Landscape views

The grass is complete, as the lawn crew came back at 6 AM today to finish up. Here’s view from the southwest that shows the garage bed and chanticleer pears. The tan carpetlike material is called curlex and will handle downspot runoff so the water doesn’t erode the seed. Curlex is located around the house and especially in the swale at the rear.

Here’s a view from the east with its bed of plantings. This will offer a great morning view from the 4 large casement windows in the loft.

The south view shows today’s seeding. The grass area along the bottom of this shot is part of the required right-of-way that goes out to the road.

Grass seeding

With the landscaping complete, it’s time to start growing grass. The seeding crew started by doing the final grading to smooth out the topsoil and remove rocks. Hand raking was done along the edges of the mulch beds and walkways.

We used the hydroseeding approach. A huge tank mixes together grass seeds, fertilizer, tackifier, mulch, and water. The mix is sprayed on the areas to be seeded. The tackifer is glue-like and helps the mix stick together and to the ground. No hay spraying is needed.

The final result is a greenish surface that almost looks like grass. Grass should start showing in 5 days. Lots of watering to do, and the need for a riding mower within the next month.

Landscaping Day 3 and Driveway

We are 99% done with our landscaping, having only 1 shrub, a few fence rails, and flagstones for the patio area to finish tomorrow. Here is a view of our east bed that highlights 5 gorgeous Cryptomeria Yoshino shrubs along its back, the royal birch, and 1 of the 2 October Glory maple just off the front of the screened porch.

Here’s a view along the south end of the property. In the center is a bed with 5 green giant arborvitae, dwarf forsythia and “tea” viburnums. The bed on the right corner is matched by the one on the left rear corner, and includes burning bush and “sparkleberry” holly. The bed in the foreground covers our well pipe and includes boxwoods, roses, and grasses. You also see 2 sugar maples on the right.

The driveway crew arrived this afternoon and laid the driveway. Now complete, you see it and the beds along the front and side of the house. The beds include hostas, hydrangea, boxwoods, holly, cypress, and several grasses.

Landscaping Day 1

We are coming down to the last 2-3 weeks before occupancy. Today, our landscaping contractor began. We decided to do a complete landscape job, having a wonderful design planned for us. The east side of the property has a large bed along the mid-border that will include various shrubs and a “Royal Frost” white birch.

The west side of the house will also include a variety of different shrubs and 3 Chanticleer flowering pear trees. A number of beds will also include split rail fencing. The rear of the property will start to take shape tomorrow.

While all the plantings were going on, we had a specialty man in to install all our closet shelving and hanging rods, as well as bathroom towel bars, shower doors and other bathroom accessories.

Driveway prep

With the rough grading done, here’s a view from the rear of our property along the road that borders the backyard. This gives an idea of the terrain, and part of our new neighborhood.

The driveway is now prepped for paving next week. The grading defined the edges, and today 2 loads of rock were spread to the street leaving room for 2” blacktop. The concrete sideway at the front of the driveway and the apron to the road will be done tomorrow.

Rough grading

The end is in sight as the rough grading process began today. The first point of attack was at the rear to reduce the height of the berme, and leaving the swale the required depth for rain water runoff. The hump of dirt in the back yard will be reduced and distributed around the house.

The front of the house has a few shallow trenches needed. One carries the wiring from the house out to the post light at the front corner of the driveway. The other is needed along the front of the stamped walkway for water runoff from the downspouts.

Taa-daa! By the end of the day the hump is gone; the dirt is graded to all sides of the house, and the driveway is defined for more stone and paving. The back has a gentle slope to the swale. The front sidewalk is prepped for concrete and completion. The rough grading is done.

Countertop and more Trim

We have been excitedly awaiting the delivery of our kitchen countertop. We were fortunate that there were no seams needed to achieve the piece to the left of the gas range, and the piece to the right over the sink and dishwasher. The backsplash is being caulked with a clear finish. This one piece is about 560 pounds; quartz weighs 20 pounds per square foot.

The oak mantel is stained and installed on the left side of our living room area. The granite surround and hearth (which is very dusty) is a dark green product named Ubatuba.

More of the second floor doors and trim are now installed. The oak, bull-nose edging around the top edge of the loft and balcony is finished.