Archive for January, 2010

Landscape Inspiration

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Loving D-Crain landscape design. LOVING! Which I found after lisa tomiko mentioned Rig Red Sun in Venice.

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Also, Jonathan Duke, owner of Austin Outdoor Studio chimed in with a good tip about that steel landscape edging:

Hey Guys,

I just thought I’d chime in and offer a little advice if I could. We use regular hot rolled steel for our edging jobs. We prefer to do everything in 1/4″ thick steel if not thicker. Corten is great for certain installations like commercial planter application to minimize the rusting. I don’t believe it is necessary for landscaping steel. You’d be suprised how long it takes for 1/4″ steel to rust through.

Here are some tips for having a local shop do it for you.

1.) You want to use steel that is atleast 1-2″ wider than the height you want out of the ground. This will help any washout problems that could happen. Hot Rolled steel is available in widths ranging from 1-12″ that are 20′ long. If you want talled than 12″ you will have to get full sheets fo steel sheared and then weld them together.

2.) The steel can be anchored to the ground in several ways. We use 5/8″ rebar for most edging installations, but other means for taller structures to get the support. The rebar stakes need to be pounded into the ground at least 18″ and then welded to steel edging. Tell the welder which side of the steel the stakes need to be welded on.(you shouldn’t be able to see them. Sometimes it is necesarry to weld angle iron to the back to get perfectly straight edging.

3.) The most important things to communicate to the welder is it must be straight, plumb and installed level if that is the look you are going for. Otherwise, what’s the point of paying the extra cost if it doesn’t look right.

4.) Edging takes longer than you might think to install properly and welder’s rates are not cheap, so keep that in mind if the shop wants to bill you by the hour.

Good luck and keep up the good work, its looking great!

Jonathan Duke
Owner
Austin Outdoor Studio

Hooray, professional tips! Thank you interweb!

Front Yard

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Yes, I know. This exterior stuff is getting a little dull. But look how terrible that screen door is and the janky mailbox – the SHAME of it.

But it’s not as bad as this:

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The dreaded google street view.

Ohhh, poor Brick House. Look at your ugliness! A chair? Really? A sofa? A bunch of grapefruit? Ugh.

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Slowly and cheaply we will make you beautiful. Because your resale value…hmmm. Not going to be great in this town.

Still to do:

    -Paint! Seriously, paint the house
    -Roof fixing
    -Flashing fixing
    -Landscape
    -Driveway gate
    -Exterior lighting
    -House numbers (first thing I bought! I have them sitting in a drawer patiently waiting)
    -Masonry side fence (to prettify the side yard as well)
    -Short side fence (knock down that white crap)
    -Walkway pavers
    Horizontal slat patio screen
    -Hard-scape (with boulders!)
    -Front door
    -Drip irrigation?

    This is going to cost a fortune. Maybe I could just paint the front yard green.

    Patio

    Friday, January 8th, 2010

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    Image and video hosting by TinyPic

    We are still chugging along on the patio and fire pit and almost hit the halfway point. I know you all are probably tired of seeing this project in process, but it’s consuming our lives right now – so suck it.

    We did our first mortar job and discovered that we are not great masons. Oops. It is pretty solid even though our lameness tried to ruin it.

    We also installed wood edging to help reign in the rock. We used 4 x 4″ pressure treated wood that was first sealed to resist the great outdoors. What I really want is COR-TEN steel edging like my fake boyfriend Blake Dollahite’s got going on.

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    The only fabricators I’ve been able to find that would understand what I want is Austin Outdoor Studio. Problem is, 1. They are in Austin and 2. I’m pretty sure they would be crazy cost prohibitive.

    Where the hell do you buy cor-ten steel? I gotta learn to weld so that I can suck at that too.