Landscaping part 3

   Here's the update to the landscaping that I promised.  It's timely since we've actually started "phase 1" of the landscaping plan.

  If you'll recall from the previous landscaping post, we had to submit revisions due to the wetlands setback.  Here are the final city/county accepted revisions for the front and back yard.

    The front yard had the retaining walls on the right side of the driveway reduced in size due to the setbacks.  We're basically following as close as we can to the setbacks as possible in order to have enough room to turn around from any garage door opening.  As I stated before, Great Oaks actually marked out the driveway in their parking lot and made the turn from all spaces with a large pickup and a mid-sized car.  You can't tell me that's not awesome.  If you look closely, you'll see that the area in front of the front door steps forms a circle.  The area of the driveway here will actually be covered with a circular concrete paver stone pattern.  Great Oaks gave us three options with three cost points.

   The first option was a small paver circle in the middle of the asphalt driveway.  We felt that it implies something nice, but the negative cost differential wasn't nice enough to consider.

    The second option was a large circle border with the small circle inlay.  It used asphalt to fill the field between the outer border and inner circle.  While this got closer to the full circle implementation, again we felt the negative cost differential from the full implementation wasn't worth the savings.  It could always be the case where, years down the road, we could tear out the asphalt field and fill it with the random paver pattern,  but by then, we would be established in the house and couldn't park in the garage (or charge vehicles) for the duration of the driveway renovation.  Plus, there would be added cost of demolition and removal, possible grading and repair of the existing paver, the curb would probably have to be remade.  It seems like it would ultimately cost more, so if we decided that we could probably squeeze a little more blood from our stone to implement the full design now.  Okay, a lot more blood.

   Here's the design we went with.  The color of the paver is undecided, but it will probably be a blue or gray mix to match the bluestone of the front steps and concrete wall top.  The rest of the driveway leading up to the street will be asphalt since concrete would have been really cost prohibitive.  Since we won't want the final top coat on until all the heavy machinery is done, we'll probably delineate a line at the flare and finish past it, which includes the paverstone circle.  When the last large truck is gone, we'll finish off the rest of the driveway with a new topcoat, having only one seam.

   We don't entertain too often, but we feel that the driveway area near the house (they called it a motor coach) in combination with the two spaces closer to the street, will offer enough space for guests to park.  I figure we could probably squeeze five cars near the house and still have enough room to turn around.

   The only deviation from this plan was a cost saving measure.  We're replacing the caramel mint stone wall on the right of the driveway with a boulder stone wall.  The cost is about half and since it's on the backside of a decline, it won't be really visible.

   One of my favorite features is the little catwalk/deck that wraps around the side of the garage.

   The elevation change here is pretty drastic and this was the best way to have access around this side of the house.  The large tree listed near the deck is a huge white pine; probably the largest on the lot.  It might not seem significant, but the window from the garage looks right out at this tree, with views of the south shore of the peninsula behind it.  The little deck will be just large enough for a couple chairs and a small table, making it the perfect place to site in the morning (southern sun exposure) and enjoy nature.  The deck sits about 9 feet up from the grade here, so it gives the feeling of being in a tree house.  We've thought about putting a tree house in this tree, but it would have to be done so it doesn't harm the tree in any way.  If that thing fell, it could take out our whole garage roof.  Not sure it could damage the ICF.

   Here's the final revision for the rear of the house.  Again, we had to pull in the boarders a bit, reconfigure the retaining walls on the left of the yard and move the pool to the right, to avoid the wetlands setbacks.

  The pool fence is required by state code, and has been a huge pain in the ass.  The whole reason we purchased a property with tons of trees is to be surrounded by nature.  To put a fence up to cage in the pool and bisect the yard would be a crime against aesthetics.  Maybe in any other neighborhood, this fence design would have been okay, but not this neighborhood.  Specifically not with this HOA.  I could write volumes on the lack of logic operating here, but suffice to say, the HOA is attempting to create rules where no deed restrictions exist.  In fact, the lack of a deed restriction defines the rule, but it's just the opinion of five people that the fence encloses "too much" of the back yard.  Not to mention that the portion of the back yard it encloses is a fraction of the entire property.  Also there are at least two other houses that have their entire back yard enclosed in a fence to surround a pool and concrete deck area.  Enough of this for now.  Maybe I'll calm down enough one day to write about it.

   Not a ton of work has been done since my last visit, but I guess that's to be expected considering the holiday season.  It didn't stop the landscaping crew from working.  I guess work will pick up more after they lay some crushed concrete and AA stone on the driveway.  It has been getting rutted out and muddy due to all the landscaping trucks.  Matt had some concern about driving back there, so in the stone goes.  I'm okay with it.  I talked to the Bob Porter, the general manager for our landscape implementation from Great Oaks.  He visited the site when I was there, to check on the progress of the concrete retaining wall.  I expressed my concern with laying down stone for the temporary driveway, only to have it torn up for the driveway installation.  He said that the crushed concrete base was DOT approved now so there would be no need to remove it for the final driveway.

    Almost all the temporary supports for the second floor have been removed and clean up has begun.  I got a nice new battery powered leaf blower for Christmas so it was the perfect opportunity to blow out the leaves and dirt that accumulated in the house. If you're in the market for one, I highly recommend it.  It's almost as powerful as a backpack gas blower, but uses a brushless motor and has tons of battery power.  Blowing out the first floor and basement didn't drop the battery more than 25%.

  Here's the dining room and mudroom, with the rotunda to the left.

   Here's a shot, standing in the kitchen looking at the greatroom.  We'll need to get these interior walls up as soon as possible since kitchen cabinet prices will be increasing in the spring.

   Here's a shot standing in the kitchen corner of the house looking across at the rotunda and guest room.  Can't wait to be buttoned up.  I didn't get a chance to go up on the second floor, but it's just as well.  Earlier in the week, a freezing rain storm came through and iced all the concrete that was exposed to sky.  The greatroom, rotunda, and second floor are basically a sheet of ice.  Not sure if the temperature will rise enough to melt it or if they'll have to remove it some other way.

   The monster dumpster is now full and there's still a good pile to remove.  They'll have to get another dumpster, but I'm not sure if they're going to wait until they have enough to fill it or if they'll get a smaller one.  I'm also not sure if the rental is by the load or by the duration.  In any case, it's nice to see some job site clean up.

   My saved logs are still there.  They'll be fine over the winter since there really isn't to much rot that takes place in the cold.  You can see one of maybe 5 cement trucks that came in today to pour the foundation of the concrete retaining wall.  There's quite a bit of engineering involved with the wall and you can see the piles of dirt that was excavated for the footing.  Nice to know that my house is sitting in sand.  I won't have to worry about drainage.

   Here's the engineering plan for the poured concrete wall.  You can see that there's only 12" of fill to be replaced over the footing.  I'm not sure why there would be a difference from regular house construction footings, that require either a frost free design, or have the footings below the frost line under ground, but you can see there's quite a bit of engineering involved with this simple wall.  Ultimately, it will be faced with the same granite cobble that we're putting on the outside of our house, so it will hopefully merge well with the boulder stone retaining wall that will be installed next to it.

   Here's a shot of the footing mid pour.  I think this is probably the third truck they brought in.  With all the tree removal and landscaping trucks that have been going in and out of the property, there are sections of the driveway that are pretty rutted out.  We'll be grading andlaying down some crushed concrete and AA stone to solidify the driveway for the winter time.  I spoke with Great Oaks Bob Porter about this and he ensured that the material that we lay down now will not need to be removed when we install the final driveway. 

   Here's the footing near the end of  the pour.  They've already begun to set the vertical rebar that will be inside the wall.  There's a little bit of a rise as it approaches the garage because they didn't want to risk underpinning the garage footings.  At this point, they'll probably need one more cement truck to finish off the footing.

   Here's another shot of the footing at the same stage, from the garage door.  It looks like there will be enough room to back out while turning and complete a 2-point turn to drive out.  I can see the importance of the asphalt curb along the driveway near this wall.  There will also be a safety railing at the top of the wall.  Not that it will stop a car from driving off, but should at least act as a visual barrier.

   Here's the sand that was excavated for the footing, piled up near the front of the house.  All this will be going back to either covering the footing, backfilling the wall, or raising the height of the driveway grade in the motor coach.  It's currently about a foot lower than final grade, so we'll probably need to use the swimming pool spoil and add some extra to reach final grade.  I guess we can also count on the driveway foundation to add some height.

   A shot of the future motor coach and where the concrete retaining wall is being constructed.  When the retaining walls are finally in place, it will add a good amount of space in front of the house.  The concrete wall will be topped with the same bluestone we'll be using of the front steps, and other places around the house.  The finishings won't be applied until most of the primary construction is completed on the house.

   One thing that needs to be addressed with the laying of the stone for the temporary driveway is how it will be affected when we finally trench for sewer and water. It might be the case where they only lay stone in the areas that need it, so those sections are sacrificial when we need to lay water and sewer.  The other way it could be handled is that the layers can be scraped away and replaced after the trenching takes place.  

   Wall construction should take place this week, so this weekend I should have some nice updates to this area.  I have a meeting with the HOA tomorrow night to talk about landscaping plan elements that they don't like.  I hope to resolve every issue and finally get them out of our life.