Home Again

We arrived today from our Orlando journey. The backyard is not in bad shape. Our neighbor said he mowed our lawn once and filled our pond twice. The gates have not been fixed. Our neighbor said it has been very dry during the month. Accordingly, it started raining the evening we arrived home.

The chard was cut back before we left...it is back

The dill and cilantro are out of control

The Hydrangea does not have the pink we expected

The demin n' lace Russian Sage is about the only color in the backyard

Overall, it could have been worse...we have some weeding to do

Update

Since arriving home from our Mediterranean cruises, we have spent a lot of time (and money) populating the landscaping gaps in the backyard. We came to the conclusion that the leakage in the pond will not drive us to dismantling it so we could go ahead and put plants in and around it. We will hold off putting any fish in until we return from our Florida trip toward the end of June. Over the past week, we have planted almost 50 plants.

As for completion of the landscaping work that John promised would be finished and perfect before our return? It is neither complete or perfect. The saga continues.

Holiday

We left for a three week cruise on April 2. Today, we are on the Seabourn Odyssey, 12 days into our 14 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona. We should be sailing through the Straits of Gibraltar tomorrow. In Barcelona, we board the Oceania Riviera for another 10 day cruise before spending a few days in Athens. Then back to Houston before heading home.

Atlantic between Madeira and Portugal

Before we left town, John promised us they would continue working on the back yard and definitely would have EVERYTHING completely and perfectly finished before we return in mid-May. He also promised to send pictures of their progress.

About a week ago, after not hearing anything from John, I sent him a note asking about progress and the pictures he promised to send. A couple of days later, I got a response implying they had found another hole in the upper part of the pond and he would send pictures as soon as he found someone to show him how to do so.

I hope he will keeps his promises this time. By the time we get home, we will be over six months past the originally promised completion date for the landscaping work.

April Fools Day 2016

John's crew came by today and planted the Red Twig Dogwoods. Look good!

They also planted T's Columbine and Knock Out Rose, here shown being inspected by Spenser.

Kevin never showed up this week. I am going to give John keys to the garage and the security fob which will permit him to disable the security system while we are gone. John said he would like for us to not irrigate any of the zones, except the raised beds, while we are gone. I will adjust the controller program accordingly. John said he will stop by often to check on things. Wally said the same thing. Wally also said he thought we should water everything three times per week. Hope they coordinate. I have updated our security protocols so that John is the first person the security company calls if there is an alarm. We are second.

Garden, Windows and Irrigation

We did not see Kevin yesterday or today to work on the pond. We got about 1" of rain yesterday with pea-sized hail. This was enough to raise the pond level but not enough to reach the overflow port.

John left a message saying he could not locate the two Red Twig Redbuds we had wanted. He suggested we go ahead and buy them at the nursery at which we found them and John would plant them along the north fence. T assures me that they will be beautiful. We got three Arctic Fire (red) and two Arctic Sun (yellow).

Todd (Marvin windows) called to say the parts for the west and south sunroom doors will not arrive prior to our departure on our cruise. I told him we would call him when we return.

Wally showed up to commission the irrigation system. He relocated the sprinkler head at the southwest corner of the lot, tested the entire system and gave T and I a tutorial on how to operate the Rain Bird control system. There are thirteen zones in the system.

Morgan (east neighbor) came over to ask if we wanted him to mow the lawn while we are gone. I told him we did not want to impose and that we thought it would be OK. He said it was no problem and he would be happy to do so. Very nice of him, but if we travel as much as we hope, we will need to line up a lawn care company.

Garden and Windows

Next week we depart on our European cruise. This week the goal is to get the plants, that we have been growing inside, transplanted into the raised beds and get the irrigation system operational. Last week I told John we needed to have Wally to come back and start the irrigation system. This system has never been completely tested due to the previous cold weather. John said he would be talking with Wally as well as Joe (concrete) about acid washing and sealing the walkways. Not too surprisingly, despite come beautiful weather early this week, no further word was received. Yesterday, I sent John another note saying we needed to get Wally to put the irrigation system into service. John responded that he would call Wally and we could expect him to be out yesterday afternoon. He never showed up. If he doesn't show this week, I will put the system into service myself.

I called Kevin, as requested, on Monday to update him on the pond situation. He was here last Thursday and did some investigating around the upper basin area. We refilled the pond and started the circulation on that day. I told Kevin that we still lost water at about the same rate and that I did not believe anything had significantly changed. Kevin said he would be out later in the week to continue his investigation.

Yesterday, I called the Marvin Window dealer concerning the south door, which has a loose handle. I called them to just find out what size of Allen wrench was required to loosen the handle set screws. I tried a 1/8", which was too large, and a 3/32", which was too small. The dealer suggested that he just have his technician (Todd) come out since we are still under warranty. I am glad they did. Todd found the spindle on the south doors to be bent (Todd said it was an installation issue), which resulted in the latch being difficult to operate. I asked him to look at the west door as well because it also is difficult to latch. He did and found the same bent spindle. Todd did what he could, but he said he needed to order some parts. The west door especially is still difficult to latch, much more so than the French doors on the east. Todd said he would discuss this with his team and get back with us. We may have to contact them upon our return.

Update:

Kevin never showed up, but Wednesday afternoon John did appear. He said he would work with Kevin on the pond issue. He said, again, he would get with Wally about the irrigation. He said that when he talked with Wally earlier this week, Wally said he was not anxious to start the water systems because "they" were projecting temperatures down in the 20's. I told John I had just looked at the forecast through mid-April and it is not supposed to even get down to freezing. We also looked at all the plants and trees. John assured me that the Canadian Red Cherry will have dark red leaves. He thought everything else looked pretty good. There is one azalea that looks sick and the maple on the west fence has some dead branches. John said he would come back later and prune it. I also told John that we thought we wanted to go with Red Twig Dogwoods along the north fence, alternating the Arctic Fire (red) with the Arctic Sun (yellow). I also asked him if he thought a weeping Snow Fountain Cherry (Prunus 'Snofozam' Pendula ) would be happy in the spot currently occupied by the Japanese Red Maple next to the east porch. The literature suggests the Snow Fountain needs full sun. This spot will not get full sun. John thought it would do fine. I told him we saw some beautiful Snow Fountains (probably topgrafted which should get only 5' to 6' tall).

Spring Update

Spring 2016 has arrived. Why is that noteworthy? For several reasons actually. Next to Fall and then Winter, Spring is my favorite season. It is also noteworthy to note that we are still trying to finish our landscaping. We were originally told that the landscaping would be finished by the end of October...last Fall. We have made progress since then, but it is still not finished.

The pond still leaks. On March 8, Kevin (new water feature guy) came out to do some investigation surrounding the pond leakage. This focused on the main pond area. The pond had been stagnate for about a week awaiting the next step. Kevin found some "suspicious" areas and we finally filled the pond to the overflow port and started the pump. The system circulated from March 8 until it lost suction and tripped the pump breaker on March 20. I sent John a emphasizing the inadequacy of the variable speed pump controller enclosure that Wally installed. The controller does not permit the door of the enclosure to close properly. Saturday night, when the pump tripped, we had snow and light rain. It was obvious that moisture had attacked the controller. I told John this is a shock hazard. and needs to be fixed. John later told me he was unaware of the problem with the enclosure.

On March 11, one day before our Texas visitors arrived, I sent John a list of 12 items that need to be completed before the landscaping is deemed finished. That list included:

1. Pond leakage and landscaping
2. Pond lighting
3. Concrete acid wash and seal
4. Concrete repair on garage apron
5. Irrigation including relocation of south head
6. North fence foliage
7. Plant listing
8. Pond pump proof of purchase or a new pump
9. Weather-proof enclosure for pond pump variable speed control
10. Replace faulty plants
11. Written pond warranty 
12. Spring initiation of the irrigation system including tutorial

After several calls and notes to John, Kevin arrived this afternoon and started looking at the upper part of the system. He identified a couple of "suspicious" areas. I refilled the pond and started the pump. Kevin asked me to call him directly to let him know how the system does over the weekend. I also pointed out to Kevin that we had followed his recommendation and procured and applied the "beneficial" bacteria to the pond on March 11. The source of the bacteria was the one recommended by Kevin. I noted that the day after application all the stone surfaces turned green. Kevin thought this was very curious. He inspected the material we used and agreed it was the right stuff. I noted that the instructions said the repeat the dosage a week after the first dose. Due to the color, we had not repeated the dose. Kevin recommended that the second dose be added. He personally put the dosage in at that time.

To hopefully close out our relationship with the cabinetry maker, the bar cabinet door FINALLY was delivered on March 11. I noticed the tint was lighter than the other woodwork. I was told that it would darken with time. I hope so. I am tired of working with this company.

Wednesday

I called Bob this morning to find out the status of our cabinet door that was picked up four weeks ago by Todd. We were told at that time that they would try to straighten the door, but if that did not work, they would return the door until another was fabricated. Two weeks went by without word. When I called Bob two weeks ago he assured me that we would have our new door before our guests arrive on March 11. Today, Bob remembered making that promise, which was encouraging since he has a history of forgetting promises. He said the new door was fabricated, but it was warped as well. A third door is being fabricated. Bob said the original door really never needed to be taken away (the claim by Todd that they might be able to straighten it was false). That really did not make me feel much better. Bob said that they would either bring out the new door or the old door at 2 pm tomorrow. The post-sale performance of this company has not been very good BEEN BAD.

The level in the pond is about 1" lower than after filling it yesterday. We did not get the heavy rain predicted today. I am reserving judgement due to the high winds we had yesterday. I marked the level this morning and will check it tomorrow morning.

Trees and Pond

Monday, the lumber company finally showed up to pick up the excess Tiger wood decking and railing. This essentially closes the door on Mike's commitment to the project.

John's crew showed up today and replaced three of the five Junipers on the east side of the chess board. These showed significant dead branches. I also showed John one of the Boxwood along the west fence line that looks dead.

The pond seems to have lost only a fraction of an inch over the past two days. Kevin showed up today and put the pond perimeter back together. Before starting to refill the pond (so that we test the upper pond and stream for leakage), we installed the LED fountain light that Wally had brought a couple of weeks ago. Last week, T suggested we put a simple globe lamp shade over the fountain light to disperse the light and the color of the light. The muddy pond water was pumped out by John's crew before we refilled it. However, it is still pretty muddy and will take awhile to clear up. We filled the pond up to the overflow port.

As of this evening, the level was about 1/2" below the overflow port. I am going to reserve judgement however since there was a vigorous wind today which I observed blowing spray off the falls. The forecast is for substantial rain (several inches) over the next few days. We may have to wait until next week to determine whether we still have a leak.

Still no word from Bob about our bar cabinet door. Bob assured me two week ago that they would have the replacement door finished before our guests arrived this weekend. I guess I will call Bob tomorrow to find out if he has any intention to honor his commitment.

A Step Back

As promised, John showed up today with another water feature designer. Like Todd, Kevin is the co-owner of a local company who has been doing water features for 20+ years. Unlike Todd's company, Kevin's company is BBB accredited with an A+ rating and glowing references.

John had explained the situation to Kevin and he immediately got into troubleshooting. He dug around the north and east perimeters and found the liner to be far too low (and poorly installed) to support the desired water level. He and John worked to get the liner on these two sides pulled up as best they could. When they got over to the liner around the skimmer, they found there was no way, without a major redo, to get the liner up to the level where we would like it. As Kevin so adroitly stated, "the train has already left the station". The best we can hope for is to get the level to stabilize at a point roughly at the level of the overflow port. Kevin agreed that it was important for any excess water to channel off through the overflow port to avoid long-term damage to the soil surrounding the pond.

We cut off the PVC elbow that Todd had put on the overflow port since there is no way we were going to be able to use it to adjust the level (the inadequacies of the liner made that impossible). When Kevin had finished, we filled the pond up to the point of overflow port and will monitor the level. We are expecting rain (a lot of rain) in the coming week. However, if the level holds for the next 24-48 hours, it will be a major accomplishment. We told Kevin that we want to get the pump reinstalled and running sometime this coming week. John said he was going to cut Todd loose and work with Kevin from here out. Kevin said he would be back probably on Tuesday.

Once we verify the pond level is stable, we will finish the landscaping around the perimeter.