I like to watch a show on a Home and Garden Channel that focuses on big backyard projects. I'm always amazed because the people have budgets that exceed six figures. They always interview the home owners and they talk about how they had this vision and how pleased they were when it all came together. If you gave me $100,000, a project designer and a crew of 5 full time people that work for 9 months, there would be some shock and awe!
Seriously, where is the struggle, where are the trade-offs because there is only so much money, where is the sweat equity? I'm not jealous, I just have different problems to solve than the people on this show....okay, maybe I'm a little jealous that I don't have an unlimited budget. There was one episode where the home owners weren't sure if they liked the color of the border tile of the gunite pool and they ripped the tile all out without a thought. We tried something in our project and it we didn't like it and it was a stressful process to decide to do it again.
We built our house in 2000; the focus for the first few years was just getting the lawns, gardens and trees established in the front of the house. The site has our house perched on a serious hillside; the house was cut into hillside with about 50 feet between the back of the house and the continued up-slope. While the gardens and lawns were getting established the backyard was unfinished with exposed stone, piles of rock and scrub trees. It wasn't looking pretty. Many years of looking out the back windows and seeing an unfinished/raw hardscape.
So, after many years of thinking about what we wanted and saving money, we decided that we were ready to take the project on this year. We are talking, lets do something very different, lets take on something where people can't believe what they are seeing. We didn't have a six figure budget, but we also knew this was going to use up all of our project savings (and then some) and was going to require sweat equity.
The goal was to keep the project in the $30,000 price range. Given the amount of stone work that was going into this, that meant I had to do the site preparation. It was not a small under-taking. I had to cut into the hillside using the backhoe; putting about 40 hours of tractor time in.....10 minutes on the backhoe pulling stone and packed dirt out, turn the tractor around and load the bucket up several times and move the stone away to the side yard. Take that process and repeat it over and over, and you are making it up as you see what you find in the hillside. The hardscaping would have to contour around un-movable barriers.
I have been moving material from this site for years but there was a focus of completion once the project started. Once the perimeter was determined and the hillside pushed back it was like starting all over again because I had to dig footings for the stone work to sit on, and then I had to move numerous loads of crushed stone and level everything out. We are talking about a truck load of crushed stone every few days.
So, where did the vision come from that we based our project on? We went to the 2007 Boston Flower Show and we saw a display by New England Land Artisan and talked to the owner Philip O'Donnel. This exhibit was award winning and it was the talk of everyone at the show. We spoke to Philip several times for the next couple of years and always hoping he hadn't sold the arch. Finally this year we called him and the timing of our project was aligned well with his schedule and the pricing for the whole project was worked out.
The basic goal was to get the hardscaping in which was to include a curved stone wall, a patio with a fire pit and (the center-piece) the dry laid stone arch. Let's jump into the pictures below and I will take you through our process.
I took this picture during the 2007 Boston Flower Show. The stage was set for us to do something very different like this. This is the actual arch that we purchased for our project.
We decided to use giant granite blocks to get the height we needed (project had to be functional) and to save a little on the walling costs. The blocks staged below; this is not their final location as they are sitting to the left of their final home. This is just to set the stage. These blocks are BIG! I would not be able to lift these with my 3320 John Deere; too much weight for my bucket. You can see that I'm barely caught up with the stone footings. To the left of the staging area, it still isn't dug in, much less backfilled with stone. Also, the banking that I'm cutting into isn't dirt, it is mainly medium sized stones that were blasted from our neighborhood and dumped here 20 years ago to build the shelf that our house sits on. Needless to say it was hard work pulling this material out, and every once in a while I would hit a rock that was bigger than the bucket on the tractor (you see one in the banking behind the two columns).
These are really big blocks; Philip spent quite a bit of time scouring stone yards to find these blocks.
About 20' to the right of these blocks is where there final home will be. At the time, I was just finishing the footings for the arches' final home. Just in time site prep. This type of work would get done after my already full time job. I would come home, jump on the tractor and start digging at it to get it done.
Josh is excited about the project starting. Note that where this is staged becomes the fire pit area that you will see in some of the later pictures.
Here is the arch getting staged in its final location with the cribbing in place to support the arch until the keystone will be in place. Philip spent a lot of time placing the four base blocks and viewing it from the back kitchen window. It is sited perfectly, but it's no mistake...move the blocks, walk up on the porch and stand in front of the window and see what it looks like, tweak, and repeat.
The arch was cut from a single stone and makes up 5 of the stones you see in the arch, including the top keystone.
The arch keystone has been set and the cribbing is ready to come down. Everything is dry laid; no mortar is used to keep things in place. This type of work requires an artisan; it cannot be done with a mason or weekend warrior.
The arch as viewed from the side of the house. You can see the worn in tire marks in the grass from the tractor moving material away from the site.
Site prepping to the left as Philip built. I would pull out stone from the prep area and use it as backfill on the newly created wall....lots of material moving. Oh yeah, it rained a lot! There were times when I would pull mud out just so we could continue to get work done.
A nice view of the arch from the second story of the house. You can see the arch is completed, and the curved wall has progressed nicely. There is no patio or fire pit yet, but the site work is done for that. I had a neighbor give me three granite blocks that I set in for the steps behind the arch. I planned on setting all three one weekend afternoon, and realized 6 hours later that I was finally happy with the base stone. I had another 4 hours work to set the second and third steps. It's just steps and it shouldn't be that hard, but these things are huge. You are working on a steep slope with the backhoe arm extended out pulling on the tractor (careful work or you tip the tractor).
Below you see the backfill of the wall; this will filter sand out from the rock wall. Later in the project top soil will be mounded on this area. This wall curves giving us a nice sitting area that is tucked in behind the arch.
Topsoil is going in and the plants are starting to go in as well.
More plants going in as well as some trees. The wall to the right of the arch is a project that we completed two years before. The plants in this section are in their second growing season, and some of them are already getting big. You can start to see the main trail going up behind the arch, and I'm just starting to cut in a trail that branches to the left.
The fire pit is completed and the patio designed with goshen stone is going in. These are door sized stone that were spread all over the small back yard so that Philip could read how to put the stone down. Again, to read the stones properly takes an artisan.
The fire pit took about a day to set; we wanted a rustic look. It would seem simple when you see what is above the surface, but most of the stone is below the surface and the wall is really strong. I love this curved section of wall.
Getting close... the wall is done, patio is complete and the fire pit is already being used by this point in the project. You can see a dirt section in the trail above the arch. There are a couple of granite steps in here now and the cacti garden.
Trails are going in above the new wall for plant maintenance. This is all work that I have been doing to save money and to have involvement.
So, I wish I could be stating how much I love the project coming together in the end, but there is still another season to button up the project. Highest priority in 2010 is getting the grass installed and to have it meet up with the patio. The fun part will be getting the gardens planted. One of the biggest issues for Hosta collections is having enough room for new plants....I will be all set in 2010.