Since we’ve mostly been do-it-yourselfers for 32 years of marriage and four houses plus several rentals, it’s rather strange to hand over a project with so many components to someone else. Already there have been lots of little decisions made that I would have done differently. I’d have taken weeks to make some of them! These guys work so fast. I’m grateful on the one hand that they don’t waste time, but I realized how long I can take to decide on things. I will consider the best placement, or change the color… but this has been wham, bam, hurry up ma’am!
I definitely would have repainted the lattice before putting that up. Oh well, maybe it won’t be so noticeable with plants growing across it in the future. I’m wondering about the placement of the electric outlets, especially where they’re put near the fountain. Stuff like that.
THE CONCRETE MAKINGS ARRIVE
I met Nick Herrera at the brick yard early this a.m. He arrived in a huge truck. After I paid for the supplies, I went off to find lighting for the planters, as we haven’t agreed on what to install yet. When I got home, Nick showed up with the supplies. I was stunned at the big load for such a small project. More stunned at the price of sand and gravel ($650.00) Wow.
When you live in a condo/townhouse, there’s very little place to work outside. This became apparent when Nick needed to dump our sand and gravel to make concrete. It couldn’t go in our common driveway we share with the others in our little complex. We have no backyard other than the one that is currently all dug up. So, he left the pile on the sidewalk!
THE PLANTERS
The blocks for the planters got wheelbarrowed to the patio. Footings were made from cement. The block sides were stacked up quickly. Rebar was inserted for stability — this is earthquake-prone Los Angeles, after all.
We planned the size of the planters so there’d be very little need to cut the tiles later that will decorate them. Since I want to create the illusion of a larger space, I don’t want to use a bunch of little tiles. Using 16 inch tiles will hopefully do that. We bought 8 inch blocks, stacked two high all along the back fence. Along the side fences, I thought this might look too big. So, I decided to make these shorter, and will face them with 12 inch tiles. It’s still the dark slate shot through with yellow (called autumn mist), but the tile size difference should introduce an element of variety.
Towards the end of the day, the posts for the arbor were attached to the existing fences, and the boards put up — and were too short. Miscalculation. Drat, the umpteenth return to Home Depot to fetch 12 ft boards instead of the 10 footers I already painter. They’ll need to be painted with a primer and two coats of color tonight — only I don’t have the time to finish them. I’ll set them up in the garage and get to them when I can.
