April 2009

We've salvaged some sliding doors (sliding panels only — all sizes) from a house under renovation and will be stripping them (handles, actuators, rollers, etc)… and will be warehousing the parts in our garage for posterity.

Unfortunately, the entirety of the doors will have to go soon (frames, glass). The doors themselves are presently intact, so if you need a whole sliding panel, please let me know ASAP. They've been painted white, but can be restored easily.

After this weekend, the doors will be gone, but we'll have all of the parts we were able to salvage… so if you ever need anything, drop me a line.

(Thanks to Erina and Alan for the donation of the doors and parts)…

With the help of neighbors and friends, Ryan and Bret, we were able to get the pavers placed today. Tomorrow, I'll place the landscape lighting and finish off filling around the pavers with pea-gravel, but getting these in-place made a huge difference to the front of the house.

Special thanks to Tony at Bertotti Landscaping for the supply of the pavers.

This month's been particularly busy yet not well documented — hard to hold a camera when your hands are wet and covered in dirt (yes, we were outside). But the lack of news does not indicate a lack of progress… we're in the midst of the following:

• A low-retaining wall along the side garden
• A higher "sitting" wall a bit further down… this will eventually be faced in Eichler siding (it's constructed of 3 stacked 6X6s) with a bench-top.
• A decomposed granite pathway… two yards down, one more to go. (fyi: Tamping by hand is a pain in the ass.).
• Installation of a 4-zone irrigation system run by simple hose-timers… we don't need much water, but when we do need it, we often forget about it, so best to make it semi-automated. We ordered (and have so far been impressed with) a few items by Claber (ordered from Amazon): a hose reel, timers, and other irrigation bits… we like the orange color. Still need to work on filters and pressure regulators. (The image below also shows our wall-mounted AC/heater unit from LG)
• Planting of Casie's garden: tomatoes, squash, herbs, lettuces… can't wait 'til july. Getting good soil in there was more problematic than necessary. Lesson learned: when you need lots of stuff, buy by the truckload, not by the bag.
• Planting of natives along the side garden. Manzanitas (shrub and groundcover), pacific myrtle, ceanothus, juniper and sedums join the existing dogwood, maple, fig and guava trees.
• Demarcation of some planting/lawn areas in the front and back… sticking with the original redwood separators
• Installation of landscape lighting along the side garden. The pepper tree looks cool when up-lit.

Still to come…

• Sod… looking to create two small "lawns" in the front and the back. As much as we'd like to xeriscape, imho, it looks a bit desolate and unkempt. We'll likely install a low-water turf-grass and have that be the *only* thirsty plant in the yard (and a small patch of it at that). We haven't had terribly good luck with sod in the past… hoping for the best here (planning on calling the "sod shop" in Martinez… shying away from the rotting bales of sod at big-orange.)
• Stepping stones: Thanks to Tony at Bertotti Landscaping, we'll be installing these 24X24 concrete pavers throughout the yard — here in a 2X2 pattern accented by landscape lighting.

A special plug: Looking for California natives was tough until I found Buckeye Nursery in Petaluma — a joint also run by Tony Bertotti (see above) of Bertotti landscaping… lots of manzanitas, ceonothus, etc… much better than the catch-as-catch-can finds at local nurseries and the big-box stores. Check them out.