rock wall, we planted phlox (in scarlet, emerald blue, and white delight), "beyond blue" fescue, and Japanese garden juniper.

Here are more "after" shots:

Working backwards a bit, here are a few in-progress pictures:

Getting the dogwood in place

And planting the bed around it

Rock wall before landscape fabric and mulch were added

Getting better

And one more "after" picture!

The Grass is Greener

This blog runs the risk of turning into a weather report at the rate we're going but DC continues to tally a record number of days of rain.  So...it wasn't the best timing to try to landscape our front yard!  Nevertheless, we've made some good, if rather soggy, progress recently and the recent sunshine is helping a great deal.  We graded the yard, installed a sprinkler system, and put sod in.  Installing sod continues to be one of my favorite projects because it's such an instant improvement.  We still have a lot of work to do, including finishing planting some additional trees, grasses, and flowers, and cutting in and mulching the flower beds, so it certainly isn't done yet but it already looks so much better!  So, without further ado, the pictures...

Getting started - grading with the bobcat

Pallets of sod lurking in the corner, awaiting installation

Adding water lines for the sprinklers

And more lines

Including two main lines for the two zones

Building a base for the sprinkler system in the basement

Plumbing fun

And more

Now we're up and running!

Outdoors again - sod in!  Still need to cut in the mulch beds and add mulch but this is starting to look a lot better!

Now if only the rain would stop and the sun would come out, we could get these remaining trees/shrubs planted...

From the other side

And corner of the lot

Walk this way to your banquette for two

We continue to be delayed by rain around here, with something like 15 consecutive days of rainfall in the D.C. area.  And the yard is...not great as a result.  Thank goodness for mulch and hay to hold the mud in place!  But we did manage to get one outdoor project done in between storms and we moved inside to a kitchen project while we wait (and hope) for the weather to clear.  Outdoors, we installed the bluestone walkway so we can finally welcome guests to the front door.  This was one of the rare projects that went relatively smoothly - the hard work was in figuring out the slope to pour the concrete initially.  It did take a bit of effort to lay the stones flat and work with the slope but fortunately, Brian is now a pro at laying stone and tile of all types, so he was able to build up the mortar as necessary.  And we had a chance to see how it performed right away as it started raining pretty much as soon as we finished and so far, no puddles or pooling anywhere.

We finally got some sunshine this weekend but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to sufficiently dry out the yard yet so grading and sod installation remains on hold.  In the meantime, we moved indoors to build a banquette for the kitchen.  We still have a lot of trim and other finish work in the kitchen but it's starting to look more and more finished every day!  Pictures below...

Getting started - it made it a lot easier to have the bobcat carry the pallet of stone around!

Stones laid out to make sure the pattern fit and starting to mortar them in at the end

Moving up the walkway

This was the trickiest part because of the way it sloped away and down

Done!

 And onto the kitchen...

Here's the space for the banquette, between the built-in cabinets

A little prep work goes a long way - priming the 3/4" ply sheets before we began cutting

Building the base boxes - these are 17" high (which never looks high enough to me but always feels right when it's done), plus it'll have another 3/4" ply on top and then a cushion.  We added a middle support for stability and echoed the toe kick of the cabinets so it would all match

Interior of the boxes - we'll trim these out and leave them for storage

Adding trim - we used 1/2" MDF ripped to 3 1/2" to match the window trim

Adding the seat

With cut-outs for the storage bins

Still need the piano hinges (on order) but this is basically how it will look when assembled

Moving up to the back - we wanted the back to have a slight slope for comfort so tapered it from 3/4" off the wall (so it would line with the window trim) to 5" at the seat

And nearly done!  Still needs putty, caulk, paint and cushions but design and construction is finished.  Next up, buy (or Brian might build) a table, install a light fixture, and start using this space more regularly!