The bricked portion will be expanded in the future.
Working Around The House
Most of our landscape/concrete work has been done by my trusted friend Carlos Martinez. Carlos does an excellent job and both Joy and I completely trust his work and have no problem recommending him. He is experienced in this field and does the work professionally and within schedule. As for his price, well, you'll have to negotiate with him.
Carlos also is our gardener. He comes every weekend to mow the lawn and check the sprinklers. Thanks Carlos!
Bricked Patio
This was one of the very first jobs Carlos did for us.
|
|
|
|
The bricked portion will be expanded in the future. |
Digging for the drainage
Carlos adviced me to put proper water drainage on our backyard. This was perfect because when we had that two weeks of rain out here in Southern California, our backyard did not get flooded.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Green grass, Finally!
|
|
|
|
|
|
After weeks of postponing the installation of the automatic sprinklers and the grass due to rain in Southern California, we were finally able to put grass in backyard. Atleast now it's not so dusty when the wind blows hard from the creek. |
|
Let's expand the driveway
For the longest time I couldn't understand what the developer had in mind here. So, Joy and I decided to concrete the grass portion in our front driveway.
|
|
|
|
|
For about the whole month of February 2005, it has been constantly raining. So it was hard for Carlos to finished the concrete slab for the driveway and the screened patio. |
|
|
|
|
This year, Southern California really had a record for rainfall. It was raining on and off for weeks. Mudslides and houses were red-tagged in Los Angeles. Finally, when the rain stopped, Carlos was able to finish the driveway. |
Now we have a much useable cemented space to work with. Two compact cars could park in tandem and yet leave the cars inside the garage un-blocked. We now have more space in our driveway for guests to park or for the kids to play, bike, or rollerblade. |
Building an screened patio
To date, this is the most exciting project ever. We are building an enclosed (screened) patio, which will also serve as our official Home Theater area. When used as a patio, the view down the creek will completely be visible. While when used as a home theater, separate acoustic panels will be put in place to block the outside view and to insulate the interior from external noises.
We are planning on having an 8' projector screen, and a couple of rows of home theater lounge chairs. A wet bar will be located behind the seats (at the back of the theater).
This patio is not attached to the house, so sound from this theater room will not disturb the occupants of the main house.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Due to rain, two weeks have passed where not work could be done. The ground was so soft and muddy, and the drains that were placed were not ready yet. (as you can see, the pipes are sticking out). I had to drill holes on the base of the drain pipes to let water in. After I put the holes, water just emptied into the drain pipes. When the rain stopped, the ground dried up. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Finally, Carlos was able to concrete. |
Ready to put the posts |
Can't wait till its finished |
Swimming Pool
Joy and I had our little wishlist when we designed the pool. I wanted a submerged bar with the barstools in the pool. A swimup bar was what I really wanted, but it would have meant that we extend the size of the pool. Joy on the otherhand wanted a bar-b-que island. Here in Santa Clarita, the nights can become VERY cold. Which means, friends and guests will not be able to stay outside the house on parties. So we had a firepit built as opposed to the Chimenea we currently have.
We had Designer Pools, Inc. come and gave us an estimate. We did not like their customer service and had been recommended to try SCV Pools. Mr. Steve Erenberg came and help us design the pool. In the end, their pool was a better value than Designer Pools, Inc.
|
|
|
Click here to see our swimming pool. |
