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!

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:

Outdoor fireplace finished!

Well I did beat winter, but only just barely...  Here are the project completion pics for the rest of the fireplace:

2nd wood storage arch being formed.

Chimney nearing completion.

And Done!

Here's a fun pic from when I was just getting started and the young chickens were inspecting my work.

Door arches

So as it gets below freezing with the onset of winter and a loss of daylight I turn to my indoor projects.  Here's one from several years ago.  I wanted to make some arches for a few of the doorways that don't actually have any doors.

To begin, I framed in some 45 degree corners out of 2x4 lumber and then added a piece of thin bender board to form the arch shape.  I then cut sheetrock to fit and taped, textured, and painted the finished area.

I also added a few small plaster castings and a sheetrock "key" at the top of the arch to dress it up.