gate construction

i utilized some high school trigonometry for the angles.

UPDATE: thanks to Bear the Truck, a gorgeous Chevy Blazer, for his help in hauling the wood.

framed up.  thank you soh cah toa.

from the yard

from the alley

the patio is in

1.5 tons of concrete dust and 200 sf of select bluestone were delivered at 7:30am on Saturday.  After some manual labor, I now have a patio.  Thanks to Ben and Bryan for the help installing the stone.

a super sack of concrete dust

the beginning of the base layer

just a couple buckets into the job

my wonderful help

all installed, and dusty

after a good rinse

looking north

gravel

I had 5 tons of CR-6 gravel delivered on Saturday morning.  Graham came over to help me smooth it out in an attempt to level the backyard.

landscaping fabric to keep the weeds down

dew

dump

the truck, and Ron, the neighbor

1/4 done

all spread

Backsplash

The tiles have just been ordered from Heath Ceramics.  I'm going with 2x4 subway tiles in a matte parchment glaze.

They are "look(ing) forward to starting the process of mixing clay and glaze, pressing, cutting, trimming, glazing, firing, and finally sorting and boxing (my) tile."

Can't wait.

counters

After 11 weeks, one BBB complaint, one three-page letter, being lied to multiple times, and a couple (dozen) angry phone calls, I finally have counters.

They're pretty nice.

and, of course, the before shots.

the underside of my old counter

back yard digging

BP3, Mike, Tony, Javaris, and Dan helped me dig out the back yard yesterday.  it was a bit harder than expected.

we found boulders and sunken fence posts in concrete

but we got it done

and here's the proof.

it may not look like a lot, but i would guess we moved close to 6 or 7 cubic yards (which can range from 14,400 to 24,000 pounds of material)

front yard landscaping

kate (the landscape architect), patrick (my amazing neighbor with a truck), and i went to merrifield in va to get a tree and other stuff.  originally, i had wanted a himalayan birch, but it turns out it doesn't like full sun.  so we looked around at magnolias, but none struck my fancy.  we saw yellowwoods and honey locusts, and those are great trees.  i settled on a honey locust that was HUGE but with a manageable root ball.  this is going to be a wonderful tree.

safety is only a 9-5 job...

kate helped me plant the tree

and then i planted 250 vinca plants...

not all of them here.  some went into the tree box at the curb.

after the tree was planted, i went into my room and was startled... i'm not used to having something right out my bedroom window.  it'll be really nice once it grows a bit and gives some shade.

gate posts

it was a busy 3 day weekend (thank you, alternative work schedule).  on friday i sunk posts for my back yard gate and dug a hole in the front yard for the tree.

dresser: painted

i also installed floor registers

if you don't remember what it started out like: