One Down

Last weekend I was up in New Jersey (the nice part) and didn't get much done. Got back early Sunday, and got some digging in, but didn't make any huge strides. I DID take some pictures of my progress, but unfortunately, I took them with my cell phone (camera was mia). Unfortunate because I couldn't get pictures off of my phone, a samsung omnia which is....less than ideal.


Anyway. This Friday my shipment arrived from the quarry:

• 1 Cube 1-1/2 Normal Colonial Cobble oyster color ($316)
• 1 Cube Normal Colonial Cobble oyster color ($295)
• 3 Cubes Tuscany Wall adobe color ($705)
• 5 Super Sacks CR6 ($333)
• 1 Super Sack sand ($69)
• 1 Super Sack Gravel 3/4" blue ($66)
• Delivery first 2 pallets ($95)
• Delivery Each additional ($20 x 10 = $200)

For a grand total of $2189 after tax.



What does all this look like??

Each "Super Sack" has about 1 1/2 tons in it (that's ...3000 pounds) or something like a buzillion kilograms.




I took a bunch of pictures of the delivery (a truck with a boom that could extend up my driveway)...but alas...I took them with my aforementioned cell phone.





I dug more on Saturday and leveled. I bought a lot of supplies (mostly from Home Depot).

• 10 drain pipes (for behind wall and along driveway ($52)
• Two 1" pvc pipes to screed the sand ($5)
• One 3lb rubber hammer ($30)...could have saved $15 on a one-pounder, but the directions said 3 lb, so I bit the bullet.
• One mason chisel (gonna try it before a saw) ($10)
• 48" level ($16)
• 3/4 drill bit (used to drill a hole in the foundation for to wire an outlet outside (one day) ($12)
• Kneepads - I FINALLY broke down and dropped coin on some kneepads ($17)
• Landscape Fabric ($45)
• Edging - to hold the pavers in place near the front of the house ($17)
• Edging stakes ($8)
• 8 drain couplings - I may return some of these ($14)
• 3 drain elbows ($15)
• 2x4 stud - for screeding sand ($3)

For a grand total of $266

I also rented a tamper ($69) for Sunday (and almost rented a saw for the pavers - file that one into the "wishful thinking" category).

Sunday morning, the area looked like this. I turns out that I had the wrong dimension in my head for the wall blocks, so I needed to widen the channel for them.





I decided to have one tier in my wall. I also (finally) solved the drainage puzzle. The french drain running down the right side of the walkway is a solid drain surrounded in river stone and wrapped in weed cloth. The back and front downspouts feed the drain. I think the stone is to help drain the back yard.

Thankfully, I ended up leaving the french drain alone (mostly). The weed cloth needed some repairs. There was a drain in the back (inside the cloth) that went down into the pipe. I assume this was to drain water from the surrounding soil. The pipe coming up needed to be shortened. I removed the cap, sawed off a few inches and replaced it with a new one. It worked surprisingly well.

I reworked the drainage along the driveway (which I'm still not quite sure what it's for). But I've seen water come out. It's only a 1 1/2" PVC tube, so I put in an elbow joint and routed it down a 4 inch drain tube.

Everything took longer than expected of course. Here are some pics from Sunday:





Yes, I somehow ended up with child duty on my big work weekend, so, I had a "helper."

I have officially forfeited my standing for "Father of the Year." I'm sure there's some way to put this off on my wife...wait she abandoned me to go out with her sister. (of course, there's more to that story, but that's the one I'm sticking with)

Finally, Sunday evening. I've made a dent. My drainage problems solved. Measuring done. I finally got to moving rock INTO the area.

To do this, Plan A was simple:

1) Step from the dirt into the Super Sack
2) Shovel the CR6 into the wheelbarrow

There were a few challenges. First, I hit a lot of rocks (har, CR6 is crushed rock". Also, this material is meant to get pretty firm when it's compressed with a tamper (so the deeper I dug, the tougher it got). Finally, standing and shovelling in a confined area isn't easy. If you've ever stood on a shovel and lost your balance, well, doing that in the bag has some consequences (about 5 foot drop). Yes, I did that once, but thankfully, my incredible dexterity allowed me to fall into one of the other bags...smooth.

Unfortunately, all of that didn't get down until is was too late to fire up the tamper. So, $69 down the drain.

HOWEVER, after then day was done, this is what the area looked like:

I'm ready to compress the top and start putting down the wall. I wanted to tamp down the wall aggregate before laying the landscape cloth on that side.

Most importantly. This is what the "Super Sack" looked like:



Not so "Super" now!

one down...