Finishing Up

Sunday, Feb. 2, 2013
There were just a few small tasks left for me to do this weekend.  I trimmed one of the 4x6 beams that fill the channel back by about six inches.  This will permit a gap between the beams, which will provide some finger room, making it much easier to remove the beams when I need to open the channel.  The gap won't be visible because there will be 1x6 boards on top of the beams and these will fill the length of the channel.  Hopefully they will not be very difficult to remove.

I needed a mini retaining wall on the east end, similar to the one I installed on the south side last weekend.  Fortunately I still had enough concrete board for this, avoiding a trip to Lowe's.

I stained the top boards in the channel, using the same stain that I had used on the deck sections.  Again I had enough material left from previous work.  This must be my lucky day!

The final task was to refill the trenches that I had dug to provide access to the retaining walls.

I hereby declare the catch basin finished!

The next phase of work is to install pavers, replacing those that I dug up in order to install the catch basin and extending the patio into the foreground in the picture above.  But I intend to hire a contractor for that.