National Pie Day 3.14 greetings folks.

Ram27 wrote:

National Pie Day 3.14 greetings folks.

Ram27 wrote:

One thing I miss from house dwelling to apartment dwelling is having a garden. Our apt place has some raised bed garden plots in the green space out by the pool (only like 5x10 ft plots) but last year they were all spoken for. Some people did veggies but most were flowers and herbs. Looking at them, the soil looks rather anemic since they don't get the proper organic material mulched in year after year.

That said there's huge mound of grass clippings and leaves behind the fence by the pool shed where the landscapers dump stuff. Bottom layer is nice black compost. (don't know why folks don't see this black gold and use it)

Another bunch of folks on the first floor (where I'm stationed) do container gardening and they do pretty well. There's a couple apartments down the row that are occupied by some old folks that do a lush flower and herb display outside their place. I'm told they do it every year. Might have to introduce myself and get some tips from them.

I'd like to do at least do some herbs, peppers, pole beans and maybe tomatoes (not a big tomato fan but the are easy to grow). Maybe buy a couple of those half barrel oak planters and some other planters for container gardening this year

BuckyB93 wrote:

Dagnabit! Trying to drop a few lbs and now I want one of those hugh berry pies from Costco.

deadeyedick wrote:

Wife changed her mind on the paver patio.

Now she just wants plain concrete slab... a 48ft x 10 ft concrete slab... I said stamped? Or dyed and polished? She said no, just brushed concrete.

When we bought the house it had a raised concrete slab deck and concrete walkway with landscaping against the house and she hated it. I had to tear it out anyway for foundation repairs but I don't know why she wants a driveway sized chunk of concrete in the yard. I told her I'm gonna be real tempted to park project cars on it unless she at least considers stamped concrete. I do not like large concrete patios. I think it looks cheap. It's not cheap but it looks it. And concrete does two things - gets hard and cracks. A properly set paver patio would outlast a poured pad.

A quick text message to a buddy who used to be in concrete work says it may save $2-3k over the $8-10k paver patio but if stamped or polished may be more. And followed up with "but it's gonna crack"

danmdevries wrote:

Wife changed her mind on the paver patio.

Now she just wants plain concrete slab... a 48ft x 10 ft concrete slab... I said stamped? Or dyed and polished? She said no, just brushed concrete.

When we bought the house it had a raised concrete slab deck and concrete walkway with landscaping against the house and she hated it. I had to tear it out anyway for foundation repairs but I don't know why she wants a driveway sized chunk of concrete in the yard. I told her I'm gonna be real tempted to park project cars on it unless she at least considers stamped concrete. I do not like large concrete patios. I think it looks cheap. It's not cheap but it looks it. And concrete does two things - gets hard and cracks. A properly set paver patio would outlast a poured pad.

A quick text message to a buddy who used to be in concrete work says it may save $2-3k over the $8-10k paver patio but if stamped or polished may be more. And followed up with "but it's gonna crack"

danmdevries wrote:

Wife changed her mind on the paver patio.

Now she just wants plain concrete slab... a 48ft x 10 ft concrete slab... I said stamped? Or dyed and polished? She said no, just brushed concrete.

When we bought the house it had a raised concrete slab deck and concrete walkway with landscaping against the house and she hated it. I had to tear it out anyway for foundation repairs but I don't know why she wants a driveway sized chunk of concrete in the yard. I told her I'm gonna be real tempted to park project cars on it unless she at least considers stamped concrete. I do not like large concrete patios. I think it looks cheap. It's not cheap but it looks it. And concrete does two things - gets hard and cracks. A properly set paver patio would outlast a poured pad.

A quick text message to a buddy who used to be in concrete work says it may save $2-3k over the $8-10k paver patio but if stamped or polished may be more. And followed up with "but it's gonna crack"

danmdevries wrote:

Best of both worlds may be to lay 2ft x 2ft concrete pavers with either white gravel or real/fake grass between them. She gets concrete, you get no cracks. Crack kills.

Stogie1020 wrote:

Yeah. Not sure how I'm gonna proceed with this.

I do not want concrete in this size. It will look like a driveway behind the house. Not to mention cracking, and potential for drainage issues which is unacceptable in a swamp. I would make concessions for a stamped concrete pad and install an extra deep gravel base with drain tile to the empty lot. She doesn't want stamped, dyed, or polished concrete.

I also don't want to do a project of this size without some help. We argued a bit more about this until she said she knows more about landscaping than I do and is adamantly against paver bricks. Discussions are over. Either I get a bug up my ass and do it entirely myself or it doesn't happen.

I did offer up the kitchen again. She doesn't want to spend months in a construction zone. Which I reminded her I wanted her to pick out cabinets, countertops and flooring and stuff so it could all be here before I start. She reminded me that I'm lazy and it will still take a long time. I said you can help. That shut it down.

Guess the vacation period of getting along are over.

danmdevries wrote: