Retaining Wall

As the house remodel is slowly winding down to its conclusion (really?) the landscaping is slowly taking shape. I’ve been wanting to clean up the backyard by adding a retaining wall. This required some outside help. Maybe in my younger days I could have tackled a project like this, but not anymore. Erika found a great contractor to do the job at a bargain price. In two days, the project was completed. I’m not sure if we’ll keep the concrete look or modify it later…we’ll see. Anyway here are some pictures of what was done.

The contractor arrived a day earlier to drop off the building materials (mortar, block, and concrete). 

The next day, the trucks arrived with sand and some machinery. The backhoe fit perfectly through our gate which was a big relief. They setup the laser level and began excavating where the wall would go. 

After they finished digging and leveling they mixed and poured the concrete foundation for the wall. 

Next, they placed the first course of blocks and installed the rebar reinforcement. 

From there, they continued adding more blocks until it was done. The job was made more difficult because of our plants getting in the way. Somehow they managed to get around all of the obstacles without causing too much damage.

 We were so impressed with their work that we saved a few more projects for them. Stay tuned…

Making the most of a rainy day

After experiencing five beautiful days of vacation (Golden Week), it rained. Not a problem. I have been procrastinating with the upstairs remodel using the excuse that the weather has been too nice to work inside. Well, it was finally time to do some tiling. Erika and I tiled the bathroom floor. Nothing fancy, just enough to match the other bathrooms. The walls will be tiled after I cut the tiles for one of the guest bedrooms. The reason for the delay is that I’m not 100% sure that I have enough tile to do both rooms. I also need to build a cabinet for a sink in the bathroom. The weather forecast for the rest of our vacation is cool and clear. Time to procrastinate again. 

A couple of weeks ago I did manage to finish installing plywood flooring in the bathroom, hallway, and one of the guest bedrooms. This was done to add stability to the original flooring so the tile wouldn't crack. The original wood flooring started "cupping" creating an uneven floor. This was probably caused by the original owner accidently leaving the window open during a few rainstorms (the house was empty for months at a time) and allowing the floor to get soaked. I found evidence of this when I took up some flooring to find the cause. This house was abused and neglected for many years. It took a lot of TLC just to get it to its current condition. It makes me sick to think about how an irresponsible homeowner could turn a beautiful log home into a rotting mess. 

The bathroom tiling was finished by noon. Now what? Baking a pie and some cookies sounded like a good idea. It was time to bake a pecan pie with real pecans. Yummy. We love pecan pie and have been craving it for some time. I also tried a new recipe for oatmeal cookies. The raisins were soaked in rum. These cookies are fantastic!!! They are moist and chewy. The rum gives the cookies an extra kick. I’ll have to make these again in the near future. 

Ah, the secret ingredient. 

Pecan pie...a wonderful thing.