Here's where the strings come in

A lot of you must be getting really sick of these posts. Hang in there--just a couple weeks until it's done. With the house practically completed, the landscaping is in full effect. It costs a load to pour a new concrete driveway, so we broke it up into large, geometric slabs that will be linked by rebar and couched in gravel.


The idea is that not only will the configuration be cheaper, but it will look cooler and be more effective in facilitating drainage. The slabs--which will resemble stacked parallelograms or rhombuses and are marked by pink string--are arranged around the existing carport columns. I love it when a design works with existing challenges and structures rather than tears everything up and starts over.


In the foreground, my neighbor confers with John Hartel of Naturecare Landscaping and John Chan of Formation Association about the side and rear fence that border her property. I'm lucky to have a cool neighbor, excellent landscaper, and amazing designer... Not to mention stellar contractor in CalAsia. If any one of them was even a little bit lame, Wendy and I would be hurting for certain.


When the project began, we were inundated with warnings and horror stories, but everything has been awesome. Not cheap, but awesome. Just one detail left on my checklist: I've been paying for this outhouse and want to use it at least once before it gets trucked away. I'm serious, and I don't mean just taking a leak.