Pulaski

Perfect, and I can see why that would spur you to get help with the final step when you were so close to finished.

Jolly Good

Looks amazing!

ddsrph

Thanks. Maybe you and husband can stop by when passing this way on one of your trips. We could have a few brews and cookout. Same for any of my BE buds.

Ozzidoc

They look nice. How have they held up over summer?

ddsrph

The Polywood furniture being under roof should last for years. Even when outside if anything like vinyl siding it should be very durable. I have some on back porch and the gazebo, both under roof and I expect it to outlast me. It’s also very heavy and not easily blown over in storms.

ddsrph

When I built my house 7 years ago I did much of the work and to speed things up I put light weight, largely fiberglass, artificial stone on my porch posts called GenStone. It would be ideal for an accent wall but I wanted something better for porch. I bought some more stone like on the Gazebo and having it put up today. I spend several days removing the old stuff but wanted the new stone done quickly. They can do in one day what would take me weeks to do.

Pulaski

Looks nice, and it's great that it matches the gazebo pillars too.

I have several projects planned, but still need to put the finishing touches to the plinth that the AC sits on (maybe this weekend ), and I have been renewing my long term battle against waves of invasive "English" ivy and periwinkle.

The former can be removed physically with considerable success, but the periwinkle gets its roots into the ground (which us currently as hard as a rock as we have had negligible rain for two months ) and unfortunately has to be sprayed with Roundup (I generally prefer to avoid weedkiller whenever possible).

My experience is that it takes at least three "passes" to clear an area - the first to spray as much of it as possible while retreating, so as not to walking into the sprayed foliage. The second pass is to get the areas I missed, then the third and additional passes are to get the small bits of periwinkle that are trying to make a comeback.

All of this takes time.

ddsrph

We have a lot of Cudzu in our area. None on my land yet but several areas its growing over everything including large trees. If there was a good use for it a lifetime supply would be no problem.

ddsrph

Six hours start to finish. Did a good job. Applied a scratch coat to all four posts then a lot of mortar put on each piece.

Jolly Good

Looks really good!

ddsrph

Thanks. I was glad to get it done. I was never happy with the original GenStone I put on but it looked ok and held up well. The GenStone would be ideal for an indoor accent wall as it can be glued directly to Sheetrock and looks good.

joto

We are getting floor tiling done on our first floor, at long last. It has been delayed for months for various reasons. First choice of tile was slightly different colour to the sample that we liked, second choice was too expensive for the whole area, third choice, the sample for this lot should be here any day, but we liked the tile, but it was out of stock, so we have to approve that sample from that stock, get it delivered. The existing flooring, tile and carpet torn up, stuff put in storage, then paint the whole area. If it will be done before Thanksgiving, I will be surprised. I am getting even more gray hairs just thinking about it. The only good thing is that we can reduce the numbers of bottles of wine to go into storage.

ddsrph

Tile is the way to go for lifetime lasting floors. If it’s not going on concrete floors just make sure they use the correct underlayment. Over wood floors cement board glued and screwed down is the way to go. There is a good website which has helped me a lot in my remodel and building efforts called “diychatroom” It’s broken down into separate areas of construction. There is a large retail chain called Floors and More that seems to have good prices and selection of tile. I try to buy about 10% excess to make sure I have enough and for any future repairs.

ddsrph

Decided to built a sidewalk from porch to Gazebo that has a 6-8 feet offset and about 30 feet total length.This would normally require at least two finishers plus a concrete truck delivery and a lot of wood to frame up. Easily 2500-3500 dollar job. I am doing myself by pouring in four foot long sections using 5 bags of 80 lb concrete mix mixed in my wheel barrow with garden hoe. I can pour a section then if desired wait days or weeks to pour the next one. Short rebar stubs will insure the side walk stays level. I have done one pour at porch end and have the second pour ready for tomorrow at the gazebo end. Very little framing needed as it’s reusable. Total cost will be a fraction of a contracted job.

Nutek

I have been toying around with dry-pour. Looks perfect for this sort of project. Plenty of YouTube vids but I can’t post links from this device.