Building a Backyard Landscaping Retaining Wall, and Our Lanai Extension

2017

When we bought our house in 2006 we had this very simple unfinished backyard with little to no landscaping. It looked very basic and almost a blank canvas for us. We then decided to make the landscaping look more professional. So we decided to replace the simple blocks that were there with a two tiered block and capstone retaining wall.

We first had to rip out the blocks that were there then had to decide the line we wanted to use for the new retaining wall.

Here Gordon brought back a load of blocks that we will use for the retaining wall.

We liked the varied color of these as they had a mix of brown and tan.

This is the back left side of our yard.

Here you can see the wall that we are replacing. It’s just a small block ledge.

It does the job, but just not that good looking. It looks like a row of concrete beer cans.

Gordon put down about two inches of small rocks, then one inch of sand to provide the blocks a good base. You have to level the blocks from front to back and side to side, then each block after will be level with the first. Continue this for all the blocks.

Here you can see Gordon has progressed along the back.

The second row of blocks starts with a half block so that you have that overlapping brick pattern.

Our Sweet Monk

You Can See The Old Blocks In This Photo

Gordon is still working on the retaining wall placing down the small rocks then the sand base. This base prevents the blocks from sinking into the dirt. Cut the capstones with a circular saw using a concrete blade. Cut the back part of the capstone as the wall makes it turns so they will fit directly over the blocks underneath.

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Gordon’s Backyard Retaining Wall Completed

Finishing the retaining wall was an important part in getting ready for our backyard Christmas.

Here we are celebrating with our Limoncello and Pomegranate Cocktails

Happiest of Holidays

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Christmas, 2017

Backyard Looks Great For our Christmas Party

We did an Alice In Wonderland Christmas

The Retaining Wall Gave Our Backyard A Nice Upgrade

Time For The Party

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If You Would Like To View:

Click Here For Our Alice In Wonderland Christmas

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So, to go back to the beginning…..

Initially we wanted to build a backyard studio but our HOA Home Owner’s Association, would not allow it but, they do allow lanai extensions with a pool cage. Therefore we hired some people to extend our lanai out from our existing one about 36 feet and had them also make it about 18 feet across. Our goal was to expand our living space outdoors. Here is that progress.

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March 25, 2018

Our Lanai Extension….in Progress

Monk Fell in the Trench

With the exception of hiring a business to give us a new roof, and the installation of a new water heater many years ago, we are new to hiring a construction company to have work done on our property. Gordon has been our construction guy for years building all of our retaining walls and landscaping, and installing our new appliances saving us money, but Gordon can’t do this. We are at the mercy of a contractor and the people he hires as his sub-contractors for jobs the contractor doesn’t do. For example, all the work you see above has been sub-contracted out to a cement business which is a fairly common practice with all contractors. HOWEVER, the contractor may assume that the people he sub-contracted out to are actually working……..WHEN THEY AREN’T!

We were initially told that this project of preparing and pouring the cement foundation would take 4 days. 4 DAYS! So, Gordon took off from work to oversee this all last week so that I didn’t have to. I am out of my league here. We thought that we could knock out the foundation and have this leg of our new lanai done, then clean up the outside and prepare for a great Easter dinner, and then resume the construction with the pool cage, electric, French doors, two outdoor ceiling fans, etc. But now we’ve been told that the entire project will take up to one month! There is no way that Gordon can take off from work for a month so it has to be ME to deal with this. (So, you know I’m happy about it.) 🙁

Because we never know when they are going to show up someone has to be here all the time. That falls to me! I love my home life but I also like to get out of it and go somewhere occasionally. I just don’t like it that for the next month I have to revolve my life around a bunch of workers that only show up when they feel like it. And yet, that is how it is here in America when you hire contractors.

Therefore, I will go with the flow, I will make the best of it, I will clean my house, work on my website, start a few new projects, and just have a blast in my home sanctuary. 🙂

My philosophy on life is to just bring a book and make the best of it. So that’s what I shall do!

Julie

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April 2, 2018

Lanai Extension Update

(Photographic Evidence Saved the Day!)

Our house is just under 2000 square feet and when we do have family over we have no choice but to spill over into our existing lanai and even our backyard. But when we do entertain in our backyard it does present a problem with all the bugs hovering around our food platters and dinner plates. Also, our squirrels can be quite the pests! They love to chew on my roses and hibiscus flowers. They especially love the buds before they bloom. Which means I get NO Roses or Hibiscus blossoms! Also, sometimes mosquitoes can be a problem. Not only are they annoying but they bite and can carry diseases. So we figured that if we could extend our lanai outward about 36 feet in length and 18 feet wide, and enclose it with a pool cage over top, we could have more living space in the backyard. So that we could spread out some more.

I took these photos on Friday afternoon after the cement pour.

Gordon took the day off to be here. I just didn’t want to deal with it all by myself. I think that I have a deep seeded resentment that for Gordon’s 20 year Naval career he was deployed a lot and it was always up to me to take care of everything. Now it’s his turn. 🙂

The Cement Truck and the Workers

Our contractor had subcontracted the cement job out to another company to do, which is a very common thing here in America. We were told the job would take 4 days. It actually ended up taking about 6 days spread out over a period of 2 weeks. Which is now, thanks to a big problem, will spill over into week 3. (Keep Reading)

Permits Taped to our Lanai Door in our Backyard

(I cannot tell you how many times I will look up and there will be an inspector plowing through that paperwork taped to our glass doors on our lanai, usually scaring me to death! I’m not a screamer but I am a yeller (hollerer), usually letting out a loud yelp when I turn around and see a strange man standing there.) 🙂

For the past, going on 3 weeks now, I get up before dawn, shower, get dressed, unlock both of our backyard fence gates very early, prop open our screen door, (if that screen door is locked then inspectors will just walk away and then we are at their mercy as to when they will come back),

and wait for the trucks to arrive……………or not!

You never know when they will show up, or if they even will show up?

Sadly, that is pretty “normal.” I know from previous experience with the condo I used to manage out in Indian Shores, that whenever they would contract work out to be done to the building sometimes it was a total disaster in getting them there to finish the jobs they would start. According to so many horror stories I’ve heard, ours certainly isn’t that bad, not by any means. But, it is a delay and it did cost us some aggravation. (Keep Reading)

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Gordon Searching for the Pipes

Found ONE, but Can’t find the Other one.

Because we have been undergoing this backyard work we have had the sprinklers turned off. Some of our things have died because of it. We have been watering with the hose a lot when we do go outside trying to keep some things alive. But when the dig was ready for the cement pour Gordon did turn on the sprinklers that night to give everything a good soaking because we then needed to turn them off again to get ready for this cement pour.

Ready for the Cement Pour

Gordon specifically made sure that the sprinkler’s were all working fine prior to the cement pour.

Also, we have appreciated all the hard work that these guys have done. They work on a few job sites at once so they tend to come and go from each job sometimes on a daily basis. Arriving at one job site at 8:00 a.m. and then arriving at our house at noon. They work very hard.

Pouring the Cement

The pour went great, there were no problems (that we knew of at the time.) The men worked hard, everything went according to plan. Gordon took off from work for the pour and between me and him, we took lots of photos. Luckily!

Of course, we usually always take tons of photos of everything that happens to us.

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The cement pour was on Friday, and one of the workers came back Saturday morning to cut the cement. By cutting it once down the middle and twice along the width, that helps to insure that the concrete doesn’t break and relieves some of the pressure. The trenches that were initially dug with cement poured in them as well, are there to insure that the slab of cement is secure.

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So, with all of that work out of the way I told Gordon to turn the sprinkler’s back on because we need to water our yard before everything dies. So he did, and that’s when Gordon noticed all this water pouring out the back of the cement slab! And that’s when he saw a long CRACK!!!

The crack is in a crescent shape and goes from one corner of the back left to the other corner of the back right. That makes it a good 18 feet, but because it’s curved that makes it more like 25 feet!

Gordon Digging Trying to Find our Pipes

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Gordon called our contractor to tell him of the problem, with the assumption that he would then take responsibility for this problem that obviously his guys did.

Weh..heh..hell… Not So!

Our contractor told Gordon that he knew a guy that we could hire to fix the problem, and that he would email us his name and phone number. He assured us that what Gordon was describing to him was a ‘simple fix’ that shouldn’t cost more than a few hundred dollars. Of course he went on to be friendly and talk about the rest of the work to be finished this coming week…..

I’m usually the one who panics while Gordon keeps controlled… so yeah, that’s how it was this time as well. 🙂

It’s not funny but Gordon just assumed that our contractor, we’ll start calling him Harry, would take care of it, after all, he’s just so nice…..

What upset me the most is that Harry was going to pawn this off on us and not take any responsibility. He then started avoiding our phone calls. That’s when Gordon and I started plowing through all the photos that we had taken of the work being done and that’s when we saw

THIS ONE………

This is the same photo below, but we cropped the bottom shot so as to better emphasize the wooden stake that you see nailed into the ground to hold that cement hose back.

VIOLA!!! THE KILLER!!!

Suddenly we were Sherlock and Watson, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot!!!

And my personal favorite…………….ADRIAN MONK!

That is when we emailed Harry these photos showing the exact point of contact with our pipe, that stake! Hard to see in this resized photo, but it’s there.

It was a few hours before Harry emailed us back but as an Empath I turned to Gordon and said, “He’s gonna pay for it. He’s gonna take care of it. I’m feeling it. He’ll let us know shortly.” So, Gordon was then relaxed by my news and went outside to bring in some things. A few hours later we got our email telling us that he would take care of it. (This is when being an Empath is fun.) 🙂

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So, good news right? It is good news that Harry is finally owning up to his responsibility to us as a business owner and hopefully a decent and honest human being. We are happy that as I have been working on this blog post, a man did come by to have a look at it and has told me that it is much worse than what was described to him by Harry on the phone. According to him he will have to reroute our irrigation all along the cement slab and half of our yard will be on a new system. He assured me that Harry will pay for all of it, he just needs to get in touch with Harry and that the appointment to get this work done will take place next week.

Hopefully our plants won’t all die off until we can turn our sprinkler system back on. We are planning on buying a new front yard once this work is completed but until then we have to water all the plants located in the landscaping and retaining walls, and all around the house, with the hoses. That’s a lot of work! The grass in the backyard can die but nothing else can.

I suppose that problems do arise in these kinds of jobs and that is o.k. Both Gordon and I understand this. And it looks like our water problem will probably run up into the thousands of dollars. And that is terrible. It was no one’s fault and I appreciate that Harry is going to take responsibility for it. But I can’t help but wonder that if we didn’t have photographic evidence that we could use against him in a court of law, if that is what gave him the change of heart? Or could it have been the Easter Bunny? Hmm…. we’ll never know….

Actually I DO KNOW!

Empath, remember?

Julie

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Later in April, 2018

I have been putting off talking about our new lanai extension and even creating a new post for it because I wanted to wait until this area was complete. It is as far as the cement pour is concerned, but I still have things I want to do to it before I start snapping away with the camera.

The French Doors Entering into our New Lanai

It was my idea to install the French doors. Apparently, we are the only ones in the history of the world to do so!! The reason that I wanted the French doors to begin with was because I knew that I wanted to add some nice furniture to the lanai, (eventually) and I wanted to be able to place the furniture inside the enclosure. But, I also wanted this grand entrance/exit to be a part of our backyard as well. I visualized the doors swung wide open and people entering and exiting them while enjoying the backyard as well as the lanai.

Ready for the Cement Pour

Julie

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Our New 18 x 36 Lanai Extension

(Gordon even refers to it as, “Hey, let’s eat out on the 18 x 36.”)

No pool, just the pool cage. Believe me most people that we know that have swimming pools hate them. Sure, when you first get a pool you are in it every single day for the first 6 months but then you will never get in it again. A pool is a money pit that will cost you every single month to maintain. So, imagine having to pour money into something that you just don’t use anymore? We didn’t want a pool, but we did want to extend our living space out into our backyard without the bother of mosquitoes and other bugs, or our backyard critters, like the squirrels. We also would like to have some little vegetable garden inside the lanai where we didn’t have to worry about the birds and other animals eating what we grew. There will also be an outdoor kitchen out there eventually, but not for a while.

I also wanted to have some lovely flowers that the squirrels didn’t chew up just for the sheer fun of it!

For some reason Monk likes walking around in all that space. 🙂

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We have enjoyed this lanai extension tremendously. We are also creating many wonderful memories with family and friends. This entire project was over $12,000.00 and it was worth every penny of it. 🙂

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Father’s Day Pizza Party

2018