The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165433 Message #4006192
Posted By: Charmion
28-Aug-19 - 09:43 AM
Thread Name: De-clutter & Fitness: House, job, life 2019 - 2020
Subject: RE: De-clutter & Fitness: House, job, life - 2019
The new patio is finished and we are thrilled. It's both a technical win, achieving good drainage, and a major aesthetic improvement.
The last phase, adding a border of ledge rock at the point where the patio meets the new garden bed, added an extra thousand bucks to the project but was critical to correct an unexpected drainage issue. Unknown to us until the deck was removed and the patio laid, the bit of land that became the new garden bed has a distinct upward slope, caused by the roots of the very large silver maple growing on the property line and the still disintegrating wreckage of a tree that was probably removed to put in the deck. So the topsoil in the garden bed washed out with every rain, and the edge of the patio required daily sweeping. Thanks to money, we'll have no more of that.
It absolutely bucketed down yesterday, and I watched with a critical eye as the rainwater streamed gently away from the house and off the patio, leaving it high and, eventually, dry.
The new front path meets the driveway at the point where everybody used to cut across the grass. It is to be hoped that people will not, therefore, choose to veer off the driveway just a little farther out, out of natural cussedness.
Our savings being now completely drained, capital spending must cease for a while. Fortunately, I have a new book contract starting at the end of September -- army operations in Afghanistan again -- so we can replace our antique and ecologically hostile air-conditioner before the snow flies.