We're quickly running out of room in our house so this summer we decided to add a couple of rooms onto the back of our house. Since we added the retaining wall we gained quite a bit of space. We talked to several contractors and got multiple bids. The design build company we chose was Blue Ribbon Design-Build out of Lake Forest, CA.
Here's the before shots. Left side, right side, closet, bathroom, side of house.
After all the planning and permitting was done, the construction started on 4/27/06. The first thing they did was remove all the old concrete and the trellis. (Left side, right side). After that we moved quickly on to the rebar for the footings on 4/28 (left side, right side, close-up), and the actual footings on 5/4 (left side, right side) after the inspector had approved the rebar.
Because we didn't have enough going on in the back yard we decide to redo the front yard too!
Here's a couple of before shots. My favorite is the old wheel that we found underneath the bush that was at the end of the yard. I don't have a picture of the bush but we pulled it out with our neighbors truck and it took me three weeks of filling 4 people's green waste bins to get rid of the thing. I did get to buy a new sawsall to cut it up with though :-) - - Joanna
April 11, 2004: Our next door neighbors, Dave and Tami, have some contacts in construction so since we've been talking about doing this for a while they showed up with a mini bulldozer one Saturday and ripped out all the rotting railroad ties from the front yard. Then dug a big ditch for a new retaining wall. We ended up with a lot of trash.
April 18, 2004: The wall started to go in and we cleared off the steps where we're widdening the driveway. We also decided to put in a quarter circle patio at the front door to open it up a bit.
May 1, 2004: The retaining wall is up and the new patio is poured. We're just waiting to finish it off (it's been too hot to work on it for a couple of weekends now.)
Nov 2, 2004: The driveway was all ripped out and replaced with stamped concrete, I really like how it turned out. Now we just have to paint the wall and get the trees in.
We've just made the decision to redo our entire backyard. It's a major project involving a lot of moving of dirt. Here's a couple of before shots: Right side, Left side, Patio.
I'm going to be posting progress shots every couple of days just to show what Fleck's been playing in :-)
November 15, 2003: The wall line is established and the yard cleaned out: Right side, Left side, Patio.
November 16, 2003: We now have a huge trench the whole length of our backyard and lots of dirt in piles. The contractors were very happy they could get all of their large construction equipment in our yard because it saved them a lot of time. Someone has been having way too much fun playing and digging in the dirt!
November 25, 2003: They laid the rebar and started the wall. They've also built the flower bed down the side.
December 15, 2003: We had a little hold up with the inspector and the contractor so it's taken them a little longer to get back to the wall. It's almost all the way up now. Here's the right side and the left side.
December 28, 2003: The wall is done, but not back filled yet. Right side and left side. We also have a trench down the side of the house for all of the utilities needed to run the spa, the lights and eventually the BBQ.
January 3, 2004: The outline for the patio is down now. Here's the current left side view.
February 6, 2004: Yes there was a month delay here. After several calls someone finally showed up to start working on our yard again. The spa has been sitting in our RV Parking for over two weeks now. The rock work is starting to take shape.
February 8, 2004: The patio is now outlined and the slate looks really good. They've also started on the planter on the right side.
February 28, 2004: This is where we fired our general contractor because he didn't show up when he said he was going to and was over a month late on completing the job. The rest of the project we organized ourselves.
March 4, 2004: Jason laid all the rebar for the concrete to be poured on the patio.
March 5, 2004: Dave Lease (awesome concrete contractor) came and poured the patio for us.
March 19, 2004: They started finishing the wall. Here's the left and right sides.
March 22, 2004: The cap was finished on the wall and the sides were sloped off nicely.
March 25, 2004: The wall and the planter were finished. Here's the left and right sides. We added the blue stucco at the top last minute just to tie it into the house since the trim is blue.
April 5, 2004: The spa was finally installed. We still haven't decided what we're doing for walls and covers yet but I'll post the pics when we finally get it done.
April 20, 2004: The BBQ finally arrived. We ordered it in Jan and it arrived in April...how's that for quick delivery. Anyway it's in and working and looks great with the Spa.
Feb 5, 2005: Yes it's been a while since I posted anything but it was a busy winter! Jason spent yesterday putting the grass in and it looks great. From this angle you can see that the greenery above the wall is starting to flower making it actually look like a yard again.
