Nancy's got a paint brush back in her hand and has been knocking out some of the painted windows downstairs. Only one left to do is in the guest bathroom, but it needs primer and two coats of latex. It will probably get done as I work on the tile in there. Meanwhile, I've been working on getting all the gravel walkways around the house in place this past week, and I'm almost there. Earlier, Tim Hamm (Castlerock Landscaping) and I had built the 3 ft wide path around the south (bedroom) and east (backyard) sides of the house, but I wanted to get the remainder done before launching into the bathroom tile job. The first finished part of the walks took 2.5 yds of crushed rock (basalt, a black volcanic rock quarried locally), so Tim loaded his one ton truck up with 3 yds (7,000 pounds) of gravel and brought it over (ouch for the truck). We're using 5/8" minus, meaning everything finer than 5/8". It packs in pretty tight and makes a nice surface to walk on and will be relatively weed free.
We cleaned up the north (damp) side of the house, leveled it out, placed the bender board and Tim built two short walls against the house (photo to right). Once the landscape fabric was cut to size and nailed down, we just shoveled and wheeled gravel into the pathways. 3 yds of gravel is a bunch of gravel. But with one guy shoveling (me) and another (Tim) behind the wheel barrow we put laid it down in about 4 hrs. However, the Advil was much appreciated over the weekend. I wish I'd saved this job for Tony Crone, because he's never happier then when he's behind the business end of a shovel.
Last Friday, I had 6 more yds of gravel delivered to the driveway, and started in on the front yard paths. I made this little job last most of the weekend, but ran short by a yard. So one more trip to the Shine Quarry, and I should have all the rock in place (for now). We still haven't done anything with the backyard, which is fine for now since no one can really see it. Anyway, I have to leave something to do for next spring or summer instead of just sailing and crabbing.P.S. Got that last yard today. Tim and I went down to the Shine Quarry, had 1 yd of 5/8" minus loaded and threw in about 50 half-man chunks for the little island near the sunroom (later in the fall). So all the gravel paths are done; the patios are next along with a large area of planting of shrubs and the lawn. Might go for a large putting green like Dr. Knott installed. Wonder if it helped his game any (probably knott).
