Projects at our house seem to go very slowly. I'm not sure what takes us so long, but it is always thus. Our big deal at the moment is the wall out front that will form the basis for our new patio. It is an integral part of the house design and was supposed to have been built first, but when that didn't happen it got moved to last place. We have been looking out the dining room windows at our septic tank for three years now, so the time finally came to move ahead. The first thing was to remove the fir tree at the corner of the house, which happened this spring. Then huge, wide footings were placed and poured, requiring the cement truck and the pumper truck to find their ways together down our steep driveway. After that the wall forms were built. I of course would have preferred a beautifully fitted rock wall, but the cost was over the moon, so concrete was the next choice. I was worried that such a tall concrete wall would be harsh and prison-like so we had cedar planks rough sawn and placed vertically inside the forms to give form and texture to the wall face and mirror the vertical siding on the house.
The big trucks made a return appearance and the wall was poured.
Then the forms were stripped off and I could see what had been wrought. I was pretty pleased over all. The texture of the wood transferred well to the concrete and the oil used on the raw cedar imparted a pale fawn color that blends more softly with the house and the woods than raw concrete.
Now we had a huge hole to fill.
Many successive dump truck loads of rock chips were piled in the driveway and two machines, big and little, were employed to move it all into place. The rock dust got into everything.
At this point we can walk out onto our patio, but an edge cap, finer fill, sand and pavers are still to come. Also a railing, because it is quite a drop. Maybe in another three years we will be done.