March 2009

Casie's birthday is this week and she's wanted a garden for some time… and now's a good time to start planting. We've planned a decent spot in the side yard, but the plan called for the construction of a retaining wall… which also meant clearing a lot of dirt, etc… but Monday (and a lack of fence boards) found me starting (and nearly finishing) the wall… materials off the truck by 11am and the last screw drilled at 6pm…

The wall is made of three stacked redwood posts (4X4), so it's about 12in tall (9, once we get pavers/gravel in), but it helps to level out the otherwise uneven yard and created a nice barrier. The first course of posts is anchored into the ground with several 1/2in rebar supports (drilled and pounded… I used 2 foot  pieces, so they go a good 20in into the ground. The second course is bolted to the first with 1/4inX6in galvanized bolts and the top course is toe-screwed from the inside to the course below it… all in all creating a fastener-less-looking wall with some visual heft. I backfilled with a bit of left-over fence post mix (and instaled on a bit of paver-base), so hopefully it'll be stable. We also had lots of dirt left over from the front walkway dig-out (post to come), so we have some good backfill for the non-garden area.

This weekend will be plumbing for a drip irrigation system… and hopefully by Sunday (her bday), she'll be planting tomatoes.

Edit: Jeremy asked for more specific information… here goes.

The fence project is about 24 boards from being finished on all four sides… unfortunately, I'm out of stock and Home Depot has gotten in some super-crappy lumber the past few loads (I've been to 3 stores… oddly, all within a 15mile radius) and I'm presently unwilling to pay Dolan's lots more for only moderately better stock ($5 vs. $8). But here are some images…

I can also share a few experiences:

• A pneumatic nail gun is amazing: I used galvanized nails for the rails (toe-nailing) and face nailing in this stretch of the fence (as opposed to brackets and screws on the first). Installation went 5X as fast.
• Cutting all of the posts to the same height (thanks to the mason line and line-level) and then installing the top-rail on top on these (and face nailing into the post — creating almost a bridge-like look) is much easier, cleaner looking and potentially much more stable (than using brackets installed lower on the post). Then installing the bottom rail in the opposite direction makes for (1) a good place to face nail the kickplate and bottom of the fence boards but (2) makes for a more stable fence.
• Installation of kickplates (base boards) is initially a pain, but it
  keeps the neighbor's terrier, Peaches, out of our yard and makes
  installation easier, too… just set planks on top of the plate and
  nail.
• Rental of a 2-man auger — although expensive — was a real time and back saver for re-digging the post-holes.
• Hiring out a bit of the manual labor for the tear out is a good way to spend a few hundred dollars and not herniate a(nother) disc.
• On one side — to save the neighbor's pretty flowering crabapple tree, we jogged the fence half-way down the line, likely giving up about 3in of yard, but saving the trunk of the tree (and the sightline of the fence)… oh well.
• Zinc-based wood treatment smells funny… so it better work to help preserve the base of the posts and cut ends of the pressure-treated lumber.

After last weekend's gate-a-palooza, I thought it might be nice to finish off the fence project. On Friday morning I called Labor Ready and booked Chris and one other guy for the day. Chris was here before and did great work.

The team — Chris and Anthony — showed up a bit past 9AM and by 11am, the fence was down and loaded into the truck for a dump-run ($60 at Contra-Costa-Waste) — their progress was amazing. By lunchtime (1pm), all of the post-holes were dug. by 3pm, the posts were set, concrete was hardening and the team was on their way to enjoy their respective Saturday nights…

Sunday morning, I was ready to make a lumber run… I first stopped at Dolan's in Concord which is where I prefer to buy my lumber. Knowing their price was 20% higher than Home Depot, I asked: "If i buy a few hundred boards, can I get a bit of a price break?" While I wasn't expecting them to match Home Depot's price, 10% off would have kept me there.

The response: "Nope, that's what they sell for"… One of the reasons I like Dolan's is that they load your materials… so I weighed the idea of spending several hundred dollars for this service. In the end, frugality won out and I headed to Big-Orange where I not only saved money, but got better lumber (really) and even got someone to help load the cart and load the truck. When I got home, I sent Dolan's a quick note entitled: "Why I didn't spend $1000 at your shop today". While I'll surely be back there eventually, I might be tempted to stop at Home Depot first now.

By Sunday afternoon, the fence was finished…

Anyhow, below are some pictures of the progress and end result.

So… we're getting some drywall cracking over the doors… any ideas?

Thanks to the help of neighbors and friends, Bret and Kyle, we have a new fence.

The right side of the house now has a double gate which allows for greater access and the left side will have a single gate — which is also the side the garden will be on which will make hauling stuff in a bit easier. Gate hardware comes from Adjust-a-gate, available at Lowes.

The lack of visible hardware was sort of a happy-accident. Plus, we also replaced part of the neighbor's fence which made the gate post more sturdy and extended the visual line of the fence a bit further, which is nice…

We had a few mulberry trees planted far too close to the house. The operative word being "had" thanks to Lloyd's Tree Service. They also gave the Eucalyptus a much-needed haircut — unfortunately, it had been topped in the past, so the shape will be a bit odd for a while.

We've had a few troubles with the pipes in the slab recently. A few months ago, Anderson came out to repair a radiant heat leak with great success… Most recently, a cold-water potable leak was causing super-high water bills…

We found the source of the leak with the help of American Leak Detection. Afterward, we called All-Pipe Restoration (Ace DuraFlow) to fix the leak using their epoxy-coating system.

This process saves jack-hammering up the floor — which in our case would have been tough as the lines were quite thick in that area — heat, water, etc… all converging in one spot. The process also protects the entire branch, not just the one spot that was leaking, so it might be good down the road.

Essentially, they break open the lines, blast them clean, flood them with epoxy and let that harden inside the pipe, forming a PVC-like lining inside the pipe. After treatment, you can't solder the pipe anymore and if you do the whole house, you have to take off the supply valves, but in our case, we just fixed one main supply line from one manifold to the next — a pretty easy run. The flow is also as good (or better — since the line is now clean and smooth).

So far, so good… so, if you've a problem, give Sergey a call (pictured below with… Sergey (#2)).