The final few days of the remodel were the most exciting as you could finally see everything coming together.
On Monday the boulders arrived which would shore up the steeper edge of the patio (that boulder retention idea that I saw at a home in the neighborhood). Unfortunately I wasn’t home when that was done and I missed my opportunity to specify exactly how I wanted them arranged. They look good but it would have been great to stagger them height-wise to achieve more interest to they eye. They also put in four originally and odd numbers always look better in my opinion but the pavers were already cut around them by the time I got home so it was a done deal.
Also completed were the sidewalk to the backyard, the patio and front walkway/steps. The pillar caps were built up, flagstone pieces selected to create the caps and the pony wall repaired where it was still open from when a section of it was cut out. On day 6 and 7 we tweaked a number of items like the watering system (had to add a new valve), painted the pony wall, sealed the steps and added a couple of other plants for balance.
Notes from the final few days of the remodel include:
- should have made a point of being on-site for the boulder placement.
- we added another boulder to the left of the driveway along with a yellow trumpet vine to balance things out. The yard looked a little lopsided as we came to completion and this added balance. George of GK Escapes also suggested adding a red lantana to give it that side of the driveway more color so we did that, too.
- After our first night on the patio (all the neighbors came over to enjoy it which instantly validated our choice to add it!) the kids were riding their bikes and coming up and down off the side through the landscape rocks. Not good. So we added one more boulder that has a flatter face to it which created a natural step. Then we added patio chairs which stopped the bike riding part!
- We also should have discussed how the apron around the pillar caps would look. I figured it would be a straight edge of flagstone but instead they did an alternating (upside down & right side up) trapezoid design that I’m not wild about. It looks good it’s just not my style. The devil is in the details.
- We also elected to add a paver border around the front edge of the yard and along the side to tie in the walkway and patio. It gave it a more finished look but it did drive the price up at the end.
- We had elected to keep the original landscape rocks and just add a top dressing to spruce them up. But they were the wrong color and clashed with the paver colors so we ended up stripping out the old and putting in new. That cost us because they’d already finished the job and top dressed it but it just looked so bad. I should have trusted my initial instincts to switch it out.
On the final day we did the walkthrough with Curt and identified a short punch list that was taken care of over the next few days. We’re still working with one of those items and it looks like it will be complete sometime next week.
I’ve included a few pictures of the last few days of work and in a separate post I’ll put up some before and after shots.
Boulder placement is key. There is no way to do it but hands on. I love your posts
Thanks so much, Jennifer. I did learn my lesson the hard way this time. Hopefully posts like this help others learn from my mistakes.