After the simple landscaping project
which took place on the West side was complete, it was time to finally start on the East side of the house! This was one of the bigger projects due to the complete reboot that the yard went through following the installation of the wall. Unlike the other side of the house, this one had many challenges not limited to compaction due to the track loader being driven over it several dozen times, a significant re-grading of the land, and all new drainage systems that hadn’t settled into place quite yet. As you can see in the photo to the right, this didn’t even look like a yard anymore and required a lot of manual labor to finish. I wish I could have used a power rake and rock-hound, but the narrow area between the neighbor’s fence and my wall vetoed that possibility.
My one neighbor jokingly asked how long it would take me to complete the wall and side yard projects –I gave an estimate of about a month. “You’re crazy!” He proclaimed, insisting that this was at a minimum a full summers work. Well… I was well on track to completing the project in my time frame, but the unfortunate happened. The photo on the left shows how far I was able to get before having a rather significant setback. The light area took about two hours of work to complete, the dark area was completed following the accident and took assistance from my friend to rake out and seed. That was the last progress I made on the house for around a month and a half.
You may be wondering what I am referring to when I say that there was an accident… *spoiler alert* I nearly removed my finger. If you are squeamish, stop reading here and skip to the next section. If you are of the morbid-curiosity type, I have posted a hidden gallery with photos and a more in-depth description of events. Feel free to click that link, but I am warning you, it contains a bit of gore.
Back to landscaping! It had been about a month since any real work happened on the house, but once it resumed, things flew by. During that month of recovery, I was able to get the new grass to come in, continuously battling the weather to do so. Since regrading this side of the house, the water runs between the neighbor’s property and mine up against the fence line. No water sits anywhere against the foundation, and this is all great, until you try to plant grass. Every time I would seed, the rain would wash it away. I tried everything to hold it in place including cellulose, but nothing worked except luck. I also re-painted the side of the house the same color it was before, and pointed any iffy looking joints. This was an easy to do task while I was healing.
You will find the line of boxwoods along the top of the wall in the driveway expansion post, but I didn’t include them in this post as I counted those as a part of the wall. Above the retaining wall you’ll find two azaleas, the barberry bush I mentioned transplanting in the west side landscaping post, and one weeping cypress. Sadly, the weeping cypress didn’t make it and will need to be replaced in spring. We planted that before the driveway was modified, and had to dig it up again to build up and regrade the property. It was already stressed in the pot, and these two additional highly stressful events finished it off.
Recently, I decided it was time to finish this side of the house once and for all. When I ran the gutter drains I decided to leave a riser near the faucet so I could install a cement work pad. I dug down 8 inches, laid 6 inches of 2b modified gravel, limestone dust, and packed it down as tight as a hand tamper possibly can. I built a quick cement form 3 inches thick and staked it square and level to the ground. The drain is 1/2 inch lower than the edges of the pad so water properly drains into the riser. I then replaced the leaking faucet with a cheap brass one I had laying around. Finally, I leveled out the dirt, replanted the grass, and hung up a really nice hose reel with 100 feet of hose on it so I can reach the whole back and side yard.
Overall, I am extremely happy with how this side of the house turned out. I wish the tree didn’t die, but losing one plant out of the lot that has survived so far, I will consider the projects an overall success. I will look for the same tree next year and hopefully plant it in early spring so it can root by summer!
As is customary by now, more photos in chronological order below!
