The next step in our courtyard redo was flattening out the dirt and putting up wood boards as a template for the concrete pads. This was done two weeks ago. Yep, I have some catching up to do!
We also needed trenches dug for drainage pipes and gas for the built in fire pit. I can taste the S’mores already!
Lasers were used to align everything perfectly.
Then rebar was added to the squares where concrete was to be poured. That flourescent line is where our future meandering path is going to go:
Concrete truck! Which could not make it up our driveway so they ran a long hose up.
Let the pouring begin!
A lot of time is spent smoothing it out
And voila! All poured and just needs to dry.
And here is what it looked like last week after it was dried and acid washed:
And this is after aggregate was put down and flattened and soil was added where plants are going to go:
It’s starting to come together!!
What a relief that the garage will no longer flood when it rains! We decided to replace the asphalt in front of the garage with concrete. The 20 foot limb that caused the flooding problem was removed – as well as the tree, which we discovered from our arborist was diseased with a fungus .
This was the start of our path from the courtyard to the side of the house.
I saw this picture on Houzz, with the wood steps and gravel in between so we decided to go with that look.
Our landscape crew suggesting bordering it with the stone rocks on our property, just like the picture. It was a great idea!
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| The pathway is taking shape! |
Enrique is the stonemason. He does an amazing job cutting each stone and fitting it into place. Since we are joining an old stone walkway with new, he tried to match it up as much as possible.
The plants came at the end of last week, so I will be snapping more photos this week as everything gets planted!
This is so dreamy! Seriously… I think I have dreamed of having your house many times before. LOVE LOVE LOVE the concrete pads. If I were ever to build a house in the future I would definitely do the same thing. It just looks so fine! And the pathway… love the idea of using the rocks. Perfect.
For me, the outdoor areas are just as important as anything you do inside and I can only imagine how wonderful the weather is there… so you probably live outside most of the time. It’s just beautiful! Lots of work accomplished here.
I have to ask you about your horsetail reed in the planter box. I love the stuff but it looks like yours might get a good amount of shade. Does it? It looks like it’s growing really well. I wondered if I could get away with planting some in a shady area. Let me know what you think of it. I’m smitten with that plant. It screams modern landscape to me.
Love all your pictures! You have such an amazing home and the improvements you are making reflect your GREAT TASTE!
Why, thank-you! I owe some of the design ideas to my husband as well. I’m learning mcm as I go along! Yes, all the asphalt took away from the house and – you could fit 3 freaking RV’s in our driveway!! Waste of space! But after this WE’RE DONE!! (And f-ing broke!!)
It does get pretty cold here at night – thus the reason for the fire pit. Still trying to decide on putting mexican pebbles in betweeen the concrete pads. I just love them, but my husband thinks it might be too many elements.
I saw horsetail in some landscape pictures on Houzz.com. (Do you know that site? Serious house porn!!!) The horsetail does get a lot of shade at this time of year – morning sun. And it keeps growing and growing. It does need a lot of water, but I think it’s impossible to kill it. And the deer don’t eat it. (We planted Kangaroo Paw on the opposite side and it was eaten down to the nubs 2 weeks later. Everything is sprayed with liquid fence now!)
I love the concrete pads too! Super cool. I would like to do that VERY much to our interior patio. We just did some concrete stepping stones too. Here is the link, you can see what we put in them. We got yer Mexican pebbles right here. It is a combination of gravel, Mexican pebbles of multiple sizes and colors as well as dg (decomposed granite). I laugh at too many elements. http://www.midcenturymodernremodel.com/2012/09/landscaping-mid-century-modern-home.html I am loving your pictures. Your house is more original than ours as we have destroyed so much of it along the way. We had your exact outside beams with the angles. My husband had the angles cut off, put facia board up and then rain gutters. At the time I was okay. Now I know it was a no no. But as he says, its not like its an Eichler. Which it isn’t. And the roof was rotting out from the rain coming down it weird places. Ah well. What is done is done. Thanks for posting a link to my blog here. I posted yours as well and will keep following along.
Hi Rebecca, Thanks so much! I am going to look into Mexican pebbles. Yes, we didn’t change the ‘bones’ that much, but a lot of renovating. You noticed the twisted beams, huh? Damn, you’re the second person in a week to mention them! I’m not sure what is a no-no – in my opinion, it’s your house, right? Our home is a ‘faux Eichler’ as well. As I understand it. the way the beams were cut back then, they naturally twist over time.
Hey, thought I would pop back in. Our cats are twins separated at birth. Seriously. Ours is kooky too. We have a brother and sister. The brother is Jack and black/white. He is not silly. Annie is very silly. Here is a link to a picture of them helping me with my blog. https://plus.google.com/101532673655411134075/posts