nltaff
Senior Member
Posts: 142
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:02 am
Location: Central NY (rural) Zone 5

Zounds! A New Wall!

We are getting a new wall! I'm so excited about it. I'm not a mall-rat. I get excited over new additions to the landscape. I own more power tools than my husband (one of the reasons he loves me) and I get my shop-a-holic endorphins from plants and trips to home improvement stores. We are not strangers to walls. We've tried to build them ourselves (when we knew nothing of "dead man"), and we've even had one constructed before (if there is a lesson to take away from this post-NEVER buy property on a slope). When purchased, our house was 25-30' north of this dry-stack wall, about 10'-15' above the top of the wall.
drystackwall2.jpg
For weeks, we couldn't even get a contractor to return our calls (months later, one landscaper called and said the message got lost). One "mason" came to give us a quote, and got upset that we wouldn't consider re-working the dry-stack (I ask you, would you sleep ok at night knowing your house was held back by a dry-stack wall?) Slopes erode, people. (Know this from geology, 101). Finally, we found someone with understanding of our needs, and this was the result.
NO CLUE 080.JPG
Certainly not "elegant", but it does the job, and it's not a plain slab of poured concrete. (just a tad more interesting). What can I say, we're a bit "rustic" out here.

So. We do not have a backyard, per se. Off the back porch, there's the sidewalk I built, and an additional trio of concrete slabs (2'x8' ea) framed with some metal (I suppose the former owners thought this served as a small patio-it kinda does). There was a 12' area of grass stretching the entire length of the back of the house, then a 5-6' hill up to a FAIRLY level 20-25' strip of land stretching beyond the length of the house (I know now this has a slope as well, but one loses perspective when nothing is level). Beyond that, climax conifer (mostly) forest (500' of which we own). I feel sorry for the woman who lived here before, as in the winter she hauled groceries up a long flight of stone and concrete stairs from the garage well below the house (probably after shoveling said stairs to get out). There was a grass path (wider-a "verge"-wide enough for a vehicle), passing the dry-stack wall up to the house and we decided to make it into a driveway, using stone.
longviewfromE.JPG
Where the (poorly constructed by us) landscape ties are, we have contracted a 4' high, by 90' long wall. After backfill, it will be high enough for me to pass the lower side of the blueberry bed (fenced area) on the lawn mower without feeling like I'll tumble onto the driveway (I would never, because the Cubby is loaded down with 50# weights on each wheel, but it still FEELS like I could tumble).
On the upper level, when we moved in, we labeled it "the campground" because of the trees. We hauled an old woodstove out of the basement (left there) and placed it in the middle. We sat out there and built fires, listened to the owls in the trees and enjoyed the evenings most nights. Long ago the woodstove (intended for indoor use) rusted out and failed. Now, we will have a stone fireplace (bought a kit) with 5-6' wing walls, seating height, off the sides. I'll keep all posted. Certainly, the "find a contractor" dilemma will be informative. We did our due diligence and got 3 estimates, but that's another whole story. One of them didn't like the polite "thank-you" but no, thank you email I sent him this morning. I swear, I was on my best behavior, thanking him profusely for his "attention to detail" (that he obviously did not display), but I thanked him graciously, anyway because he did spend some time on us. (Don't hire anyone with whom you find yourself struggling to communicate). This was a landscaper, employed by a "garden center", and when he finally brought his contractor to see the site, the contractor practically smacked him and told him that he "got it" fill in the belly of the dip and make the upper level as "level" as possible. Somehow, my husband and I could not convey this to him, no matter how hard we tried, but the contractor understood immediately. Maybe we are better designers ourselves (having lived with it for so many years) and we don't need "designers" at all.

nltaff
Senior Member
Posts: 142
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:02 am
Location: Central NY (rural) Zone 5

The fireplace arrived on Monday. Lovely freight driver-shoved the BOL under my nose as I was trying to inspect the 1300 lb box contents for any damage.

This is our block delivery on Thursday morning. The crane has a "shoe" at the bottom (that swung around like mad, and why isn't this guy wearing a hard-hat?). The shoe is wiggled into the palate, and the palate is then lifted, set down next to the truck.
block10825.JPG
block10825.JPG (108.74 KiB) Viewed 9773 times
The contractor says he'll start on Thursday.
We don't like the caps that come with this block, so we have to go shopping for something else. I'm thinking limestone.



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