April is supposed to be Spring like up here, which means rainy in Seattle but a bit drier in Port Townsend. Well, little Ms. Nina screwed thing up this year. We've had 8 inches of rain in the first 3 months of the year and the first two weeks of April was just same. Then, just before Earth Day, the sun peaked out and we saw it for five (YES 5) days in a row. It was so inspiring that I got a golf lesson and a round in last week. However, all that rain with the addition of sunlight meant an explosion of weeds, especially in the area that we intend to plant our sacrificial lawn. Its over the leach field for the septic, and the easiest way to promote evaporation of the nasty gray water. So one of my non golf days was dedicated to 8 hours of weed pulling in prep for laying sod in a week of two. After all the obvious weeds were sent to hell, I covered most of the area with two large tarps to keep growth down for now. To anyone walking by, I tell them we've laid out our heliport to test landings. You should see their eyes roll, then give it a second thought when I say there's nothing in the CC&Rs (covenants) that disallows it.
While its been raining I've prepped the fireplace wall for the stone veneer that will go up someday this Spring. The first layer is tar paper (black), then extruded wire mesh gets stapled up to provide a base for the scratch coat of mortar. This goes on about 14" thick, gets roughed up (horizontal lines) to provide a grip to the mortar that will hold the rock up. So far, I've got the tar paper, mesh and scratch coat up, and the mantle laid out on the wall. The next process will be to lay the coral limestone blocks (Eldorado Stone) out from Top to Bottom, working around the mantle outline, and ending hopefully flush at the floor. You work top down in order to keep the stone clean of dripping mortar. The bedding layer of mortar, if mixed to a loose peanut butter consistency, provides enough suction to keep the blocks in place. I didn't believe it but that's the way it was done on the stone belt line for the house, so seeing is believing.
The shed is progressing nicely, but its a time sink. I order up a slug of 1/4 T&G cedar for the interior and nailed it up a in couple days with my stapling gun (Porter Cable). Managed to keep it mostly level, so all the edges matched up fairly well. I stained it light gray to protect the wood, and then put up the trim and painted it with oil based to match the exterior. Also did the rock prep (like the fireplace) on the outside since I had a box of corners and flats left from the house and only needed one more box of flats to do the belt line. The neighbors are jealously accusing me of building a large doll house rather than a garden/tool shed. The CC&Rs say to make it resemble the house—I did.
We're working our way back on the lot in terms of landscaping. Tim Hamm and I built a rock walkway to the shed and arbor and planted a couple Japanese maples on a bermed area in front of the shed. When they get bigger in 5-10 years, they'll mostly hide the shed from street view and provide a nice backdrop to the patio in front of it. We still have to drop some big rocks on the berm and plant the rhodys and azaleas that we got last weekend, when it wasn't raining.
The rocks are a challenge since they weight 100-300 pounds. Tim is going through chemo, so he doesn't have a lot of muscle power right now. I think the strategy will be to roll them off the trailer into a wheel barrow, then toss them on the berm and muscle them around with a crow bar. It worked before, so that seems like a good plan. If I had a couple young footballers in the neighborhood, it could be done for the cost of beer.'The arbor (Costco, a deal) provides a break from the side and back yards, and will have some big bushes on either side to provide a visual barrier to the back yard, which is mainly weeds and a project for next year. Nancy planted a couple Clematis along the sides, so it should have some nice climbing vines on it come next fall.
Well, the sun has retreated for another week, so it time to think about inside work. Hope I don't end up calling this brief burst of sunlight last week the 5-days of Spring, but it could be. Nevertheless, the rhodys are coming out and will be in full bloom for the festival in late May. Cheers.
