Where Have I Been You Wonder???

First of all for the record, getting a new site off the ground is always tedious and requires a lot of patience. I am willing to wait and not pain over not having traffic. This site is for fun and I refuse to let it put pressure on me like my Not So News site that I felt I had to post on everyday for more than a year.

Secondly, since I received nary a single question, which by the way is very assuring because this leads me to believe that all is well with the world, I decided to take on the remodelling of my entire back yard as a way of providing my own sorry ass with a little physical therapy.

I have taken on this project with only a little help from a few people because to make things level two people are needed. I also contracted a plumber to run a gas line out to what will eventually become the hub of the back yard...our glorious fire pit. I think in the long run, doing all the work myself, we will have saved several thousand dollars in labor and I will have re-developed muscles that once, in my younger day were predominantly displayed.


This ugly old wall has been hidden by trees and vines for years and once uncovered became even uglier. Everything came out and when all was said and done I questioned whether or not it was the right decision. Once I got moving it started to improve thought and a sense of satisfaction started to invade my wondering mind.




All of this dirt, which has not seen a lick of water in forever had to be turned and a lot of it moved to other parts of the yard to get a level playing field so to speak.




Now, with a new facade along the top (bamboo from which I received eight million tiny slivers from) I can live with the wall. And yes, that is my celebrity husband swinging the pick. (of course he quit after he realized that this type of work makes you break a sweat) The plants, bolganvia, will eventually cover the wall creating a span of color like you will only see in California.




As you can see, exiting the house to the back yard has not been an option since we removed the unsightly wimpy two steps that were here when we bought this house some twenty years ago. I don't know why we waited so long to do something about it but during this remodel they have undergone a major transformation.




Now, where those ugly two stairs sat, are a beautiful replacement that I will tile with travertine begining Wednesday next week. Building these took a lot of braun because all the conrete mix (a dump truck full) had to be dumped in my front yard on the driveway. That meant many back breaking 100 yard trips to transport it to where it needed to be.




This is my friend Jim the plumber putting the finishing touched on the gas line. It was a labor of love and when he lit it for the first time my heart beat quickened and I knew that everything would go smoothly from there. The pit had to be done to accept the solid limestone top that will be set in place by 5 or 6 sweating (hopefully good looking studs) on Monday afternoon.




This is what you will not see once the top goes on. Okay so it may not seem like this would be a tough project but it took me a good part of an entire day plus an extra scoop of concrete mix, which only got delivered because I went there in person wearing a tiny little tank top. Mixing concrete ( in a wheelbarrel by hand) is not for the faint of heart.


Just in case you don't think I'm actually doing the work, here I am in the flesh removing the last of the dirt before I can lay the sand. Although it is not a flattering picture I can assure that that is really a wet t-shirt. LOL!



And last but not least, my helper. For nearly every shovel full of dirt I dug so did my yard guard Miles. I think he had a blast out there with me, pulling roots out of the ground and eating everything he wasn't supposed to including a lot of dirt.