I made a ton of progress on the fire pit this weekend. No pictures yet. I should have documented the process but I was focused on the work. Saturday was such a beautiful day that as soon as we were back from voting and grabbing an awesome lunch, I headed for the backyard. Last weekend, we hauled most of the big wall bricks from the front yard to the back and began to lay out a layer for size and position. After reading this article, I grabbed a shovel and removed the outer ring of sod and dug down about 8". We had four 5-gallon buckets of pea gravel left over from some foundation work a couple years ago that have been taking up space in the garage ever since. I used two buckets of gravel to lay down a shallow layer for leveling and drainage. Then went the inner circle of sod. Going to use the sod to fill in what used to be the flower bed in front of the slab gate. Laying the initial layer of bricks wasn't too bad and as I was working on the first layer, I began to lay down the second layer to get a better idea of how it was going to look. I finished Saturday night with about an 8" space to fill on the first layer and a halfway complete second layer.

Sometime Sunday afternoon, I headed back out to finish the walls. Now for the fun part...brick breaking time. I chipped off about an inch or two from an already broken brick and got it to fit snuggly in the open space. Layer one complete!!! Ditto for the second layer. I didn't have any other mostly-broken brick so Will took over for the big job. Layer two complete!!! As he was making the final piece for me, I started to lay the top layer. Finding pieces that fit together in a circle-ish shape using pieces cut to fit an 11-foot circle was a challenge. But after a number of permutations I found a winning combo.

I'm very happy with how it looks. I can't wait to line it, fill it, and find a metal bowl (or have one made). I'm sure we know someone who can fabricate one for us. I wouldn't think it's that difficult. :^D

I found a replacement color for the previous baby blue in the guest bath. The blue was a nice color, but only in small amounts, I think. We like the "porpoise" walls much more. So, a greyish-blue counter, "porpoise" walls, white and super-dark navy shower tiles, and off-white floor tiles. With the silver walls, the dark navy shower tiles look black again. Combined with some new brushed stainless towel hooks, it looks gooooood.

I took the opportunity to shave off the popcorn texture above the sinks near the inset lighting. I got it down to a nice light texture that I'm going to paint over with white tinted with the porpoise. If all turns out well, I'm going to do the same to the rest of the bathroom ceiling.

Clockwise from left:  Lady Fern, Cast Iron Plant, Lace Fern, Variegated Flax Lily

Sunday was nothing but a gardening day for me. Starting in the back yard, I swept the dead leaves from the back porch, trimmed the nandinas, pulled more overgrown lirope to let the hydrangeas breathe again, moved a silly frog, trimmed the tree ferns, and dug daffodil, iris, and grape hyacinth bulbs from their wooden deck pots. We've had such a mild Spring so far that the grape hyacinths are already pushing up leaves! I need to bury them in sand and hide them in a cool area of the garage when I get a chance. Then I can haul all the old wooden pots to the curb as they're finally starting to fall apart. After a trip to the Home Depot Landscape Center and Calloways, I moved to the front yard. I planted about 30 'Bada Bing' begonias and a couple white caladiums around the sidewalk by the front door, divided a Cast Iron Plant that was blocking one of the sprinkler heads, added an Autumn Fern and a second Lace Fern under the cypress tree, mirrored an Evergreen Giant Lirope to hide part of the brand new gutter downspout, and weeded the hell out of my azaleas.

I need more days in my weekends. The whole point of me going outside this morning was to mow the grass...which I didn't get done. I put it off once it started to get hot but by the time I was finished with the gardens by the front door, it was 9:00. Oh well, it can wait another couple of days. On come the sprinklers which hits me in the back of the legs with cold water, prompting me to quickly clean up my tools and head in for the evening.

My weekends seem to be nothing but yard work any more, which I enjoy, but I need about 3 full days to get everything done that I need to.

After having some foundation work done and a french drain installed last summer, we ended up with a drainage issue on this side of the house. We hacked out the old holly bushes weeks ago, but I finally had enough consecutive non-rainy days to level the ground and lay some sod. Well, not really level. The newly laid sod is slightly angled away from the house towards the french drain and angled away from the fence towards the camera. The french drain is a few inches to the left of the left white pvc cap stretching the length of the house. I'm exhausted, my hands hurt, and I have a length of about 12 feet of ground left to sod to finish the first two rows, but I'm happy I made it this far.

Once I finish laying the sod, the next project is to add a couple flower beds in rings around the oak trees. White caladiums, pink begonias, and ferns, oh my! And we'll be getting gutters installed on the 6th to further help divert water away from the house. I need more days in my weekends.