Woodpeckers seem to love the parts of a house that are built or covered with cedar, like cedar beams and cedar siding. It’s too bad because cedar is really a beautiful building material. Maybe it’s because cedar is a soft wood and it’s easier to drill into. Woodpeckers will drill into the wood on houses […]
This paver project used sand joints, and the construction method is referred to as an interlocking paver system. The pavers are not mortared, but laid on a sand bed abutting each other. The interlocking concept means that the pavers can’t move independently, when they are held in place by angular sand particles and edging restraints. […]
Recently, we saw in someone’s yard, a newly installed area (about 8’ x 2.5’) of pavers with sand joints, that had been installed alongside an existing asphalt driveway. Unfortunately for the homeowner, it was poor construction. Using pavers along side a driveway can be a great solution for many reasons, such as adding more space […]
I’m having a new fence constructed along one of the side property lines in my yard. The contractor has been hired, and I’m in the process of putting the finishing touches on the design drawings and the specifications for the project, which I’ll give to the contractor to build from. My husband and I both […]
When we see steps that were constructed at the very edge of a walk or driveway, when there was ample room to move the steps back away from these objects, it is puzzling to us. In fact, as landscape (outdoor) architects, it is a pet peeve of ours! If you can’t picture what we […]
If you are not familiar with installing wood posts, you can become overwhelmed with the various designs for concrete footings out there. This is the concrete footing we spec for various projects. It is designed to protect wood posts by allowing the bottom of the post to be exposed for drainage to help reduce the […]
This is an arbor we designed as part of a residential project a number of years ago, and we thought it may help give a little inspiration to anyone who may be thinking of putting one in their own yard. This type of outdoor architectural structure can be used as a focal point, and to […]
A wood porch can add such architectural character to a house, and present great opportunities for adding detailing to your home. Porches, being at a higher elevation than the surrounding grade, use masonry piers or wood posts to support the structural framing for the raised wood porch (ledger boards are used also, but they typically […]
Traveling along the highway and those stretches of country roads, those long expanses of the classic post and rail fences are a familiar site, beautifully poised to follow the rise and fall of the ever undulating lay of the land. They really give a rather grandeur presence to whatever lies behind them, even if […]
Many types of plants, including a grass lawn, can be used to stabilize and cover a slope, or hillside, to prevent erosion of the soil. Lawns typically need to be mowed many times during a growing season, though. And depending on the angle of the slope, a grass lawn can be difficult to mow, and […]
