Not Quite As Planned

Last summer, we thought we found the perfect solution to our drainage problems when we installed the french drains... and we did... well almost anyways...

That was until one February day when I looked outside to see that our downspout had been torn off the side of the house.

My first thought was that the contractor who had come to measure for the Juliette balcony railing must have been stupid enough to try to climb the downspout to access the upper French doors...

Then I looked down...

Apparently the drain had frozen solid and the ice had pushed the downspout up by almost 6"! Tearing all of the brackets in the process...

Thankfully after a full winter, it seems that the problem only occurs in the one downspout on the northeast corner of the house. Our only guess is that it is just that little bit colder, since it does not get any sun, causing the ice to form.

Any ideas how we can fix the problem???

Amy

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(Not) Priceless

During our recent landscaping binge, we hauled, lifted and shovelled:

4.4 tonnes of black rundle stone

6.8 tonnes of fill to the dump

1.6 tonnes of crushed gravel

0.9 tonnes of drainage rock
9.6 tonnes of concrete

No wonder our arms (and credit cards) hurt so bad!

Amy

PS. To further emphasize how heavy and expensive all this landscaping was... hauling all of the material around blew out the leaf springs on my dad's truck leaving Dave stranded on the side of Deerfoot Trail and leading to bills for a tow truck, a rental truck and new leaf springs. Ouch.

PSS. I promise this is the last post involving math!


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7 Years: 5 Decks

The other day I had the realization that Dave has built FIVE decks in the seven years we have owned the house...

 

When we purchased the house, it came with a ugly, rotten wood deck. The summer after we purchased the house, we replaced the rotten deck with a small stone patio. It was an epic failure, thankfully done with mostly free materials.

Deck #1

As part of the kitchen renovation, we built a new wood deck with pressure treated lumber.

Deck #2

Deck #2

Last year we replaced the small concrete steps to our front door with a new stamped concrete patio.

Before

Deck #3

Then this year we replaced a large section of dead grass with a matching concrete patio in the backyard.

Deck #4

Dave was not in love with the pressure treated wood on the second backyard deck and it had taken a considerable amount of abuse during the renovation. So when he was able to get a good deal on cedar deck boards, he decided that he had to rebuild the deck out of cedar.

Deck #5

I must admit I love the colour and smell of the new cedar deck...

But Dave has been told that this is absolutely the LAST desk he will build for this house.

Amy

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Backyard Blitz

As I hinted in my sneak peak, we have been very busy in the backyard this summer. Unfortunately life got in the way and it has taken me until fall to get around to posting our accomplishments...

It is amazing what you can accomplish with a deadline - in this case we wanted the yard ready for Dave's birthday party. There was no way I was inviting people over for a barbecue in a yard that looked like this:

Of course we started with the new stamped concrete patio to get rid of (some of) the dead grass.

Next up was the deck. Dave was not in love with the pressure treated wood and it had taken a considerable amount of abuse during the renovation. When he was able to get a good deal on cedar deck boards, he decided that he had to resurface the deck with cedar.

At the same time, he finally broke down and built proper steps.

To address the big gaping hole under the deck, he skirted the deck with tongue-and-groove cedar boards. No more dogs crawling under the deck and getting muddy! We did leave one board out right against the house so that Mylo the cat can get under the deck in case she is left out of the house in the rain and so she can ensure the area is mouse free.

With the deck done, we turned our attention to my favourite part - planting! Since deck area is almost completely shaded by the house I stuck with a combination of hostas, astilbes, azaleas, ferns, elephant ears and lily-of-the-valley. Against the fresh cedar mulch, I find that the combination is very reminiscent of the West Coast.

Keeping with the West Coast theme, we used the remnant black rundle stone from the raised flower beds to build a small inukshuk.

Our yard is now a small rain forest retreat in the middle of the pairie city - I am even successfully getting moss to grow on the trees!

Next we needed somewhere for everyone to sit. New furniture was just not in the budget for this year so we had to get resourceful.

The dinning set we rescued from Dave's dad's house and restored using a little teak oil and a lot of elbow grease. Although we do have plans to build a custom table with a granite remnant from the kitchen and replace the chairs next year.

The chairs originally belonged to my aunt but have been in my mom's house for years. We had borrowed one when we moved home since we had no other furniture in our living room. After scouring stores and kijiji for months trying to find an inexpensive seating option for the patio, I realized I had a free option right in front of me! I stole the second chair from my mom and found some striped outdoor fabric on sale for $10 a meter at Fabricland to recover the cushions. I was toying with the idea of painting them but when I put them outside I realised I liked how the bare wood complimented the cedar deck. I did break down and bought a garden stool from Sunnyside for $39 and two outdoor rugs from Walmart for $29. $130 for a fully furnished yard is pretty good in my books!

There are still a few minor details to be completed before we are done landscaping: the deck needs to be sealed, the front garden is only half planted, the arbours over the gates need to be built, the side yard and garden path still need mulch, the garden gate needs to be painted and installed, the concrete needs to be patched on the front steps and we want to build a second shed to store our bikes. But a lot of these projects will have to wait until next summer.

I also have a stack of beautiful fabrics waiting to become throw pillows, seat cushions and dog beds.

Vintage Blossom, Ikat Dot, Emilio and Mazescene, via Tonic Living

For the little remaining warm weather this year, we will be focusing on painting the windows and finishing the siding and trim.

...And enjoying our beautiful new back yard - Scout and Jersey definitely do!

Amy

Fruits & Flowers

For our anniversaries Dave and I have developed the tradition of buying gifts that are a fun twist on the traditional anniversary gifts.

The traditional anniversary gift for the fourth wedding anniversary is "fruits and flowers". So when we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary back in May, we decided to combine our presents and buy a new fruit tree for the front yard.

This past weekend, with our flowers beds constructed, we finally got around to buying our tree.

We decided on a Honeycrisp Apple - primarily due to its compact size - it should only grow to 4 meters tall and spread to about 1.5 m wide.

Right now it looks pretty tiny but hopefully in a couple years it will grow up to match the apple tree on the other side of the house that we planted when we moved in seven years ago.

Amy

Productive Long Weekend

Since high levels of snow and water in the mountains made a backcountry trip undesirable, we used the Canada Day long weekend to tackle the landscaping in the front yard. 

We had finished the concrete steps and sidewalk last year but there were still large holes and forest of weeds were there should have been flower beds.

We began by digging in french drains for the downspouts - the same as we did in the back yard.

We plan to replace the two downspouts on either side of the front porch with rain chains so we connected the french drains to pots the rain chains can drain into. We concreted the pots into place to make sure they are good and sturdy. Then we concreted a floor drain into the bottom of the pot.

Next we pulled out all of the weeds, dug out the construction debris and set to work stacking stones.

Four days of hard labour later, we had beautiful raised rundle stone flower beds.

Our house is finally beginning to look like a home and not a construction site.

Before

After

Now I just need some plants...

Amy

More Concrete Fun

Between the dogs, damage from constant construction projects and being in almost complete shade, half of our grass is permanently dead.

After years of struggling to bring it back to life, we decided to throw in the towel, tear it out and replace it with a concrete patio to match the one we did in the front yard (here, here and here) along with a new sidewalk from the front patio to the back patio.

So when we ended up with a couple spare days off after our West Coast vacation, we set to work.

We started by renting a tiller from the Home Depot to tear up the dead sod and loosen the dirt. Then we dug down 6" where the concrete was to go - 2" of gravel and 4" of concrete.

Before a good portion of our yard was permanently covered in concrete, we decided to dig in a french drain system for our eavestroughs and water lines for a irrigation system - more on that another day.

Since the soil in our yard is so hard packed, we were not worried about settlement so we only put down 2" of crushed gravel in order to provide drainage under the concrete. Then we compacted the gravel with a plate tamper.

Dave was quite excited to get to use the concrete saw to trim back some old concrete around the chimney. Boys and their toys...

Once the yard was prepped, our super talented friend Dave came by this past Saturday to form up the sidewalk and patio.

Early Sunday morning, with an army of wheel barrows waiting, the concrete truck arrived. It took about two hours to pour, screed and float the four cubic meters of concrete.

My contribution? I was in charge of doughnuts and coffee. No construction site is complete with out doughnuts and coffee. However most construction sites don't have doughnuts from Jelly Modern Doughnuts. Best doughnuts ever...

Anyways... after the concrete was in place, Dave worked his magic staining and stamping.

With a thunderstorm threatening, we quickly covered the concrete with plastic and tarps and left the concrete to cure for a couple days. Tomorrow we should be able to remove the plastic, forms and residual stain to reveal the finished patio.

Stay tuned for photos of the final product!

Amy