Day #6

Today’s adventures in demolition.

They started pulling out the lava boulders from the waterfall.

Turns out our waterfall is built in a wooden tough or something.

More jackhammering happened. Yes, that’s a jackhammer planted in our wall.


And they also loaded all the organic materials (old ivy, cut down trees, etc.) into a big truck and tore up the rest of the grass in the front lawn. Incidentally, I have no idea what that wire fencing is from.

And that is the dead carcass of what used to be our lovely palm tree.

One more day and then a three day weekend!

Day #5

I worked late last night so I didn’t get to snap yesterday photos so here’s a twofer.

Yesterday they schlepped out all the ivy and loose junk they’ve been pulling up. The yard is looking pretty barren now.

They also tore up all the grass in the back lawn and started using a pick axe to dig a nice gouge in the ground by the wall to expose the piping for the old sprinkler system that’s installed.

Today they started by draining the pond.

Funny note: the guy is using Mowgli’s popper scooper to scoop water out of the pond. Heh.

The end result is this:

And it smells just fantastic. And then the big fun – a jackhammer came out to play. They started tearing up the front retaining wall.

I’m not sure they were expecting rebar but this thing is apparently really well built.

At the end of the day, the pile in the front yard had grown. This is pile #2 – pile #1 got hauled away while I was gone on Monday.

That machine in the front yard is the compressor for the jackhammer. It’s hard to say which is louder, that thing or the actual hammer. The pile in the front right is a pile of concrete from the wall.

So, busy day, we’re getting there. More work tomorrow and Friday and then it’s a three day weekend!

Day #3

Two guys got a lot of work done in my yard today.

I’d like to have a moment of silence for the lemon tree. You can see its stump behind the palm tree.

Most of the work today was on the slope. Rat infested ivy got torn up and a whole lot of trees came down. That back fence is looking pretty bare right now.

I let Mowgli out to investigate and he did try to tear off after something squeaking in the grass. I’m braced for a flood of rats tonight. Sigh.

Happy weekend!

 

Day #2

Yesterday was only a half day of work for the gardening team, but man did they do some damage. Check it out.

The front window box. Note that the ugly freaky shrub next to the house is GONE.

This is the view of the front yard.

The wood walls are all down. For a frame of reference, I’m a little more than 5 feet tall and that pile is quite a bit taller than I.

The lawn tear out has begun.

And then they started in the back. goodbye back deck.

And the side yard is rose-less.

What will make Mowgli sad is the removal of the tree he most loved to pee on.

They’re working on the lemon tree right now. :(

All in all, so far so good!

Day #1

So this morning we just did a big ole walk thru. Things that are scheduled for removal were marked with orange paint, like so:

They left and will be back tomorrow with workers to get started. This afternoon I left the house to go to a meeting, and came back to find this on the front step:

 

I get the hint!

We’ve let the lawn go to seed so it’s pretty hairy right now. I’m pretty sure the neighbors will all be happy to see that we’re not just lazy slobs, we are under contract for yard work. Though, once the mini excavator arrives and starts tearing things up, they might not be so happy. ;)

DEMOLITION DAY

We bought a house here in Northern California about a year ago, and during the various inspections that we paid for an issue came up. It wasn’t a huge deal breaker kind of thing so we bought the house.

The issue is this: underneath the corner of the kitchen that backs up to the deck and backyard there is dry rot. It’s not terrible, everyone told us we could ignore it for years if we wanted to, but it’s there. And related to this, underneath the house our crawlspace is really wet. Not “lake under the house” wet but much damper than it should be. And this is because of two things: 1. there are vents cut into the walls to allow air to come in and circulate and dry out the crawlspace. However, previous owners put in giant planter boxes right against the house and now many of these vents are totally blocked. So pulling out the wall boxes might alleviate 90% of the problem. 2. The backyard has a steep slope, we’re below our neighbors, and the yard itself isn’t graded correctly so water runs right into the crawlspace. There are some “french drains” installed but they’re poorly and cheaply done and aren’t doing a thing to catch this run off. Combine this with the fact that the backyard has a small pond and waterfall that is broken and now stagnant, and the yard is covered with ugly ivy that is a haven for every rodent in the neighborhood and we’re looking at a long term mess.

SO.

This year, thanks to the kindness of the stock market, we have some extra cash so we decided to address these issues. We’ve been told by multiple people that the dry rot repair would be cheaper and easer to tie in with a kitchen remodel as they’re going to have to tear out cabinets, windows, and floors. So we’re going to do our major kitchen remodel too.

Oy.

Anyway, today we begin phase one of the landscape remodel project. This phase will tear out the ivy, lower the back walls by a few bricks to make the yard less steep, tears out the waterfall and pond, and in fact the entire lower level of that part of our yard. And then they’re going to bring in a Bobcat to regrade the entire lawn, install not one but TWO drain systems, pull up the existing (broken-ish 20 year old) sprinkler system, and run the new drains to the front yard.

The backyard currently looks like this:

The side to side tilt is me.

The lemon tree won’t survive.

So that whole first level with the pond, the palm tree, and the lemon tree and little deck will be torn out. Unfortunately the trees won’t be able to get saved. All that ivy is getting torn out. We know for a fact that there are pack rats living in the ivy – last week my Terminix guy warned me about, and I quote, a flood of rats trying to get into the house. Lovely.

The front yard is being completely torn out.

 

The whole front wall is coming out and the lawn is being ripped up. We’re doing a ton of drainage and irrigation work and when it’s done there will be stone steps up to the house, a gentler grade, and no grass whatsoever.

Mowgli says “what up?”

That ugly creepy bush comes out, all the dead junk in the front goes, and the only thing being kept is that pink bougainvillea. And the dog, who is going to be mighty crabby about all this because he won’t be able to have a doggie door or go outside and be nosy for about six weeks while the work is in progress.

Once phase one is done we get into the kitchen work. And then once the kitchen guys are done with exterior work (ripping out the dry rot) then we start phase two of the yard. That phase includes building a bigger new stone patio, adding a fire pit and new wall in the back, installing the sprinklers, and all kinds of fun stuff. Phase three, which is up for debate right now, would add an in-ground hot tub in the backyard corner.

So basically, once we’re done, we’ll have a pretty nice party pad. :)

I’ll be snapping pics and posting updates (and likely crying a lot) so stay tuned!

 

 

Snow Patrol

Here’s the story of our Friday night, in pictures.

We drove with some friends up to Oakland to see this:

We picked up our will-call tickets and got these:

Which got us backstage before the band took the stage so we could hang out in the green room and meet the band. They poured me this:

And then we went out into the house and watched this:

Great show, super nice guys, good way to end the week! Big thanks to a colleague of my husband’s for getting us set up!