Rock Garden Finished

After weekends full of moving and cleaning river rock the front easement is converted into a rock garden.

Before:
When we first moved in, before I took a hatchet to the giant weeds.

After:

We moved and cleaned twenty cubic yards of river rock but it turned out well. We have already received several compliments front the neighbors. It's a little bland now but in the spring I'll fill the planters with the brightest flowers I can find.

Added bonus, people have finally stopped driving through our yard! We were so fed up I was ready to lay tack strips for the next unlucky vehicle.

Another Find

I've been wanting a night stand for nearly a year now, but as much as I would like one, I value the house too much to divert remodeling money for furniture. But this summer I happened upon a free nightstand on Craigslist. It was old and ugly, but it was also pine hidden under the paint and varnish.

I'm not sure what happened to the sides. They were discolored and badly gouged. It took a lot of sanding to find presentable wood.

I had to build new drawer fronts from clear pine. While I had the drawers pulled apart I replaced the bottoms with plywood and sanded down a cedar fence slat to make a new drawer backs. Once the smell of poly has worn off the drawers will have a nice cedar aroma.
I think it turned out well.

This project has also given me my first real taste of woodworking. Before this I had never used a dado blade or router table. I found that I like this immensely. There will likely be many more such projects in my future...and of course, more tools.

Shoveling River Rock or The Slow And Painful Demise Of My Shoulders

One of the many head-scratching aspects of our house is the parking setup. The driveway is huge. We have room for 17 cars but apparently that was not enough for the previous owner. So he converted the front of the yard into additional parking spots. For months we puzzled over what to do with this 50'x23' space between the rest of the yard and the sidewalk. Because of the way the yard is laid out grass would not work unless we wanted to have two separate front lawns. Take a look at this photo and you will understand why.

See all that wasted space? (Top left)

Not only is there a raised berm, there is also a concrete curb separating the yard from the former parking area. At last we decided to convert the space into a rock garden. But creating the rock garden will require a huge amount of work. The house is currently surrounded on three sides by river rock. Approximately 20 cubic yards of it.

The previous owners, not to mention the renters before them, did nothing to care for the rock. By the time we purchased the house last year the rock garden was full of dirt and leaves. On Labor Day Luke and I were finally ready to start moving rock, but first we had to come up with a system for cleaning out all the crap. After only one trail version we built the following cleaner:
We cut the center out of an old door and stapled in 1" x 1/2" fencing. As the rock rolls down the screen the dirt and leaves fall through the fencing leaving only clean rock in the wheelbarrow below. We are using the leftover dirt to level out low spots in the yard before we till it up and plant seed. It is a slow process that takes it's toll on the back and shoulders. But all the rock is finally moved. The yard is looking a little bare now. We still need to bring in some top soil to level everything out before we till and seed.