Stan and Katie:
Finally got around to checking out the Rolfsrud blog, and saw your postings on my project.
Very nicely done! With old photos...then the new "teasers."
One correction: David tells me the Japanese Maple is 75 years old! Not 30, as I previously wrote. He's begun building a custom box for it...with a curved concrete facing, and then chunks of the buckskin flagstone glued on to that. Or some such. Again, I trust him, even though I often don't know what he's doing or what he's talking about.
Work has slowed to a crawl, as we near the finish line. I think David has three other projects going on at the same time now, and sometimes he doesn't show until mid-day...as the alien crew uselessly rakes dirt, pretending to work, taking half-hour pee breaks and hour lunches -- on my dime -- $$ -- waiting for "el hefe" to post --
BUT:
My mantra on this project (unlike the guest house project) is:
SURRENDER.
Go with the flow. Let it be. Etc, etc.
Haven't lost my cool once...nary a word of dismay or anger at mis-management of time, bad prioritization, and such.
I'm just letting it happen.
Easier that way...and as one gets older...what the hell...why invite angst?...
...back to the important stuff:
At the tail end of Gracia's visit, I gave the crew a few days off so she could have some peace and quiet. Besides that, she was working too hard and too much, even though she LOVES gardening.
The uprooted camellia is still a problem; we don't know where to put it...and it's not happy in its box.
I thought for sure when I sent the "teaser" photos that one or both Rolfsruds would say: "Randy, the boxes around the posts are too big!" (See photo)
Anyway, that was one of the "emendations" I made. David re-did them, more to scale. I think they're the right size now. Last week, David went into iron worker/welder mode...sparks flying...as he did the iron detailing on those boxes. He also insists on re-staining the pergola a darker brown. I'm not sure why, but again, surrender.
The flower bed, near and under the carport, is basically done...using railroad ties, and a truckload of new dirt driven in from Calabasas...this new flower bed features a "desert pod" of huge agave plants that David brought over and planted...today he told me he got the agaves cheap off Craig's List! Huh? The guy's an amazing scavenger, to keep costs down.
Now he wants to build the water feature himself. Gracia and Nicole had picked a water feature off the Internet, after much surfing and searching...but Dave says, "no." He wants to pilfer a medium-sized boulder off the side of some road in Malibu, so we don't have to pay for one, and drill a hole in the rock, and go from there. It'll be a "rock fountain", custom-built, so we won't have to spring for the pricey pre-made water features found on the Net.
More nooz:
Alphonso ("Al") got fired last week for breaking too many irrigation pipes. He showed up yesterday, seeking money. David told him to take a hike...telling me, "the guy slowed me down by days because he broke so much stuff." With day laborers, you get what you pay for, I guess. Poor Al. Banished back to the parking lot of the Home Depot in Glendale. (Truth be told, he was a little thick.)
However...
Jose ("Joe") remains on duty; but was laid off for one day, as punishment for sloppy staining and rough-housing too many transplanted plants, killing them. Aaargh and uff da.
But we remain a merry crew...with me adding my cheap (free) labor to the project now, to keep the train moving down the track. Big drawback: my knee really starts barking at the end of the day, so I gotta watch it. Too much stooping and lifting really sets it off.
Back to the drawing board on that one. I didn't plan on doing the front till much later...the Hamres kinda jumped the gun on that one; I think they want to move in.
Today I told David what I really want to do next is continue working on the "Walk of Shame" (his phrase for the stroll out my kitchen, up the ugly concrete driveway to the guest house). I call that Phase I-A...and will tackle that long before I go to the front.
Meanwhile, Karri Turner (actress/poker player), Gracia, and Kristie keep bugging me about the kitchen remodel.
Next year, girls! God willing and if the creek don't rise.
Anywho, the irrigation system's finished and on auto-pilot now, all the flower beds are done and planted with beautiful stuff, the hole has been dug for the water feature, and prep work begun on the box for the Japanese Maple. Oh, and a larger size of the "Harry Potter" sconces on the guest house were ordered and installed outside the French doors to my bedroom, underneath the "ledger board." Nice. More lighting to be done by Dave..."up" lighting in the pergola...and some more lights to feature the trees near the back wall, I guess. Hoo Nose!?
A week ago, Karri came over to inspect the progress of the project (remember, it's her "handyman"...she's known him since 1990; holding out on me!). Well, of course, Karri had some things she thought should be done. Uh, lotta cooks in the kitchen, girls! I'll mention one addition/emendation of Karri's that I might authorize: a wood frame around the iron French doors outside my bedroom. (David's also going to do something to make those black iron doors more fetching to the eye, but I didn't understand exactly what.)
More:
The wisteria near the footing post/boxes are growing like Topsy, and should top the pergola by mid-summer.
Finally, feng shui (sp.?) issues:
One afternoon, Gracia spent a couple hours arranging and re-arranging the patio furniture in the pergola...trying to get it "right." Over and over again she did this. Gracia finally got what she thought was the right arrangement...and flew home the next day.
The following day, Nicole arrives, toddlers in tow of course, and immediately announces she doesn't like the arrangement of the patio furniture. Wants it back the way SHE had it.
Ha!
I find all this amusing.
That's about it for updates...except that we still have the trim painting to do on the guest house and carriage doors (a lot of peeling over the years)...and then on to what David sez is the final step in Phase I: Cutting out the ugly St. Augustine grass, poisoning the roots of the St. Augustine...then re-sodding with "Marathon" grass...followed by ten days of "Don't Walk on the Grass!"
Thanks for your interest...it's all for you and other guests...
-- R
