We are winding up at Lons. The landscaping is almost finished. We cut perfect circles out of square bluestone to make a stepping stone path. We cut the first stone into the patio to make a transition to the walkway. The stepping stones lead to the round patio, which is squared and rectangular bluestone. The [...]
Archive for Landscape
OUTDOOR GRILLS
We made a smaller grill down from our outdoor kitchen for John and JoAnn Herzfeld at their shorefront on Lovejoy pond. This grill is a little over 3′x4′, with a cast iron grate cooking surface of 20″x30″. We made two grate settings, one for charcoal and one for wood. We finished this with a jack [...]
Jenny’s Chimney
Jenny Philbrick wanted a chimney with an alcove in it. We started in the basement with a solid chimney 4′ wide and an arched hearth for a woodstove. On the first floor we divided the chimney at 5′. Jenny has a cathedral ceiling, so ending the gothic arch at 9′ left us 4′ to shoulder [...]
Outdoor Firepits
One of our suppliers, Joe Bixby brought us this wonderful, firebrick lined firepit. Joe did a great job trimming and fitting the granite in to a tight circle cap. This is a true work of art. It is 4’6″ outside and 3′ inside. We built a fieldstone planter, same width only taller and set it in [...]
Outdoor kitchen
We are building a woodfired brick and stone bake oven, with granite countertops and a connecting grill. We build a block base on a concrete footing, that we pour on styrofoam. We pour an insulating light weight slab to mount our refractory tiles. We’ll install a damper and then smoke shelf and chimney. We have [...]
Emily’s patio
We built this patio for Emily and Tom in Wayne with maine fieldstone that we cut and fit. We dug out the topsoil and replaced it with crushed rock, landscape fabric, stone dust. We compacted this and carefully graded it to drain away from the house. We get some interesting patterns by making tight [...]
Pocasset Shores
We built stairs and retaining wall down to a new entry to this house in Wayne. First we move the rough boulder retaining wall down 3 feet to get out of the drive way line. Then we unloaded the rough steps and set them in a crushed rock base. These are rustic steps that we [...]
Stonework Patio
We built a new patio for Emily with tightly fit stone, trying to match the old. The old has a patina of moss between the rocks that takes years to grow. We use a mash of moss, manure tea, buttermilk and coffee grounds to give it a head start.
SPRING JOBS
We rebuilt this stonewall for Lee Anne Baggott of the easy breathing clinic, just before the bridge going east in Augusta. We start by digging out the wall about 2 feet deep, puting 8″ of crushed rock under the wall and then landscape fabric behind it. We pour concrete behind the stone, pull the forms [...]
Labyrinth in another
We completed Barbara Moss labyrinth and liked building it so much that we build our own. We used the same format, finding the center, layout a grid with landscape nails, stiff hoses and digging rough trenches. We prepare a base of compacted sand for a mix of left over pavers, which blended well together. The [...]