Working in the mudd.

A narrow passage to the side yard.

Dustin Halveson sites the area to make sure we’re getting everything at the correct elevation.

A good trench and a solid base are key. We’ll also utilize this area to run some drain tile to channel the water from the hillside away from the house and into one of the rain gardens.

The first row of timbers go down.

A good start to our plan considering the wet conditions.

The stairs start to take their shape by the end of day on Sunday.

The east side of our house presents a significant challenge for our landscapers. We have a rather narrow walk way between the house and the small sloping hill on the east. Additionally the entire north side of the yard has a rather steep slope to it (one of the things that made many people think our lot was not suitable for a house). The solution was to build a set of stairs out of timbers that would work to provide access to the backyard while managing some of the rainwater run-off from the hillside behind the house.

Saturday morning Dustin Halverson from Village Green and a few of his workers arrived to dig around in the mud and get our landscaping going. I was pretty excited about seeing the landscaping getting done, so I was more than anxious to get my hands dirty and join in on the fun. If there was one good thing to say about all the rain we have had as of late, it certainly helped to make the ground a lot softer for digging. After about 5 hours of work we had cut our way into the hillside and laid down the groundwork for what would be the stairs and retaining wall. On Sunday Dustin and I put in another 5 hours of work and pulled together the rest of the wall, except the last few timbers that created the stairs.

I can say for certain that I am glad I wasn’y trying to do this as a do-it-yourselfer project. This was labor intensive and really pretty intricate work. Making sure everything was properly leveled and that we had the correct elevations before we started are just things that the average home owner couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Even little things like using a good base layer of class-5 gravel to set the timbers on really makes a big difference in how well the whole project pulls together and ultimately how it stands up to the test of time. It was also really nice to see that the walls were tied together with huge screws rather than the old pins that had to be pounded into place. I hope this is never the case but if we were to have to pull a section down for some reason, this certainly would make it a lot easier.

The open side yard to the west of our house is a nice 30′x45′ rectangle, that is well sheltered on three sides by trees.

On Tuesday Redline Tree Service came and removed a large dead Oak from our side lot, along with a few piles of scrub brush from our originally clearing. It was the last remaining large Oak that had suffered the devastating effects of Oak Wilt, since we had originally purchased the lot. We were affraid that when they came in to removed the tree and some of the other Buckthorn, that our yard would seem a bit too open. We were pleasantly surprised to see that this was not the case. This newly cleaned up area will now be the home to our children’s playground and rectangular area of turf, perfectly size for badminton, lawn bowling or my (highly illegal but largely sought after) antique Jarts set.

The large timbers for our landscaping arrived early Friday morning but the wet weather prevented anyone from doing any work to install them.

Sticking with the Timber theme, Dustin Halverson (our landscape architect) had the first shipment of landscape materials delivered today—large timbers to frame up a retaining wall and steps. I think Stacy and I both initially had some hesitation when it came to using timbers. We wanted to avoid the 1970’s railroad tie lookk, that we had worked so hard to extract from our previous home. I was please to see that these were actually a really nicely color and nothing like the ones we had dealt with before. Just to ensure that they keep their interest and to add a little something extra, I have an idea that I think will really make them seem that much more different. Hopefully by the end of next week the timbers will be in place and I can add my little touch but until then it’s rock, edging and lots of mud.

I have to say that one of the coolest things in our house is our downstairs fireplace with it’s Walker Art Center exterior panels as the surround. It’s still probably my favorite thing in our house, and it’s impact upon entering is so powerful that it has drawn us to almost utter paralysis when it came to deciding on how to treat out upstairs fireplace. It’s not that we didn’t have a few ideas we had tossed around but we wanted to do something that would not only look great and rival the downstairs fireplace but wouldn’t break the bank in doing so.

Our downstairs living space has definitely taken on a more sleek look with the concrete floors and the sheen of the silver paneled fireplace. However the upstairs has a slightly earthier and a bit more mid-century modern in feel. We needed something that showcased the fireplace and complemented the space in general. So when Stacy came up with the a modular panel system that would mimic the exterior siding and utilize some inexpensive materials, but look really cool, I was all in.

The first thing we did was paint the entire wall a charcoal gray (using some paint we already had). Then we took three sheets of Walnut plywood that we purchased as a special order item at Menards (it took us about 2 days to receive the item and cost us about $380). Our next thing was to decided on the style of fasteners we would use, we wanted something discrete but refined. We settled on some 2.5″ cabinet hanging screws with a crowned head in black ($5). Then using Stacy’s design we made a series of strategic cuts to the wood to optimize the sheet size. I recommend getting a really good finish blade for both your table saw or skill saw. If you’re using a skill saw make sure to clamp a straight guide down for your saw to follow so you can get a smooth even cut. Whichever tool you decide to use, make sure to apply tape before you cut, this will keep the edges of the plywood from splintering.

After we had made our cuts we made some measurements to ensure we knew where our studs in the wall were and then we pre-attached the screws to the sheet before we put it into place. Using a 1″ spacer (we made from a scrap piece of plywood) we quickly attached the pieces to the wall. To finish the wood, Stacy went over it with a coat of a Danish oil (about $7) The Danish oil isn’t really that great smelling so make sure to open up a lot of windows and turn on some fans to keep the air quality in the house from becoming toxic.

With all the panels up we’ve decided to paint the center band of the fireplace and wall with a coat of black paint ($8) to make it visually read as one with the fireplace. We also picked up some black electrical plugs and face plates that will keep the white switches and plugs from being a visual distraction.

In total the project cost use just over $400 to cover the 11′ by 8′ wall with what I think is a really sophisticated, sort of mid-century modern design. The wall itself no longer looks like an after thought but rather has become the focal point of the space and really commands a lot presence.

The fireplace look sort a bit removed from the rest of the space and a bit underwhelming in size.

The plywood brought a sense of depth and scale into the room.

We used modest sized fasteners to attach the panels to the wall and left a 1″ space between sections.

Stacy applied a Danish Oil to the surface to bring out the color.

The almost finished project. We still touch up some paint, replace the white outlets with black and paint the center ban to more closely match the color of the firebox itself. With that said I think it looks great!

UPDATE.

The black paint unifies the middle band.

When most people think about landscaping it generally takes two formats:

1. Classic and ornate styles such as Vicotorian gardens that work with highly controlled forms such and repetitive and detailed materials e.g. herringbone paver patterns and vibrant colors.

2. Organic landscapes that utilized free form shapes and loose natural elements such as boulders and flowing grasses.

So what does modern landscaping looking like? What kind of plants and materials does it use? These are the big questions that surround what we are doing next with our house design. For me modern landscape design is about the use of simple materials minimalistic and repetitive forms.

Trying to wrap my minds eye around what our next step will look like I stumbled on some images of what I consider to be great residential landscape design work. Often times great examples of this style of Landscape architecture is only found on the grounds of commercial and public billings so I was excited to find some examples that were on a smaller scale. The first comes from Design and Architectural firm Marmol Radziner with their minimalist and simple line work complemented by the use of straight lines and modular forms, that integrate interior and exterior spaces.

Simple materials, modular elements and a blurring of indoor and outdoor materials and spaces make this project a great example of modern landscape design. (photos by: John Ellis)

The second example comes from a the 2007 ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects). Design firm Andrea Cochran landscape Architecture, designed this space as a part of an affordable housing project. The space merges functional elements like the rooftop garden planters (for those of you not from farm country those are cow watering troughs) with more aesthetic pieces like a center garden water feature.

Functional yet non-traditional elements like the cow through used as planter boxes, are contrasted by aesthetically pleasing elements like the water feature in the court yard. (photos by: Brian Rose)

In our project we’ll be implementing a lot of similar elements and ideas as the aforementioned projects, with the hope of integrating the material elements of our home (such as concrete, wood and steel) into our landscape. The intent of our design is to blur the line between the two spaces and make our home blend almost seamlessly into it’s surroundings.

Late last week our concrete guy (Fred Lutz and his sons) showed up to frame up our front walk and driveway. These guys were certainly some of our favorite subcontractors on this project and helped us with not only our front step and patio but had also done the excellent tile work in our bathrooms. However, this week they were back at their area of expertise —concrete.

Stacy and I both love working with Fred because he not only takes pride an interest in his work, but he also seems to really enjoy the challenge of working on something different, like our project always working to ensure that what he does matches with our vision. So we felt more than comfortable when the first opportunity they had to pour the driveway and front walkway came while we were out of town for the week.

When we arrived at home today from our little vacation, we were really pleased to see the driveway and walkway were complete. Not only does this mean that we can move onto the next step of our landscaping (the front rock and edging) but it also meant that we could finally minimize the amount of dirt that’s been being tracked into the house on little feet.

the sidewalks steps appear to float away from one another…

…creating the perfect natural path from the front door to the driveway.

A close up on one of the circular forms that will be removed and replaced with turf. This will not only create some interest in the driveway design but additionally help to manager more of the run off. You can see the dark gray color (referred to as “green”) caused from the moisture being release from the concrete as it cures.

Besides the driveway being added I can’t believe how much greener it is. The photo above was taken just a week earlier.

I must say, knowing a good Landscape Architect is certainly nice. Dustin Halverson from Village Green Landscapes is helping us to develop our plan and was gracious enough to allow us to provide some very early design thoughts, along with indulging some of our more unconventional ideas. Our landscape plan will include the use of several rain gardens and a great deal of native plants. We hope to contrast and complement the natural elements with strong geometric forms and rugged materials like concrete and steel. One of the bigger things that we are dealing with is the fact a concrete driveway provides a great deal of run off, dumping water (and whatever comes with it and as it goes) into the street. In order to off-set this effect we’ve done a couple of things to ensure we manage our run-off. The first is the that we pitched the driveway. We have an equal amount of sloe running both down the driveway a we do across. This will make sure that we traffic the rain water less towards the street and more towards the yard and ultimately the rain gardens. Yet there will still be a fair amount of rainwater running down the driveway towards the street, which triggered and idea in my head. What if we placed barriers in the drive way that would absorb some of that water before it made it to the street? As a result I asked Dustin if would be possible to place several large circles in the driveway that would be filled with grass. After some calculating he determined that if we made them roughly 36″ in size and planted them with rich potting soil with a good deep sand base we would most likey be able to grow grass in them. Additionally if the grass was unable to grow we could certainly place some loose stone in the holes and achieve a similar result.

A top down view of our landscape plan. The large circles in the driveway will be filled with grass to manage some of the run off from the driveway