Patio Furniture

The end of that week in late March brought more progress on the wall that will be in front of the pavilion.

This got us excited to start planning out the patio space a little.  Over the weekend we went to check out the pavilions.  While there, we stumbled on a sale on a patio set, so we went ahead and bought one that we liked.  It was going to take a few weeks to get it delivered, but that should be good timing!

It should go really well with the wrought iron pieces that I already have. 

Stone Walls- all the way!

When were were doing the foundation, we found out that beneath the clapboards, the walls of the house are stone.
Now that the clapboards have been removed, we're getting a look at it!

Here's the first floor...

I've asked them to try to leave a strip of rock exposed.  It will be next to the new back door and I think the transition to new sheet rock can be covered with a little moulding.  The builder said that as long as it's structurally sound that would be fine.

Below, you can see a little window or chute of some sort was framed... not sure what this was from- it's too high from the ground to be a coal chute, and too low for a window...  mystery!

And here's where the majority of those rocks are now, since they're preparing to break through the walls and connect the new construction with the main house...

The second floor looks super cool too- especially with the diagonal beams!!!

This is the back wall of the Master Bathroom.  There will be a doorway broken through the right portion of stone.  There will also be a doorway located at the place where there's the little window on the right.

This is inside the new laundry room.

Stone walls

While the foundation work is going on, our contractor did some test holes on the main part of the house.  We'll be breaking through this wall in a couple of places, so he wanted to see what we'd be dealing with...

He was quite surprised to find that behind the clapboards, the walls are stone!

Here's a peak...

I

It now makes sense why the electrician was having so much trouble trying to install an outlet in our bedroom and said that it was too obstructed to run the lines inside that exterior wall!

I want to find out if the house was originally stone, or if this was some kind of common building practice for the time?  The walls aren't as thick as the basement/foundation stone walls- which if they were meant to be structural, I'd think they'd have been thick all the way up.

I'm anxious for them to take down the rest of the clapboards from the back so we can see how it was constructed!  We asked the builder if it would be possible to leave them once the clapboards are off.   I'm thinking it might look really cool to have the exposed stone for the back entryway/mudroom wall.  He said it will depend on what kind of shape the rocks & mortar is in, so we'll see!

Stone Wall- needs fixing

A couple of weekends ago, a car ran off the road and into the stone post at the corner of our front yard.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  The only injury was to the stone post, and two little bushes that were ripped out by the car...

Insurance is paying for repairs to the post & stone wall.  But it's one more thing to add to the list of things to do!  We've gotten a few estimates and all of the masons said they need to wait until the spring to complete the work.

We may take this opportunity to extend the wall down the side a little (just a couple of feet), so that it makes a nicer flower bed for the corner.  The masons said that big pile of rocks in the backyard will match the rest of the wall perfectly (we've already used some of them for the backyard flower bed).  But first we want to check with the town that we don't need additional permits/approval to extend it.

Rolling Rock

Or more accurately, Rolling the Rocks.

We've got TONS of them!  So, we decided to use them to create some flower beds.

To start, we moved them over to along the fence.  (Yet another good use of the tractor!)

That's our little Christmas tree from the front porch.
Not sure where we're going to plant it yet!



Here we are, with the stacking in progress:

It's looking a little rough and scraggly now, but it IS the middle of winter. 

This spring or summer I'll post an update once we get some mulch and plantings in...

A New Look in the Front

The front shrubs were growing like crazy. 

Since we live on a corner property, we need to keep the front shrubs trimmed to no larger than 2.5 feet high (so as not to obstruct a driver's view of the cross street).  We could see that they were going to be a lot of mainenance... plus we didn't really like the way they overshadowed & downplayed the pretty stone wall. 

So, Mike decided they had to go, and out came the tractor.  There had to be at least 40 of them!  Some will be replanted along the (soon-to-be) back fence.  Others, like the bunch with the big bee's nest in it, were not so lucky.  We left some of the ivy- because it looks really pretty with the stone wall, but had to thin it out to make room for some new plants.

Once the shrubs & excess ivy were cleared out of the way, Mike had to raise the dirt level to the top of the front wall, so that our new plants would be seen from the street, and not just from our  front porch.  More tractor work!

We spaced out the newly purchase plants:

Dwarf Holly Bushes- so there would always be green, and a touch of red from the berries

Sherwood Dwarf Abelia- an evergreen, with white summer flowers & leaves that turn purple-ish in winter.

Mums- for a splash of fall color

Tulip, Daffodil, and Crocus bulbs- for spring color

And finally, we added mulch.



Before

Along the side of the front yard, where the steps come up from the driveway, we did some more work.  



There were a bunch of little slates at the bottom of the steps that didn't really go.  We removed them & instead made a landing at the bottom of the steps out of a big slab of slate that we found under a bush in the back flowerbed.

The hostas on each side of the steps were getting huge & taking over the entryway.  So we defined a new flowerbed to the right &built a matching rock boarder.  We planted them here for now but will  move them into permanent spots next spring.

The deer are certainly enjoying them as evidenced in the "after" photo...

After

In place of the hostas, I planted daffodil bulbs (my fav) on each side of the bottom slate.  I think will provide a nice pop of color against the gray brick.

It's looking a bit bare,  but should start looking better once the grass seed starts growing where the tractor wore a path. 



And now that the hard-scape is done, it'll fill in & look really natural next season.

The best part about working in the front yard was all the people that stopped to chat as we were working.  In addition to meeting several of our neighbors, a couple of folks thanked Mike for pulling out the shrubs & another asked if we would consider boarding his horse in our barn (hmm... gotta think about that one!)