Water Proofing Your Foundation

Often times you will get a damp feeling in your basement...or even more drastically, there is water seeping in from outside... As foundations settle they may incur cracks along masonry joints or cracks within a poured in place foundation wall.

When such an occurrence happens where you find your basement leaking, you are forced to call up a contractor and have them come in to dig up the foundation walls for proper waterproofing repair. Sometimes things can get messy where the waterproofing repair entails having to rip apart existing landscapes like planting beds of walkways around the home.


If you are living in an older home and considering investing your money into a landscape project, check the conditions of your foundation walls before hand... if a repair is needed in the near future, it may make sense to have that done before you call in someone like myself to design and build your project...

Outdoor Furniture

Okay, so you've had the patio installed and now it is time to find that perfect piece of furniture to add to your new backyard makeover....

Last summer I was out and about in cottage country near Burk's Falls, Ontario... I happened upon a quaint little wood furniture store that had this gem of a patio table on display....


This table set was made with fine craftsmanship by the Mennonites here in Ontario. I sat there and examined it's construction and attention to detail... everything was well put together and properly stained for maximum protection against the elements. Granted that anything made from wood will need upkeep... maybe and extra layer of stain every so often to keep it looking fresh and new...



But it's look and feel is something that can't be replaced by the generic (and dare I say it, cheaply constructed) tables being shipped in from overseas... The price tag on this table with the 4 chairs was a little steep at $2000.00 for the set... but steep when compared to what?


As I mentioned, your typical choices on a lower budget are things with the stamp or tag that says "Made in China" Usually they are fabricated out of metals that are not quite refined enough and end up breaking where air pockets exist inside the metal... or the welds are applied with "just enough" tack to hold things together...but not enough to withstand snow and heavy winds...or a BBQ dinner for 20 people... The next time I see a patio table sagging under the weight of the food on it...I am snapping a picture to update this blog post!

With a properly designed and crafted furniture piece you get things like the little detail you see in the above photo where there is a chair hook cleverly crafted into the table... a place for the chair to sit securely during a windy day...or even a spot to hold all 4 while you shift the table around for patio cleaning...

In my experience, some of the cheaper sets of patio furniture ends up being replaced after a few years because it was designed on a computer without any thought given to what Mother Nature can throw at it... Spending that extra bit for a good quality piece will stretch your dollars a lot further. The good thing about this set is that when it rains, it won't hold and store water within so it can start to rust the structure from the inside out and cause the paint to start flaking off to create a nice rust-orange stain on your patio or the piece itself.


Oh yes!!...and for those of you wondering why there is a trap door in the middle of the table... it is my most favorite detail of all (in the above photo). Not many of the "Made in China" sets come with this much thought put into them.... a place to put beer and or other drinks on ice... as you sit and chat with your guests you can help yourself to a "cold one"...or simply instruct your guests to please do the same... without either of you having to travel very far!!

Stone Masonry: perfect fit!

Yes folks, yet another reoccurring theme in my blog posts; excellent stone masonry work! When a true craftsman puts his hands to a stone wall, I cannot help but stare and admire it.

This past summer I was working on a landscape design for a custom home project built by a friend of mine, John Sever of Sever Homes, Custom Design and Build . The interesting thing for me was that I had ventured onto the job site to take pictures of the surrounding property so I could begin my design concept for the landscape plan...

Instead of focusing on the task at hand, my eyes were drawn to the stonework that was happening around the home itself. I snapped these pictures in admiration and decided to post them today to share with you... Once in a while you will see stone masonry projects where your eyes go immediately to mistakes in the stone layout, or forgotten corners of stone pieces that should have been chiseled smooth instead of left razor sharp. I've even seen cases where mortar is falling out of joints on a 2 year old house that is valued at about 1.5 million!...that to me would be like buying a Ferrari and having the wheel bolts shear off the first time you drive it....

Well, none of that scariness was evident on this project!... The masons took their time and poured their hearts into their craft as they put this exterior together. It was a pleasure to watch them work and always a pleasure to see what details John creates in his new home projects.... John will always demand good quality work from his trades when building a home... I do the same in my landscapes and that is why I like working with him, makes for a perfect fit.

The stone used here is a mixture of Dani stone mixed with Ebel stone... The Mason's technique is to mimic the style of stonework you would see on structures in the old parts of Downtown Toronto and in other various parts of Ontario where Credit Valley stone was used about 100 years ago.

The home is near complete and the landscape will be finished this spring... I will be sure to visit once everything is done and photograph it all for a future post update...