Danville City Beautiful Award 2004

In these photographs you will also notice I had not as yet built the storage building, had not put in the new windows, shutters, gutters or widened the driveway and sidewalk to the side garage door. Also in the slide most of the trees are gone...they died because of the extensive landscaping. The patio and back concrete pad I had just been put in. Also in the slide show is the 3 small landscaping walls, 2 in the back, 1 in the front. Over the past years I've spent a nice sum of money and time on this house. Wished I had took some pics before excavating the 10 dump truck loads of dirt out the back. Contractors wanted between $12,000 & $14,000 for this job, and I ended up with less than $2,500 complete. I should have replaced my windows myself that was a hefty price tag. New windows and doors, gutters, all wood trimed in vinyl, added insulation in the attic was $11,000.

The excavating of the lot should have taken place when the house was built. With the lay of the lot, water drainage from the property beside and behind me was directed right to my house and heavy down pours was a problem.

Yes.....my lawn....won the Danville City Beautiful award in 2002 and then again 2004. The bad news is the last 4 years I hadn't keep it where it has been in the past, because of making so many trips to the James River in the fall & spring. But I still receive so many compliments and it still turns heads for anyone passsing by. Taking a look, the wall travels the length and width of the lawn which includes 860 blocks, weighing 80 pounds each. This would have been a great project to take photographs of before starting the excuvation of the (10) dump truck loads of dirt that was taken out the back. I've got some other pics putting up the wall below. The menu on the top left hand side has the slide show link or click here.. The slide show is better viewed in FireFox, with the newer Internet Exlporer I haven't searched for code that the mucic will play in the background. The music just makes it that much more enjoyable. The slide show can either be viewed by clicking "AutoPLay" or the arrows can be clicked on to view each photograph one at a time.

The photograph below, the side course is finished, except for the top caps and backfilling the wall. Once the footer of rock dust is packed and leveled and the first course of blockes layed and leveled, the installation goes rather quickly. The radius at the corner was a little difficult and slowed the process somewhat.

	In these photographs you will also notice I had not as yet built the storage building, had not put in the new windows, shutters, gutters or widened the driveway and sidewalk to the side garage door. Also in the slide most of the trees are gone...they died because of the extensive landscaping. The patio and back concrete pad I had just been put in. Also in the slide show is the 3 small landscaping walls, 2 in the back, 1 in the front. Over the past years I've spent a nice sum of money and time on this house. Wished I had took some pics before excavating the 10 dump truck loads of dirt out the back. Contractors wanted between $12,000 & $14,000 for this job, and I ended up with less than $2,500 complete. I should have replaced my windows myself that was a hefty price tag. New windows and doors, gutters, all wood trimed in vinyl, added insulation in the attic was $11,000. The excavating of the lot should have taken place when the house was built. With the lay of the lot, water drainage from the property beside and behind me was directed right to my house and heavy down pours was a problem. Yes.....my lawn....won the Danville City Beautiful award in 2002 and then again 2004. The bad news is the last 4 years I hadn't keep it where it has been in the past, because of making so many trips to the James River in the fall & spring. But I still receive so many compliments and it still turns heads for anyone passsing by. Taking a look, the wall travels the length and width of the lawn which includes 860 blocks, weighing 80 pounds each. This would have been a great project to take photographs of before starting the excuvation of the (10) dump truck loads of dirt that was taken out the back. I've got some other pics putting up the wall below. The menu on the top left hand side has the slide show link or click here.. The slide show is better viewed in FireFox, with the newer Internet Exlporer I haven't searched for code that the mucic will play in the background. The music just makes it that much more enjoyable. The slide show can either be viewed by clicking "AutoPLay" or the arrows can be clicked on to view each photograph one at a time. The photograph below, the side course is finished, except for the top caps and backfilling the wall. Once the footer of rock dust is packed and leveled and the first course of blockes layed and leveled, the installation goes rather quickly. The radius at the corner was a little difficult and slowed the process somewhat.

	Below, the first 2 courses are down on the back wall and you can see my tractor in the background. The blocks were staged on pallets in proximity of where they where thought to be needed. The concrete company delivered the load on a tractor trailer and then used a piggy back 3 wheel forklift to remove the blocks and place them along the wall footer.

	Below, just about to finish with the large 80 pound blocks and mostly the cap blocks are remaining. To backfill the wall, first I layed drain tile and coverd that with 2 feet of gravel. I then rented a Bobcat to make the job quick and easy.

	Below, finished with backfilling, with only a few blocks left for the end of the wall plus placing all the top caps on the wall.









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