Photos, we've got photos!

OK, you'll have to be patient with this entry. My biggest frustration with blogspot is how hard photos are to handle. It just doesn't let me position them the way I'd really like, and I know it's clumsy. So I apologize in advance. But do look - we've had some great things happen!

Project 3 - upstairs. I finally have the last bits done, so here are the before and after shots.

Alcove doors:


Now isn't that quite an improvement?











Closet doors:






OK, so it's different doors - you still get the idea.






The roof - before. Now you know why we needed a new one!











And for the grand finale, the patio! I'm delighted to announce that the base is, at long last, ready. It took days for everything to eventually start to dry out, and even that wasn't enough. Yesterday, the guys started pounding rock into the clay, and, as they pounded, what can best be described as bubbles of clay started popping to the surface. So they pulled them out, and filled the holes left behind with rock. That FINALLY did the trick, and they were then able to lay the fabric and put the fill on top, as they thought they'd be doing last Thursday! It was quite the operation. The compactor, with a pressure of 7500 pounds, weighs about 700 pounds. It took a crane to lift it onto the trailer! Needless to say, 3 guys couldn't lift it down and carry it up a few steps and across our yard. So they used the dingo to push it to the pit! And to continue the adventures, we found out for sure that the people who put electricity out to the garage (before we bought the place) didn't bury the line the regulation 16" down - they only went 12. I leave it to your imagination as to how they found that out... Fortunately, the guy only found the line, he didn't sever it or get shocked. It took hours to lay the fill, layer by layer and pound it as hard as it needs to be, and then to level it. Mike and I chuckled at the irony of him having to dampen it as he went, after days of waiting for it to dry... We were out last night, so don't know just when they finished, but a neighbor said it was quite late - perhaps 9 pm. A very long, hard day, but the pavers should, God willin' and the creek don't rise, go in tomorrow. During all this waiting, they did finish the steppingstone path and relay the sod around it. We think it looks fantastic! Joe grilled on it Saturday night, so we could say we used it for the first time. I took advantage of the gorgeous day (about darn time) and planted the last of the plants along the back side of the house. Soon the edging will go in and we'll add mulch and it'll look marvelous.


The very start. The inner ring is the actual edge of the patio, the outer one marks the outer edge of excavation, which allows the room needed to put the edging that anchors the whole thing.




Muck, muck and more muck.







Our pile o' pavers







Our stepping stones










The area in front of the garden will get a mini retaining wall/seating area to help deal with the wrong-way gradient of our yard. This masks the fact that we must raise this end of things 6", well above ground level.






The base here is nearly ready to go! See the pathway?









The new flowerbed. The glare obscures them somewhat, but you can see the other end of the path.