Landscaping & Deck
The Lawn
Finding the right balance between the lawn, landscaping, and
hardscaping was the great challenge with the exterior of the
property. The lawn was initially hydro seeded, and then sod
was added in places in the rear of the home. Because of
the rocky nature of the lot's inherent gravel, we ensured there
was at least 4-6 inches of top soil throughout the yard.
We have the toughest challenge of keeping the lawn in top
condition. At times it has been "like a golf course", but what
has happened the last couple years is that we let the kids
outside during the winter, and the combination of them running
on it with snow and ice melting has taken its toll. We
have it professionally "cleaned up" each Spring, and usually by
the Fall it's looking pretty good.
The Deck
Off the sunroom in the rear of the home is the large, 25' x
15' pressure-treated deck. It's a relaxing, private
retreat nestled in the center of the backyard. Important
in its design was its size--large enough to fit a picnic table
with space to walk around it, room for a gas grill, and a large
access way to the lawn.
Play Areas
The area in the back with "carpet grass" is for those items
that don't allow grass to grow, like playhouse and Little Tikes
slides. The last two years we also added one of those
inflatable pools (a 12-footer) that fits nicely there, and now
we don't have the mud spots that were a by-product of kids toys.
What we do have is another area off the deck called a Mud
Kitchen. It's an area for kids to be creative and work on
wooden "countertops". In addition, there's the built-in
swing set and clubhouse.
"The Great Wall of Norwood"
In front of the house is the large allan block retaining wall,
which drew quite a bit of local interest during its
construction. We designed it with built-in flower boxes to
soften it's towering appearance. It's one of those
"long-term" investments we made because it's a major factor in
the overall property appearance.
Drainage
The house is well drained. After the foundation was
poured, we ran a drain pipe immersed in crushed stone around the
perimeter, pitching it toward the street and tying into the
drain pipes used in the retaining wall. Do we get water in
the basement? The best way to describe is that we get
dampness in the basement. In the rear corner of the
basement where the furnace is located is where the grade level
is the highest. When digging the foundation, the excavator
hit a lot of rocky gravel and "soft ledge".
Well, in this corner was the toughest of all the ledge and,
after breaking or denting the excavator claws a few times with
little results, we decided to leave it as-is rather than blast.
The result is that it had only a couple inches of crushed stone
in that corner before the basement floor was poured. Much
of the water from the ground is moved toward the street, but in
the heaviest of rains (like in late May this year), we get a
little dampness in that corner. It seeps up through
pre-scored cuts in the floor and contains itself to about a
1'x4' area with never a build up. It just looks damp.
That's it. If you want more details, just ask!
The Timber Wall
As if having a "Great Wall of Norwood" was not enough, in the
rear of the house is an equally daunting timber wall. Our
goal was to provide as much space as possible for kids to play,
so we had to dig out as much as seven feet of terrain to provide
a level area. Then we had to retain it! We built a
two-tiered wall so it was not overwhelming and it allowed for
some creative plantings in the flower boxes.
|
