Yesterday, Ahmed hit up the home improvement store and convinced skeptical homeowners Jim and Sue to take a chance. Now they’re about to find out what they got themselves into.
Jim: Oh my God. What is this?
Ahmed: Well, you said you want to pull the weeds, right?
Jim: It could be an army.
Ahmed: I want you to meet a good friend of mine, alright? Jacob Moss, landscaper extraordinary, alright! We also have Nicholas over here who’s hardscape specialist and the guy I’ve really like lot is Tommy the lighting geek. Okay, without further ado why don’t we go check out the backyard?
Jim: We woke up and went out to meet Ahmed and I thought there’s going to be a couple of people but it turned to be this whole crowd. So, I don’t know exactly what is that plan but it sounds like it’s not going to be just pulling weeds.
Ahmed: Its’ dog-free. So what we have here so far, this is what we’re thinking. You can totally see what you’ve got right here. So, we have here visiting harbor which I did not wipe out like I can tell you guys like it but what we do have is a little fire table right here in the middle. Just a little something to have in your in your backyard.
We’ll giving you somewhat of like a dappled patio space here. Now, when you were saying Mediterranean garden, Mediterranean garden don’t really have huge concrete surfaces and hardscaping. They have a whole lot of gravel but you will have some concrete here which Nicholas is going to help us with. We also have a nice little water feature going on over here which Jake is going to tell you and take a lead on that and then Tommy is going to help make it all look sexy by putting all the lighting that we need.
Sue: They looked like a trustworthy crew.
Before anything major can happen, the side yard needs to be cleared and grated. Jim and Sue, their son Davis and friends make quick work of the demolition.
Nicholas: We are putting in a concrete patio with some stepping stones that is a stamped concrete.
Ahmed: Once then forms for the patio landing are set, rock and roll baby.
Nicholas: What we are doing is we’re laying down the three-quarter crushed rock. This allows us to have a stable surface so that when we apply the wet concrete and gets hard, they’ll medicate any crack
The concrete walk way will lead to a unique water feature.
Ahmed: The water features are actually a copper panel that’s a wall that has water spilling out of the center.
Jim: You’re kidding me?
Sue: Wow!
Ahmed: What’s going to happen, it’s just going to get a great over the top of it and then gravel. About six inches below where the top of the concrete is going to be, it’s perfect for your patio.
Forms are built for the concrete. The hole is dug for the water feature and the concrete truck is on the way. While the concrete crew screed and float the concrete, Jake has got the girls going on his hot idea.
Jake: This is going to be the fire table okay. Fire is going to come out of it when we need replicate it. It’s going to look like this so it’s going to be on fire.
Ahmed: We talk about this earlier. We’re going to have a perfect height so you can do this.
Jake: This white line represents the foundation. So when you dig that down just about three or four inches, not too much. I’m going to start making concrete.
Ahmed: The base of the table is a 2x2 foot square. So Jake cuts some forms to hold the base rock and concrete just like Nick and his crew did. Before anything else can happen to this fire table, the concrete has to dry. So there is time to move on to something else, the water wall.
The water wall frame is made with a 4x4 posts, the base with cement boarding and cover with copper flashing.
That’s what we wanted now. We can just go on and screw the cement board to this vertical post.
Now the “Sheer Descent” is basically your spout where the water is going to come through. So we’re just cutting that little opening. The base and what is this, the reservoir that fills up with water and then it evenly spills up this front until there.
Jake: It can be set near just like that and then we’re going put the 4x4 post to brace it in.
Ahmed: Now for the copper.
Jake: We’re going to glue it basically to the cement board and just scattered it up. You can actually make a little grain so that it anchors much better.
Ahmed: And this is like general all-purpose glue so it set it for the mud, for wood or metal. You name it, it will glue it exactly what the label says.
It was just two days ago that Jim and Sue’s were at the home improvement store for some weed killer. With some trust and some sweat they round up with one weekend landscape makeover and it’s just about done for the two yard crashers fashion. There’s always a little something more.
Tommy: We got some lighting plant here for this tree. We got a spotlight and there’s one on either side. We don’t want to put light directly in front of the tree. We want to put light on the side. That creates a much more dramatic.
Jim: It looks more interesting.
Tommy: Yeah, it gives you a lot more shadowing.
Ahmed: Okay just a couple more hours. A few plants need to go in. Some landscape rock and this side yard now has a medallion flare.
Well, the woman who had all the concerns and was worried.
Jim: Oh this is great now.
Sue: Yeah, this is really something.
Ahmed: And we all did this. You, your friends, your family, that small dude over there, this boy is going to enjoy the space outside and also you want it the water keeps your from inside it’s totally lined up. I think the dogs are going to like this too.
Jim: Oh yeah, I think they’re going to be afraid of it.
Sue: You know what I love, I love the way that concrete works with all the different color stone that you have.
Nicholas: And this table right here.
Ahmed: When you light this don’t light in the liquid. You can see were the alcohol lamp was at, right about there and this is going to control the amount of flame.
Ahmed: Hey, that was he did.
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