7.18.11

In order to read this post I'm going to have to insist you wear a hard hat.  We run a zero accident work-site here.  Well except for the one guy that put a nail through his thumb.   Tetanus shot anyone?

Things are moving along.  Slowly, but moving.  This is interesting – I'm not the least bit concerned with how long things are taking outside. Rick, on the other hand, is finding it a wee bit stressful.  The delays. The occasional set back.

Now when we were doing our interior remodel that was a whole 'nother story.  I had to insist that there were construction free zones at all times (since we stayed in the house during the construction) and the week of Christmas I made our contractor clear everything out of the living room so I could put up my tree and pretend the house was all happy and serene for the holidays.  

The driveway circle is done.  The planter bed along the front of the house is done (and planted!).  

The deck is coming along.  The material (EverGrain) is proving to be a bit more temperamental to work with than anticipated.  The section being worked on (above) is the largest so there is fiddling in getting the boards cut so the seams are "random" (they are anything but – the randomness is totally thought out).  

That is a lift truck at the bottom of my lawn.  Along with the hardscaping and deck work we are also have some tree work done. Dead branches cut out, the occasional misplaced tree removed.  The tree guy has an interesting schedule.  He does great work, has great prices and lives just down the creek from us.  But he'll show up, drive his truck across the property, cut a branch or two and then disappear for a few days.  He'll show up eventually and finish but you just never know when exactly.  

Lest it sound like I'm complaining I have to say that everyone that has been working outside this Summer has been wonderful.  Does great work, competitively priced, conscientious.   I just think contractors are people-pleasers.  So they tell you X will happen by Y because they WANT it to happen and they know it is what we want to hear.   So just take whatever time frame they tell you and double it.  

Look at that terrible walkway above.  That is another project that will happen this Summer.  Only we need to wait for the deck guy to be finished.  We are having the walkways along the back of the house and down the side of the garage redone by the same guy that did the driveway circle and the front flower bed.  

Here is teaser of a picture of the front flower bed.  We bought some plants but if I take a picture straight on they look spindly and sparse.  So here is a shot that makes the plants look a little more lush than they are.  Once they fill in, and we get the driveway circle planted, I'll take more pictures.