Concrete

Landscape Details

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Bob and his crew have nearly finished the landscape.  Everything has come together very nicely so far.  The one unfortunate item is the lack of availability of some plant materials this late in the season, so we'll have to wait until next spring for the remainder.

The StepStone pavers went in nicely, and the fine granite rock that R-Design specified for the beds blends nicely with the rest of our exterior colors and textures. 

The guys at No Hassle Fence put on a nice horizontal fence that has a very understated but subtle design to it - we just alternated 1x6 and 1x4 rough sawn cedar to give it a bit of character and stained it a solid silver gray.

Next up is the steel trellis over the back patio and the steel frame for the kid's swing, and we are done!!

Stepstone Pavers

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It felt like xmas time again last Friday - new presents arrived on a big truck!  We got beautiful pre-cast concrete pavers from Stepstone for our landscape edging.  R-Design suggested these as part of the landscape design scheme, and we are happy to have found such well crafted quality planks.  Concrete always looks so good when it’s formed in a controlled environment.  In the field it’s always kind of a crap-shoot to be honest.

This edging will go around beds and at the edge of grass areas.  We also plan to make a little hardscape area out of them for a spot for the kids to play on.

If the weather holds out, we should finally see some plant materials being installed mid-week!

Flatwork

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Benjamin’s crew has been working on site grading and building forms for the last few days, and yesterday, the colored concrete was poured for the patios and walks.  Finishing this part of the project really ties the house to the site and highlights the indoor/outdoor feel at the sliding doors.  We went with a medium warm grey for the integral color on the concrete.  The photo above shows the wet concrete.  However, after some curing for a couple days, it’s settling into a medium gray. 

For some privacy, we are doing a small garden wall at the front patio.  This will be done as a separate pour.  The city sidewalk and garage apron (sloped ramp) will be a third pour done next week.

Check out the saw cut pattern that was added a day after the pour in the photo sequence above.

Foundation is poured!

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Benjamin and his crew worked straight through this past weekend on the forms to beat the big cold front and snow storm. It was close - yesterday as they were finishing up, the flurries had started.

I was a little concerned about the cold weather and the curing process, but they have taken the precautions (they mixed in an admixture for cold weather and covered all the forms with tarps), so we shall see when the forms come off...

In commercial projects I’m used to the form system being a metal frame with wood, but for our small residential project, they built it from scratch. Each tattered piece of plywood at a time. The plywood has a really cool patina.

It’s exciting to see all of this coming together so quickly! Yesterday with the cement truck and massive boom on the pumper truck going, it really felt like we are in full speed ahead mode.

Check out the sequence from footings to foundation wall complete in the construction photos here.