Nice weather means Ben doesn’t want to stay in the house working on the bathroom. What does the man do instead? Tear stuff apart, of course. Just after closing on the mountain house, Ben took his aggression out on the pool and bathroom. This time, the hot tub bothered him, so it had to go. Can someone explain why boys love demo and destruction so much? Because V and E watched so intently.
Yes, the boys rocked 80’s wear; Zubaz and tie-dye. So, he pulled it up, cut the water lines, hauled it to the deck, and proceeded to cut it apart, Dexter style. But he didn’t throw the pieces in the ocean, just the dumpsters at his work.
After the tub was out, V wanted to get in the hole. He and Ben assessed the situation.
This is what we have to work with. Ben plans to fill the hole in with gravel until the floor is even. If we want a hot tub, we’ll buy a stand alone spa to go here, on top of tile.
We don’t need seating with out the tub, so Ben tore it out, too. So this:
Has become this:
Hurricane Ben made it outside, pulling out a stacked rock wall.
Now we’ve got several rock piles until we get a dumpster in here for the roof removal.
After a heavy rain last week washed dirt down to the patio, we decided landscaping has to happen soon.
I think we’ve figured out a rough plan, which will include excavating over a foot of dirt and rocks as well as carving out a small part of the back hillside. We want to tame the hill out front, too. First step, pulling out weed block and mulch.
Our weekend wasn’t filled with destruction. Ben installed our new central vac and I tested it out yesterday. More on that in the near future.
Until then, I’m wondering if you’re working on landscaping? What is your biggest challenge? I’m terrible at landscaping plans, and the steep hills only complicate things.
ourhumbleabodeblog.com 
Our yard (and neighborhood for that matter) has lots of trees, which means our yard is full of leaves. We bought a few rakes to rake them all up but my hubby is not having it. LOL! Instead we’re borrowing a friend’s leaf blower this weekend to get rid of all the leaves in the yard and then I would like to plant some flowers and will mostly like have to plant grass. We rent the house we’re in and the previous tenants did nothing to the yard so I’m pretty sure it’s nothing but dirt and dead grass underneath all those leaves.
I’d love to take out some of the bushes but seeing as this isn’t my house I think I need to ask our landlord about that. LOL!
Looks like that guy might go through a lot of clothes! I know where he can get 4 new sets when the guy gets back from deployment in december!
Hey Joe! Ha, he DOES go through a lot of clothes, it’s a good thing someone left the camo uniforms at the apartments. Haha. We’re looking forward to seeing you!! 🙂
The landscape appears to be a big project and especially a hill (was going to write slope but it is far beyond a slope). I recommend you hire or barter with a landscape designer, get a broad stroke plan to help identify the potential. I think you are going to need some retaining wall at certain areas, I think those slabs of rock were prior installer’s attempt at some retaining. Best wishes on it all, you are both very creative and industrious and I look forward to your posts.
Kit
Hey Kit! Ben has a general plan involving retaining walls, rock and creeping low water plants. We’ve got time to plan and tweak things so we’ll see what happens. If we can’t figure something out, we’re open to hiring a landscape architect to help us out.
Thanks!
Amanda
Looks like a lot of work! A retaining wall looks necessary so you might need a professional consultation for that, or at least a lot of planning. My new plant plan is to use as many water resistant plants as possible, at least in my container gardens. They’re much easier to care for.
Our main successful “cover” plants have been ferns, day lilies, and hostas, I don’t know how much sun you have in those areas but they cover our wooded areas nicely.
You might contact your local Master Gardeners (www.mtmastergardener.org) for recommendations on that hillside. They’ll be able to suggest some native plants for erosion control that will survive with neglect. You’ve got a lot of potential there!
Here’s an idea I stole from Young House Love: put the stacked stone on Craigslist instead of the landfill. Someone will pick it up before the weekend, guaranteed.
Hi Amelia! I thought about that. I think we’ve got more to pull out, so we’ll wait to see what we have. But offering it free is a good option!
Thanks!
Amanda