Update on Retaining Wall Fountain

I've gotten some more done on the retaining wall fountain this past weekend.  Previously I made a polyurethane rubber mold of the clay fountain head that I made as shown in the picture below.

 

I cast one out of concrete using the polyurethane mold and mortared it in place.  I also cast a base for the lower basin and cast an upper basin using some bowls that I sourced from a dollar store and cut in half.

Now I need to get the lower basin form assembled and get it cast.

Raised Garden Bed Complete

Finished the cover for the first raised garden bed.  Decided to go with EMT conduit for the frame to support the netting.

Here are the assembled hoops setup in a trial run.  I decided to add bars at the base on each side and double up the end hoops to create a track system with some PVC connectors to allow the netting on each side to be raised and lowered.  You can see in the next two pictures with the netting installed the track system that allows the bar on each side slide up with the netting for access to the garden bed from each side.

New Front Door

Haven't been able to do much with the driveway retaining wall lately because I have been busy installing a new front door to the house.  This upgrade was way overdue.  The original door looked more like a back door. It also had a left hand in-swing instead of the right hand in-swing that you see on the new door.  That made it really awkward to squeeze into the entryway.

Here are the finished install pics.

Stone Raised Garden Bed Completed!

The coping along the top edge of the raised bed are some concrete pavers that I picked up at the local home center.

The next step will be to build a frame over the raised bed for netting to cover the plants, so that my family can enjoy the vegetables instead of the deer.

Slow getting started this spring

Between the weather and finding time to dig in (pun intended), I have gotten off to a slow start this spring.  The first priority before getting back to the driveway retaining wall was to get some good edging down around the raspberry beds, both to keep the lawn out, and the raspberries in.

Here's what I came up with...

The next priority this spring is getting the raised garden beds put together.  Again, I went with stone.  Surprise!  Here you can see some cement pavers that I will use as a coping for the top edge laid out to check for fit and give me an idea of how much cutting I will need to do.

Once these are mortared in level, I will construct a frame over the bed to support netting, or row cover.

Fountain Head Prototyping

So here is the blank slate that will eventually become the fountain in my stone retaining wall.  I will install a basin at the foot and a smaller basin directly beneath the spout.  I originally planned to just do a bent copper pipe for the spout, but then decided to do something a little fancier.

Out comes the clay for some prototyping.  Here is the progress thus far:

Still needs a lot of refinement.  I will finish the clay model and then pour a silicone mold to create a concrete casting that can then be mounted to the fountain spout.

Time to shed some light on things

Some lights for the front walk have been long overdue.  I thought about using solar lights, but battery performace in them suffers in the cold winters that we have.  So in the end I went with low voltage LED path lights.  These pathway lights use 3 watt LEDs and are plenty bright.

Here's a few pics just before dusk as I finished the install.

Just before hooking them up to power:

Power hooked up and all of the lights are lit!

Cables buried and project complete!

A look back at some completed projects

Here's a look back at a few completed projects a year or two later.  First up is the back patio barbecue command center.

Looking north towards the front of the house:

Looking over the counter to the fireplace:

Looking south towards the chicken coop:

As I have done the projects, I have tried to maintain consistent, repeating elements in the hardscape design to create a sense of unity in the yard and gardens.  Both the front and rear patios incorporate the concrete pavers set in a diamond pattern and use concrete columns and baluster railings.  Both patios also use stone (for the counter in the back, and for the patio surround in the front).

On to the front patio!

Here you can see the walk to the front door.  The first concrete columns that I made form a small pergola that frames the garage doors.

Coming up the front walk is the pergola that frames the entry door.

Here is a look back across the front patio to the front walk.

Progress on Driveway Retaining Wall

Making some progress on the driveway retaining wall.  Excavation is done for the first section and you can see the wall fountain panel and the layout of a little wall niche that I am including.

I am using a leftover piece of sonotube as a form for the arch.  The fountain still needs castings made for the basins (one upper and one at the base).  I also plan on building a nicer spigot for it.  Right now it just has a piece of junk copper tubing as a mockup.

Here's the completed niche and a few more stones added to the wall!

Driveway retaining wall ideas and plans

I'm turning my attention to my driveway retaining wall this summer since the wooden landscape timbers are well past their prime and rotting away.  I am planning to do this retaining wall out of stone to match the others in the yard.

I want to incorporate some functional features as well as some to add visual interest to the retaining wall itself.  Some of the features that I would like are a garbage bin storage area, a bench, and a small storage shed.  I also plan to add some additional parking space for a motorcycle and an integrated wall fountain feature.

So with this in mind, I made up a rough layout idea sketch in Sketchup.

I then ripped out a section of the rotted landscape timbers and did some test digging to see how far back I could go into the hill before I ran up against the sprinkler system pipes.

I then found a good area to put the fountain feature in the retaining wall.  This sparked a few ideas for re-using a concrete panel I had cast as part of a mailbox pillar a few years back.  I brought the panel out and drilled it with the hammer drill to accept the fountain spout.  I will set it in as a part of the first portion of the stone wall.

Here you can see a bolt sticking through the panel where the future spout will go.  I will likely put some kind of decorative medallion on with the spout sticking through.  It will also need a catch basin at some point too.

In the meantime, I have plenty of excavation and rock work to get started on!  More updates on this project to come.

Front Patio Update

So now that spring has arrived, I have been able to get some more work done on the front patio.  Here you can see the finished stone work on the east side and the opening for the storage area.  I hope to make a set of nice iron doors for this soon.

Here in the next few pics, the baluster railing is being installed...

The balusters were all cast first (15 of them).  They were cast with a rod of rebar projecting on both the top and bottom.  The bottom rail was framed with 2x6s and a piece of trim at the top corner to add detail.  While this concrete was still wet, the balusters were inserted and clamped into position.

The top rail was then formed in place using pieces of plastic rain gutter supported by 2x4s and a 'ladder' of 2x2s to support from beneath, in-between the baluster tops.

The finished baluster rail:

I think it turned out alright for something I cast myself!





Upper Patio Railing Completed!

I finally made some time to get the railing done on the upper portion of the front patio.  In the following picture, you can see the railing is coming together.

The posts at each end are poured first.  Then the bottom rail is poured, and while the concrete is still wet,  the balusters are set in place (they each have a rod of rebar running through the center to tie them to the upper and lower rails).  In the picture above you can see the tops of the rebar poking out of each baluster and the rebar that has been welded in place to tie all of the balusters together with the end posts and reinforce the top rail section.

I then form up the top rail section with pvc raingutter cut to fit around each baluster and pour concrete again.  Here is the finished result from the outside of the patio.

Finished stone retaining wall bench

I never posted pics of the completed stone bench in the retaining wall, so here they are:

Earth Berm Shed Doors

An earth berm storage shed I incorporated into my retaining wall a couple of years ago was still lacking some doors so I decided to take care of that.

Here is a pic of the shed before the doors went on:

And here is what I decided to do for the doors.  I used OSB with a cladding of small aluminum 'fish scale' shingles.

And here are the doors mounted to the shed.

More patio work

The fall weather has been holding out really well, so I have been able to get more done than I anticipated.

Here's a view of the new curved stairs I was able to pour to incorporate the old hot tub pad into the patio.

The stone skirt is also done about half way up.

The stone skirt is all done on the south side.

You can also see the pillars I have poured for the baluster railing I will be putting in.

New Front Patio and Pergola

So ever since we moved into our house it has had a white wooden deck on the front that has seen better days.  Many of the boards were suffering from dry rot and there was a broken hot tub.

I removed the old deck and built a new smaller one which was then covered with Silca decking plates, which allow installation of pavers as a deck surface.

I also incorporated some more columns like we used for the patio on the back side of the house and built an entry way pergola.

Here is a completed pic with the front steps having been poured the day previous.

There is still work to be done.  We plan to incorporate the old hot tub concrete pad as a lower level to the patio and will also be adding a stone skirt wall and a concrete baluster railing.

Another stone retaining wall

This summer I ripped out another rotting rail road tie retaining wall and replaced it with stone.  After my success with the fireplace, I decided to do mortared stone rather than the dry stack technique that I used for the previous walls.

This wall also incorporated a set of stairs and an alcove to store the clothespins for the laundry drying rack.

The stairs going in:

Here's a closer photo of the arched alcove:

Patio upgrade - New Curtains

Our back patio faces the west and gets really hot on summer afternoons.  I have seen several articles on the internet about using canvas painter's drop cloths as curtains and decided to give it a try.

I like how it turned out.  They really add some extra shade and privacy and class up the look of the patio.