A Shady Spot to Relax by the Pond

 

 

 

A few years ago, we built a pond in our backyard.  We absolutely love  the sound of the waterfall and even the occasional splash of  the huge koi as they come up for food.  We decided to add a sitting area nearby where we could sit in the shade while enjoying the sounds of the pond.

 

 

 

We started with a bit of a slope to a grassy area.  We dug that out, then dug and dug and dug until we had a level area. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to our favorite rock place in town and filled up the truck.  This load weighed about 1500 pounds.  We hand-picked the rocks, moved them to a pallet, the guy then put the pallet right in the truck, then we put them in a wheelbarrow, pulled each rock out, then placed it.  Yes, we probably lifted each rock at least four times!!  Advil was definitely our friend after this weekend.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used the round rocks to hold the dirt back above the area and the flat rocks to create a patio for the Adirondack chairs my husband made a few years ago. 

We had to make a step to get up to the pond, as the slope was too steep there.  We ended up back at the rock place for another 500 pounds of rocks!  (not just for the step)  :)

 

Because our soil is so sandy here, we were able to use what we dug out to set the stones.  Even using all that we did, we ended up taking almost 5000 pounds of dirt to the dump.  (Enter more Advil....)

 

 

 

We added a new lattice panel and several new plants--lilac, honeysuckle, daisies and coneflowers.  We are looking forward to relaxing in this new shady sitting area!

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your visit!

Pam

 

 

 

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  Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

 

New Stairs to the Mancave

We recently took carpet out of the Mancave and laid acacia hardwood. See it HERE. It turned out so nice.  The next step was redoing the stairs up to that room.  We have walnut throughout our main living, so we decided to make the new stairs out of walnut. Both woods are fairly close in looks, but we wanted to make sure that the stairs matched the main living area as closely as possible. 


 

 

 

The stairs have a landing in the middle.  My husband came up with this ingenious solution to make the landing look good from both directions.

 

 

Here's how he did it:

 

Lots of specific cuts.

 

Filler was applied to all of the wood so it would fill in any cracks (haha--hence the name FILLER!)  :)  But also to keep the stain consistent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the before.  Not bad carpet, but we didn't want to have wood on both floors, then carpet in the middle...



Pieces of walnut glued up.

 



 

Filler applied to everything.

 

 

 

 

All of the carpet, staples, pad, etc removed.

 



 

All of the bullnose had to be cut off of the old stair treads.  It was SO messy in our entire house!! 

 

 

 

My husband made up this jig so that all of the angles would be cut perfectly.

 

 

 

 

The first step was the hardest as it had the edges sticking out.  It had to be perfect!

 

All of the stair treads and risers were put on.  Liquid Nails was used to hold the stairs down.  The weights stayed on overnight to adhere the glue to the bases.

 

 

 

The edges were put on the bottom stair and finished it off nicely.

This project took about four weekends.  It is so nice to have the stairs done and have the house clean again!

 

Thank you for your visit.

 

Pam

 

 

 

 

 

I am linking to the following parties:

 

 

 



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  Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life