July 2010 House Projects

It was a fairly relaxing month. My parents were here the first week of the month so we did a lot of touristy things. The rest of the month was working on getting some other projects completed. The front fence is finally done. The ornamental fence was installed the day after my birthday. It looks beautiful! A huge difference from the original wood fence. The house looks more inviting and bigger.

The Front Fence
The guys measure a section of fence between the columns. Or in this picture they are measuring the height of the flat end post for the entrance gate.
Next they cut a big fence section down to size. The cut accommodates for the size between the columns and the "L" shaped anchor brackets.
A hole is drilled into the columns for the shell or frame anchor.
Double check to make sure the hole is big enough for the anchor.
The anchor is then tapped in.
It is a little hard to see here in the picture but the section of fence with the attached "L" brackets are placed in position and then the washer and bolt are fastened in.
The hinges are welded to the flat end post bar and to the gate.
The latches are then welded to the gate.
Once they were finished with the welding they painted any of the exposed metal/iron.
Completed fence from the back.
Completed fence from the front.

Preparing The Front Lawn
Since the grass didn't grow over the winter and just died we are now planning an alternative for the front yard. I started to turn up the soil in the front yard to get rid of the waste (spark plugs, old water sprinkler pipes, bottle caps, etc.), the roots from the weeds, all the fennel that grows randomly and the tree roots. I also think doing this will give us a better idea of what type of "soil" we have.


Cutting Down More Pine Trees
So we were able to get back outside and cut down some more of the pine trees in the back yard. The Pine Trees would be in the way when we get ready to replace the back fence so we are trying to trim them down as much as possible.
After cutting down some more of the tree it seems like there may even be three pine trees growing in the area. The trees are growing over and into each other which makes it difficult for Nathan to find a place to cut and then pull the cut sections out.
The pile of Pine Wood after the first and second cuts.
More Pine Wood stacked on top of the California Bay Laurel wood.

New Plants
Nathan found an ad on Craigslist for free Aloe Vera plants. He went and checked them out and brought home a couple of sections of the plant. Nathan planted them and they are now part of the front yard landscaping.
(See the first picture in Preparing The Front Lawn.)

The new master bathroom and front fence were inspected by the city of Seaside so we have now official closed the one open permit we had :)