Towards Stairways

The last post covered work through the morning of September 5th. With the digging done and dirt tamped down the next steps were to put the edgings in place and the fabric cloth down to cover the dirt pathways. These next two pictures taken the morning of September 18th show that work has been complete and, in addition, the first ton of sand has been added on the ground of the pond patio:


That picture is from the driveway side of the pond patio. The edge of the pond is to the right, reflecting the morning light. The patio is straight ahead, with green edging on the sides, and a bit of white fabric cloth is showing underneath the sand. The construction of this patio will be standard flagstone-on-sand.

At the bottom of that photo you can see the newly-added dirt is sloped away from the patio edging. Erosion is a definite concern. I made sure that the slope is no steeper than 1-in-2 (about 33%) and tamped it extensively. However, I will be adding in embedded stakes and something to cover this during the winter to prevent erosion. You can also see a black-painted stake in front of the edging - the track will be running along this side of the patio and then along the driveway side of the pond.

One thing you can see in this photo and the next are a lot pine needles on the ground -- a reality of this time of year. This next picture is from the front of the house and shows the edged pathway extending from the pond patio:


The next three pictures were taken yesterday. This first one was taken from the pond patio looking south toward the front patio:


You can see flagstones on the ground. Actually we won't have any flagstones on the pathway -- that will be "red breeze" like the bridge approaches -- but these are staged for use on the pond patio. I started to place those then I realized it would be better to have the rest of the sand first.

This next one is from the south side of the front patio looking north towards the pond:



The rock walls and the fabric cloth for the pond patio are complete in this photo. You can also see the first two steps on the stairway to the front porch. I decided to use something that looked "natural" but was somewhat varied from what we have elsewhere in the garden. These are "siloam" rock steps -- basically slabs of siloam rock that have a flat surface to be used as stones. I am trying for 7" risers and 11" steps, but of course it is approximate. A ton of this type of rock is about $100, which is enough for 3 steps. Getting these into position involves a lot of trial and error, and the time involved depends on your experience and what compromises you'll accept. I focused more on safety than on looks, but I think it is okay.

Here is the last photo for this post, which is just in front of the front stairs:


That photo was taken late yesterday afternoon. After much consideration of possible building materials for the stairway from the front porch I decided to start with a deck extension, shown in this photo, and then transition to stone steps.

Last weekend I put in the concrete piers for this structure -- basically just pre-molded piers, placed in dug holes and leveled, then surrounded by poured concrete (one 60 pound bag per two piers). This weekend I built the substructure using pressure-treated fir and strong tie connectors.

There is still a little work to be done at the transition areas on the porch side and the left side, and I worked on some of that today. I actually rebuilt the bottom two porch stairs. It turns out the second porch stair was misconstructed and was shorter than the other two, which made the stairway somewhat awkward to use. I took the stairs off and added wood extenders to make the stair normal width. This also will serve to extend the bottom stair over this new deck, so the transition will look natural.

My next step is to finish off this structure, then work on finishing the stairs connecting the front patio to the front porch. Will it be done by Hallowe'en?