The season of no progress continues!
Last weekend I spent a fair amount of time getting most of the tomatoes and peppers in the ground and getting mulch down in the foundation planting bed. While doing this, I occasionally heard a strange sound...almost like two sticks being rubbed together.
It turns out, that is exactly what it was. The maples in the yard, no doubt peeved that I have started planting hosta's in their root zones were plotting against me. It couldn't have been two hours after the time I got the last bag down when a gentle breeze picked up, and the maples took their revenge.
The picture below was taken before the subsequent storm hit, which not only dropped 29834729 more maple seeds, but also planted and watered them nicely.
What this means is that this weekend, I get to spend more time on this same bed, getting up the propellars before they sprout and make their evil maple roots.
Unfortunately, this is not the only bed that has been attacked. They all got nailed, along with the gutter covers. You know those things that are supposed to keep stuff out of the drainpipes by embedding them in mesh? yeah
The original plans for the weekend were supposed to surrounded recovering the balcony in the patio with some lovely Timbertech composite decking. We wanted to get that done before the patio project started. It was supposed to be a fast job. Take off boards, put on new boards, put on rail, done.
That would have been way to easy. I should have known that their would be complications, it is the norm for our home. The complications were pretty bad. The boards coming out of the house are rotted, badly. So badly that they pretty much disintergrated when we started pulling off the tin cover some put over the to make sure they never dried out.
What this now means is that we have to get another permit because now we have to cut these off, dig 42" holes in the ground to fill with concrete so that we have something to place the posts on that will now be required to support the deck. The materials for this project were delivered 30 minutes after we discovered this mess and now are in the garage. One of the cars will have to be in the driveway for the next month or so. :P
The patio? Well we dropped chunk o change for a deposit on the project. Then found out that the permit process here requires sign off by the health department, possibly our bank, and a pre-inspection from the county. The turn around time of that is a couple of weeks, which mean the goal of starting that is pushed back to the end of the month. The contractor laughed at me when I asked if we could have our money back for awhile. :) The frustrating thing about this whole permit thing is that this isn't a crazy project. Expand an existing patio a bit, put in some edging of existing plantar beds, re-fence the area that is nowhere near any property line. Why the heck they need the health department to make sure the water supply is A-OK boggles.
Oh well, I hold out hope that we have something done by July 4. That still leaves a good chunk o summer left for enjoyment.
2 comments:
Oh, no!! All your work! I am so sorry-those helicopters are such a nuisance! What a big project that deck is, but I bet it will host a wonderful 4th of July party!!
sounds frustrating Stacy. I hope the permit process goes quickly and smoothly for you.
I know what you mean about the maple helicopters. They're all over the place here, and starting to sprout. The last couple of years I picked them up, but it takes so darned long I didn't this year. I may live to regret that.
Your foundation bed looks nice!
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