Landscaping Almost Complete - Phase I

We returned from our December voyage on December 28. Not much had been done on the landscaping since we left on December 1. The yard was still mostly mud, no additional plantings had been done, no lighting or irrigation work and the pond still leaked and was full of mud. The area got a lot of rain during the previous week. Not surprised, just disappointed.

While we were gone, we were informed that Steve (fencing) was installing our new fences. Sure enough, the fences were up, but no gates. Steve showed back up last Monday to install the gates. It did not take long. I did notice that the southeast gate needs to be trimmed so that it cannot scrap the walkway. Steve said he would be out Friday to do that.

Mike got the railings on the second floor deck and on the west sunroom porch. Look good.

Once the weather warms back up, we will stain them.

We took inventory of what else had been accomplished inside.

Mike got the following accomplished:

• one of the five door stops was installed (on the garage north door)
• the trash and debris removed from the garage and the basement
• the Tiger wood plugs sanded on the hot tub deck (need to re-stain),
• the ice maker has been shimmed so that it does not move around
• the bottle rack on the bar has been secured

Mike has the following still to complete:

• Move the garage attic access ladder
• Patch the hole behind the mirror in the main house first floor half bath
• Slate repair on the garage west gable
• Cutting "windows" into main house dormers
• Help move the Model A into the east bay of garage
• Install remaining door stops

Electrically, the following was accomplished:

• Garbage disposal wired
• Repair outlets on either side of the hot tub deck
• Repair exterior outlet on sunroom west porch
• Get Cupola exhaust fan to start
• Install garage to basement power cable for generator

Electrical still to be completed:

• Install a couple of florescent fixtures in the garage attic
• The Cupola exhaust fan does now run, but not as it should. This still needs to be resolved.
• We need to have the power outlet above the south door of the Sunroom taken off the wall switch

We have a very livable sunroom. I hope we can get the remaining items resolved before too long.

As for the landscaping, yesterday, John (landscaping) showed back up with a large crew. They did a lot, including starting to figure out we still seem to have a leak in the pond. Today they are back to finish putting in sod, mulch, compost and gravel (alley). It now looks so much better than the mud. They also planted the Japanese Zelkova and Japanese Red Maple trees and planted the shrubs which have been sitting around in pots since we left over a month ago.

This is essentially the end of the landscaping until later this year. The pond is still not fixed. John said Todd (the pond installer) will be here tomorrow to work on it. Since it is supposed to start raining again this afternoon, I will not hold my breath.

Yesterday Wally also finally showed up to do some work on the irrigation system. He ran the plumbing in the basement and installed the back-flow preventer. He told me as he was leaving last night that he would be here early today to test the irrigation system, install the electronics for it and get a start on the lighting system. He did not show up until 1:30 pm.

The other major event while we were gone was that Bob (cabinetry) had his expert finisher (Joe) come out to fill nail holes and repair gouges, including the mantel, which had a large "dent" in it. On December 15, when were were in Panama City, I actually saw Joe working in the sunroom on our security camera. I only saw him working that one day however. I sent a note to Bob to see if the job was complete. Bob assured me that, while he had not personally inspected the work, he was confident that we would be delighted with Joe's work. Bob has repeated told us that Joe was a perfectionist, almost to a fault. 

When I finally got around to inspecting the work, on New Year's day, it was disappointing to find numerous nail holes and gouges that were not filled and overall, the work seemed sloppy. The repair to the mantel was OK, but overall, not an impressive job. I called Bob on Monday and told him I was disappointed. Bob was very surprised and came out that afternoon. We looked it over together and Bob agreed it was not satisfactory. Joe is scheduled to be here tomorrow (Friday) to do some more.