lingering landscapes: installation pt. 2

A bunch of progress today! The crew finished farming out the various concrete objects and then poured cement.

Here's the art stand near the bedroom door:

Here's the other patio planter. You can see the rebar reinforcement here.

A view with both planters in the view; pouring concrete in the far one:

Banging at the framing to settle the 'crete:

Smoothed out and coming together! The space in the foreground is the pond; the area toward the rear is a planter. I feared that perhaps the pond would be too shallow, but as it's coming together, it looks good. The landscaper worried that perhaps the planters themselves were too short. We designed them also to serve as seats and places to set drinks. They'll work. Low-slung works with the house as well.

View looking toward the back. They have the far planter covered to control how quickly it dries out (and also keep the periodic rain from plucking the top).

Concrete bottom in the pond. They also installed a pipe to install a pump at some point in the future. Not planning to at this point (skeeter fish will eat the skeeters), but nice to have the option.

Concrete bottom on the left for the pond; open to the ground on the right for the planter.

Stage step.

Everything's exposed now and drying out.

The other planter. This one is all planter, so it's all open bottom.

Here's the little art stand.

There're the boards to form the horizontal lines on the planters. Neat photo because it shows the grade on the patio.

Edges all smoothed out. Can't wait for the boards to come off!

dancing with architecture: pedernales falls state park

Between the waves of rain that have surged over Texas the past month, we were able to drive out to Pedernales Falls State Park an hour to the west of Austin yesterday. Not much there in the way of architecture, although we enjoyed the cubic limestone sitting blocks as well as the angular benches along the hiking trails. Park rangers were not letting folks down along the river due to expected flooding from the previous evening's upbasin rainfalls. Nonetheless, we enjoyed a leisurely hike with a couple of master gardeners identifying plants and insects.

lingering landscapes: installation pt. 1

The doorbell rang. It was 8:45 am. Nothing good comes of a doorbell ringing that early. And one bummer of having a glass door is not being able to peek to see who it is before deciding how to respond. Although I had been up since 7, I was still in my night coat (a habit you pick up when you live in a glass house). I heard some clanking of the driveway gate. Could it be...

Yes! It was the landscaper! He and his crew were there to start our project!

Back in March, I laid out some of the undone bits of the landscaping that needed to be done, especially the planters the architects envisioned framing the back patio. This project is also a New Year's resolution. I finally hooked up with the landscaper for a quote, and he finally was able to get to our place (it has been a wet and wild springs round these parts...). The crew set forth on framing out the first of two concrete planters.

I can see why these things cost the Big Bucks. It took two dudes almost five hours to get the first planter/pond framed out, and it looks legit. They've got another planter, a pedestal, and a stage step to frame before concrete can be poured. Exciting to see this finally start to get done!