Landscaping is done and Happy Birthday Jason

Monday we woke up to a very foggy morning. According to our forecast it will be another wet day.

No bats in the "bat cave" this morning or bat poop, could it be that we solved the issue? Our neighbours said they have not seen any on the side of the house and there is no poop evidence either. Let's hope.

This morning Ray headed off to Nanaimo for a doctor's appointment while I held down the fort for the stone mason to come and put in our stone hearth downstairs. (the replacement from the crappy rock job they did!)

UPDATE: The hearth stone is BROWN instead of gray!!!! So no work done again. This wasted 1/2 day for the mason's to pick up the stone in Nanaimo (ahhh too bad...not!) and David Coulson is working with the K2 people to remake the correct colour!

Tuesday woke up to a beautiful day.  The landscaping crew arrived at 8am Yeah!!! They had 4 guys plus the excavator operator. We moved the motorhome to the street to make room. These guys are fast and very clean ... all dirt swept up and left us with a clean driveway after all the material dumped on it. Day 1 was very successful and tomorrow they will finish.

Here are the before pictures of the front gardens.

February 2018 the day we purchased the house.

Driveway before the landscapers come.

Other side of driveway before garden is redone.

They were tasked with taking out the little path and redoing this garden. They used the mini excavator to move the rocks and to take out the old tree stump in the garden as well as getting rid of the old dirt in both gardens. Using a machine sure sped up the whole process.

Moving the lilac bush.

Taking out the tree stump.

Placing the rocks.

Ready for the plants tomorrow. Overnight we noticed deer footprints in the garden ... hopefully the new plants are not too tasty for them!

Ready for the lavender hedge to be planted tomorrow.

Moved all of the rocks out of the far side of the garden and used them alongside the stairs to the back yard to make a dry river effect.

 Ray had them clean up the path to the backyard with gravel too.

Dumping the gravel into wheelbarrows and the boys running it down Roy's driveway.

They also fixed our path in the backyard and got a good start on cementing the rock around the grass so it will be easier to mow the lawn.

These stones need to be moved to match up with the new stairs to the deck.

At 3pm their horticulturist Mark showed up, and we discussed garden design and what plants we would like to see that are deer resistant for both the front and back yard. They will be picked up tomorrow ready for planting.

The were done by 4pm for the day. Looking forward to seeing it finished tomorrow.

Wednesday morning the rain showers began as forecasted at 7:45 am. The guys are going to get wet today ... good weather for planting though. By 8:30 am  Ralph (job site supervisor) and his helper had arrived to start work. Today they worked on the stacked rocks on the side garden, fixing the fallen rocks on the stairs to the beach and finishing cementing the top rocks around the gardens on the left side of the stairs to the beach.

Ralph did a fantastic job with the dry stacked rock garden. The side of the house from the new stairs to the back patio now looks awesome, not just a place for junk. We had enough flat rock to finish this up too.

Also new soil and grass was planted on the damage parts of the lawn from the deck demo. Looks awesome.

The plants did not arrive until 2:30 pm ... my HGTV moment. :) The rain had stopped by then so good time to plant.

Hope the deer leave this stuff alone. It is all supposed to be deer resistant.

They managed to get the front garden on the left planted before the end of the day and all the rest of the plants layed out to where they were to be placed. Unfortunately they ran out of time for today and Ralph cannot be here tomorrow but his helper David, will be here to finish the planting and cleaning of the driveway and sidewalk from the dirt.

Lavender hedge all lined up to be planted.

Deer footprints ... they checked out every plant but did not chew. Yeah. I guess the neighbour's yard has more tasty morsels.  Lots of room between plants right now but all of this should fill in in the next couple of years so very little dirt will be exposed. I still have room for some pots of colour with bedding plants.

Our son-in-law, Jason, and his friend were supposed to be on a fishing trip at Kissinger Lake on Wednesday, but the gate was closed as the campsite is not open yet. They had Ray check out the campsite next to us to make sure it was open and it was. They moved into there for a few days. We can see them from our driveway lol. 

Thursday being such a wet day we all went out to lunch at Jake's at the Lake and then they went home for naps. lol They did spend a bunch of time here at the house. I made a big batch of spaghetti so they came back for dinner. Bonus for them. lol 

Looking pretty comfortable. lol

David, from Living Stones, finished planting by the end of the afternoon and hosed down the driveway from all of the dirt. Job Done.

I finished planting my herbs.

Yup, you can see Jason's trailer from our driveway. lol 

David replaced all of the fallen rock on the sides of the stairs.

We are "over the moon" that Ray's landscape plan he envisioned last June has now come to fruition ... even better than he dreamed.

Friday morning was sunny with clouds and cool at 3C. A little break from the showers until late this afternoon. Great for my new plants. Our hearth for the propane stove downstairs is finally installed and the stove will be rehooked up next week. 

Still wet from washing down the mortar.

Jason and his friend Adrian finally decided to attempt fishing ... from our dock in comfy chairs. lol Too much work to launch his boat since this was the only sunny day.

After several hours of that, it was time for a shower and a hot tub.

Kristi made it down from Nanaimo at about 5:45 pm with 2 dogs in tow. Her dog Zeus and she is looking after her friends dog for the week adding to the mix. Nyx is a 2 year old mastiff/pitbull cross, so friendly and full of energy. Freya is down a few toys as Nyx has ripped them to get the squeakers out! Jason had Athena over at the campsite where it is much quieter.

Nyx

My roast beast turned out well, according to the birthday boy Jason. I even made him homemade horseradish. Jason's friend Adrian tried it, loved it but it made his eyes water. lol We were all laughing at him.

Adrian, Jason, Ray and Kristi

After dinner we had birthday cake that Kristi brought with her.  Happy Birthday Jason!

We woke up to rain Saturday morning. It had been raining all night so good for our new plants. Quiet day except for the dogs. lol No deer damage to the new plants. It poured all day until about 3:30 pm when the sun finally came out. Jason and Adrian left their campsite by 10 am this morning to go back to Nanaimo. Kristi and Jason switched out dogs ... Athena, their shepherd came here and Nyx, the high energy 2 year old went back with Jason. Nyx barely ever sat down, running around the house like a lunatic. Other than chewing up Freya's toys she was very well behaved but busy.

"Back off dogs ... this is my Aunty Kristi

 Kristi invited a friend who she went to school with in the Charlottes, Robyn and her husband Cory, for dinner tonight ... they have a new baby that I will get to cuddle. Yeah.

It was great seeing them. Cuddling did not happen. Cory is away from home with his work a good portion of the time, so Robyn is often on her own and so the baby is really only used to "mommy" and quiet. Well our house is noisy, had 3 large dogs running around and lots of people so Amalia was not very happy. Had to laugh though, she pooped herself so bad that it leaked on to Robyn's pants and Kristi had to give Robyn a pair of pants to wear.  The baby only had a sweater and a diaper to wear after that episode. Of course this all happened as I was putting dinner on the table!. Good practice for me, ha ha ha.

Robyn, Cory and Amalia

What is making all of that racket!

Happy now, she's going home.

And that was our week.