The roses are planted, the edgers keep growing as is the drip irrigation and the cords for the lights. However, the best part is that the coral bark Japanese maple is now planted! It looks fabulous! Check it out! :)

Today was exciting because I met Robert from Dirt Tech and his crew at the house in the early afternoon. From there, I followed them OTP (outside the Perimeter) to Skinner Nursery, a wholesale nursery in Marietta (pic below). There, Robert convinced Garrick Lewis to help me pick out a nice Japanese maple for the front yard on the left side of the door. Garrick was extremely helpful, professional, and patient. I finally picked a coral bark Japanese maple. Just like the name hints, the bark will get very bright red when the tree loses its leaves in winter. Of course, big bark such as that on the stump will appear and remain grey. With a grey house and a red door, this sounds great! The price was also very good, and the tree has so much new growth. However, it is true that the coral bark Japanese maples are upright in form and could grow to 12 feet or more but they can be trimmed and trained in the spring after the new growth has already sprung. Simply put, I am so pleased with the purchase, and I cannot wait until Robert brings it to the house tomorrow!

The planting of Compactas (similar to boxwood but less expensive, faster growing, and smaller leaves) and some gold mops in the front yard are almost complete. Also, the first edgers have been installed. I think it looks great!

It rained all day today, but Robert from Dirt Tech and his crew got a lot of work done today! Check out the pics! They removed all of the existing plants to the left of the front door as well as the plants behind the flower bed. They also carved out the dirt from around the flower bed. The flower bed had extended at least six inches into the walkway and driveway.

After all of the beautiful work on the backyard, the front yard looked shabbier than ever. Robert from Dirt Tech took on the job of doing the following:

• Remove the existing plants with the exception of the Japanese maple, the crepe myrtle, and the flower bed


• Remove the rock garden


• Plant with new, easy-to-care-for plants that will look good year-round


• Install three lights and connect to the light system from the back yard


• Install a drip irrigation system with a separate controller than the backyard


• Install edgers in Brick Red around the beds

Here are some "BEFORE" pics of the front yard for comparison purposes.

Shawn bought us a beautiful new grill for the new patio! It is all stainless steel, and it has a side burner, so that we can cook corn outside while we are grilling! So awesome! :)

Cornerstone Wall Systems have finished power-washing the driveway and cleaning up! The patio ended up being about 1000 square feet, which was 700 square feet smaller than originally estimated. This morning, I went out and bought a huge iron pot to sit on top of the hole. Now, I need to contact the fence guy and the landscaper. In other words, a significant part of the project is complete, but now there is so much more to do before we can have the party!!! What do you think so far?

After removing some of the pavers, which were a different size and color (but that's another story over cocktails), you can really start to see the patio! The area at the far side is now complete including the soldier border, and the stairs from the driveway up to the patio and the hole around the sewer cap are under construction. The machine in the pic below is used to pound and shake the sand into the grooves between the pavers. This is the final step in the process, and that is why there is grey sand all over the patio.

The pavers are coming along! It is quite exciting! They are placed by hand by another crew from Cornerstone Wall Systems; the crew is Brazilian. Interestingly, they started in the middle and are working their way out to the edges. Once they place the pavers, then they will trim them all at once for the soldier border edge.

The walls are now complete! Mr. Mackey and his crew are still preparing the patio area. In fact, they have already placed the step on the far side of the house. Check out today's pics!

Here are some pics of the pavers as well as the preparation around the house, where the patio will be.

The caps are complete on the first, second and third walls, and most of the debris has been hauled away in two more truckloads on Day Fifteen. Also arriving today were the pavers! They are going to look great!

Mr. Jones and his crew will finish the caps, clean up, and the preparation work for the pavers on Monday. This includes building the step(s) up to the patio on the left side of the house.

I also have some interesting numbers regarding the entire wall project:

• The original estimate was for 1600 square feet of retaining wall.


• The actual walls are 1602 square feet. This includes the square footage that is below ground level.


• Eight loads of dirt were removed from the premise.


• Four loads of trees and trash were removed from the premise.


• Of the 18-inch blocks, 945 square feet were used or 1260 blocks.


• Of the 12-inch blocks, 378 square feet were used or 756 blocks.


• Of the 6-inch blocks, 189 square feet were used or 756 blocks.


• Of the 3-inch caps, approximately 90 square feet were used or 240 caps.

Isn't it GORGEOUS? :) The walls themselves are done now. However, they still need to be capped (even the remainder of the first wall). There is also clean up, hauling off more tree debris and dirt, and leveling the dirt that is there. Finally, Mr. Jones' crew is going to do the preparation work for the pavers.

On Day Twelve, Mr. Towe, Mr. Jones and I finally agreed on what we were going to do at the top of the hill. There will be no slope between the third and the fourth wall. There will also be a short fifth wall with a small slope behind it to hold back the highest part of the hill. As a result, Day Twelve was spent excavating and hauling dirt. Dust is everywhere!

On Day Thirteen, Mr. Jones and his crew made a lot of progress. The fourth and fifth walls are being built differently than the other three. The crew is building them from the left to the right. This allows them to still use the machines to bring up the bricks and move the dirt as they build the walls along, backing out as they go. It looks AWESOME! I am so excited! My dream is finally coming true! :)

Discussion began in earnest on day eleven regarding the fourth and possibly fifth walls. The hill is very high in the middle, and as a result, a fourth wall would still leave a steep slope at the top. We discussed having a 3-to-1 slope between the third and the fourth walls to mitigate this. 3-to-1 means that for every three feet of distance between the walls, the slope would increase one foot. Although I wanted a flat third level, this seemed to work better and I agreed. Mr. Jones marked in orange where the fourth wall would begin.

The third wall is coming along but it is challenging. Lots of dirt has been removed already. Also, you can start to see the third and the second walls when you are driving up to the house on the left-hand side. It looks really impressive. The only bad news is that the entire house is covered in fine orange dust. This dust seems to increase on the days that dirt is being moved to be hauled away. Oh well.

All the hard work is paying off as the third wall is coming along nicely. Check it out!

This picture was taken from the side. You see the second wall and the very start of the third wall. First, the area was dug out over the past few days. Then, crumbled rocks are laid down. To get the curves to match, they measure the same distance from the front of the second wall to where they place the bottom stone of the third wall. The bottom stone is always buried, so instead of being the three piece system, the bottom stones are always the 18-inch ones. The backhoe is on the other side of the wall next to the neighbor's fence. Mr. Jones said that he would dig a hole for me there to put in a new tree! :)

The current plan is to be finished by this coming Tuesday! That would mean it has only taken twelve days from start to finish for the walls. Now for the patio!!!

You have to admire the giant stump that they removed today. It was a hickory, which grew together with a pine tree! You also have to notice that most of the work of the past days was removing dirt, stumps and other construction goodies within the dirt (i.e. a lead pipe, big cement blobs).

Some of caps went onto the first wall today! It looks great! They hang slightly over the edge of the wall.

I met with Mr. Jones this morning to congratulate him on his progress, and I found out that they had already used 10 pallettes of Anchor Wall Systems' Highland Stone. That calculates to roughly 360 square feet of wall! I noted that that was well beyond my expectations as I was told that the per day average was about 200 square feet. Mr. Jones said that it was because he actually has two crews on my job currently! :)

You can imagine my surprise when the first person from Cornerstone Wall Systems today was Mackey Jones! Apparently and thankfully, his stepson had had a panic attack, not a heart attack. What a great relief! If things had been gone slowly yesterday, things moved along at a breakneck pace today! In fact, most of the first wall was built! Check out the pictures! Notice that the wall has a slight serpentine and that it is made of three different sizes of Anchor Wall Systems' Highland Stone in terra cotta. The caps are not on top of the wall yet. I am very excited to see the progress!

In other good news, it was the workers would had unplugged the cable line to the house to protect it, so I do not need to call the cable company either! Hoorah!

Day two began with the delivery of the first load of gravel, and then I left to go to work. Sometime during the day, the dumpster was removed, but there was also bad news...Mr. Jones' stepson had a heart attack. I did not know until later in the day, but our sincerest wishes go out to Mr. Jones and his son that he recover quickly.

I received two phone calls at work on Thursday before I actually answered. It was the wife of the owner of Cornerstone Wall Systems. She wanted to inform me that Mr. Keeton was no longer with the company. I was floored! She wanted to make an appointment for me to meet her husband, the owner, J. Steven Towe, the next day. Of course, I accepted but a million questions were running through my head, and I could not spit one out before hanging up.

I slept restlessly and wrote down my questions first thing Friday morning. Mr. Towe arrived on time and was very confident that I would be very satisfied with the project. He also planned to start the project on time. I agreed and we discussed the details, but I was move nervous than ever. As the weekend progressed though, I managed my fears and tried to look forward to finally solving the problem. In addition, Shawn reminded me that neither Mr. Keeton nor Mr. Towe would be the site managers. Mom and Andrew said that it would be good that the owner were involved.

On Saturday, while Shawn was at golf, I dug up the camellia and the shrub roses. I bought a little yellow wagon to carry the plants down the hill to where they will stay until the project is completed and I can replant them. I also put the pieces of slate and the tiki torches there. I moved the outdoor furniture and the grill into the garage. It was exhausting work.

On Sunday, Shawn did the big work - the five "spooky" bushes and the butterfly bush. We gathered all of the lighting and unearthed all of the little watering system, and then we decided that that would be all that we would try to rescue. In fact, the roses were already looking very unhappy. I do not know if any of them will survive, but we tried.


Today, Mr. Towe and the site manager, Mackey Jones, along with their crew showed up on time with two flat bed trucks with two mini-tractors on them. All were dressed well with Cornerstone t-shirts on. The crew greeted me warmly and, essentially, went to work immediately. They were tearing up the deck before I even left. I guess that Mr. Towe saw my anxious look and made sure to warn me that "It is going to get worse before it gets better."

When I came home, I could not believe my eyes!!!


Honestly, the team did a great job on their first day tackling the hill. They made a small road to drive up the hill with the tractor, removed all of the railroad ties including the deadmen, and removed the deck. Shawn spotted some mice, and the robins were busy feasting on the turned soil. Some of the blocks for the walls are sitting on the front lawn, and an enormous dumpster is in the road. The cable is also finally broken; the cord was not even beneath the ground anyway. I seriously doubt that they will start building the wall tomorrow, but it is still amazing. Stay tuned for more as it happens...

For my dedicated fans, you realize that I have tackled the hill behind the house once previously in an effort to make it less steep. Although the effort was noble, the landscape architect that I picked was incapable of dealing with the extreme situation and chose instead to cover and decorate the problem. I was sorely dissapointed (as well as set back financially), and the hill has to continue to gnaw at me. (Notice that there were no pics to document the end of the erosion project?) I cannot look outside without worrying and wondering if I could ever tackle it.

After months of looking for a capable company to terrace the hill and to plan the backyard, I finally signed a contract with Cornerstone Wall Systems and Bill Keeton. The project begins on July 10th. The end goal will be a terraced garden of four levels. Here is what the hill looked like when I got back from Chattanooga (i.e. begin state):



This is what the hill looks like now, after the tree removal, which was the first step. The tree removal was done by Dane Tree & Landscaping Professionals. They were very professional, got me on the schedule quickly, and could even charge my credit card (Hello, SkyMiles!).




The next step is to dig up the plants that we want to keep and set them to the side. After that, Bill will be bringing a backhoe in here to remove the dirt and railroad ties from the hill! His crew will demolish the deck and then the building of the retaining wall will begin!!!

The first home improvement project of the year started on Friday with the removal of the trees on the hill in the backyard. You can really see the erosion now that the hill is clear. I am so glad that only one tiny tree broke during the winter storm. Next, we will check the railroad ties to determine whether any need to be replaced. After that, we will regrade the hill and put erosion control fabric on it. Lastly, the area will be landscaped. I hope it turns out as beautiful as the plan!

Looking back on the project, it has been a long time coming - wooden floors, wallpaper removal, painting, closet system installations, decorating and hanging, and finally new blinds - but after all that we have been through, I am finally calling the master suite complete! Today, one of the owners of Brookhavens Wallpaper and Blinds, Randy, came over and installed the four natural bamboo roman shades and the two white 2" wooden blinds. This was the final touch that we had been waiting for, and I can only recommend the company. The other owner, Chris (Randy's wife), was very helpful with design ideas and selecting the blinds. They made a huge effort to get the blinds here quickly and installed before my parents' visit. They put a lot of care and attention into their work, and I am so happy that the project ended on a good note! :)

Once the tools were put away, the master bathtroom was clean, and I took the pictures in my previous entry, what should appear but the votive sconces for which I had been waiting! Mounting the four sconces in a row was a real challenge, but the candlelit bubble bath afterwards made it all worthwhile! :) If you look to the left in the photo and in the reflection in the mirror, you can see the very old bedsheet that I inherited from my parents hanging over the window. Thankfully, the natural bamboo roman shades will be here soon! More photos will be posted when they arrive!

After the wallpaper removal and painting, the master bathroom still needed (and still needs) some decorating attention to bring it into our unified master suite. On Tuesday, I ordered the blinds for the master bedroom and bathroom - natural bamboo roman shades. (We are currently living with old sheets hanging from tacks!) Today, I hung some of things that Shawn and I had agreed on. In other words, with Shawn away, I get a chance to drill the holes all by myself! ;P I hung four wall vases with lucky bamboo next to our vanities. They look really nice! It is nice to have some green in there. I also hung the wooden frog that we bought in Costa Rica and the Banania poster that Shawn used to have in his old apartment. I don't know whether it is appropriate to have food posters above the commode, but I think it matches the decor, and there is something contagious about the spokesman's smile! :)

The master bedroom is slowly creeping towards completion as well. The picture to the left was taken after the hardwood floors were installed but before the furniture was brought back and before the room was repainted. As you can see, the master bedroom was a sunny yellow! In the middle picture, you see the new paint color, "light raffia". No one has found the words to quite describe it, but it really brings the room together a lot better. Finally, in the picture to the right, you see the reason that Shawn and I really appreciated David and JB's help - the new, Tibetan, wool, 9x12 rug! It is a modern basketweave design, and I think it really brings the room together! The last step for this room is blinds.

As Shawn and I complete the major home improvements, I have to show them off on my blog! The guest bedroom is now officially complete. Shan and Kev will be the first official guests in the new room. As evidence of the transformation, I have taken the following pictures. The picture to the left was taken after the hardwood floors were installed. The picture in the middle is after the guest bedroom was painted. The new color is slightly more yellow than the previous. All of the furniture is in the room, but as you can see, I had not made the bed! :P David and J.B. came over on Sunday (tempted with Heinekens and hamburgers) to help Shawn and me put the rugs in the guest bedroom and the master bedroom. The picture on the right is the completed guest bedroom! :)

Things are slowly starting to come together on all of the recent home improvement projects. The first major project was the installation of hard wood floors upstairs. After that, all of the wallpaper was removed in the master bathroom, and the guest bedroom and the master bedroom were repainted. The painting included the master bedroom closets. Shawn and I had already installed Elfa shelving in the one master bedroom closet, and here are some pictures of the other master bedroom closet, which we completed this weekend. The pictures show the status with the old shelving and wallpaper before being painted, after being painted, with the Elfa shelving installed, and finally with all of our clothes. It looks GREAT!

Any chance to use the drill is always welcome! This weekend, I installed a pull-out drawer for our Tupperware. This meant drilling four perfect holes to secure the Elfa unit in the kitchen cabinet. It actually took no time at all, it works great, and it is much more organized than before. :)

Disclaimer:

The views expressed here are solely mine and not my employer's. This blog may contain language, images, subject matter, opinions and even recipes that some consider offensive. Wanna make something of it?