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!