These are some pictures of the retaining wall Doug is in the process of building. This wall has been a long-time-coming… We didn’t want to pay someone to do it, because it would’ve cost somewhere around $20k. It was necessary to do this wall, though, as the footings of our house are exposed on the southeast corner. People can’t walk from the front yard to the back without feeling like they might lose their balance and tumble toward the creek.
The water has continued to erode away the soil on that side of the house, when we have a heavy rainfall (and the creek rises). We’ve never flooded in our house, the entire time we’ve lived here, nor has our house ever flooded before we lived here. Even throughout the 2009 floods here in Atlanta, the water never touched our house.
The wall will be approximately 4 feet high (9 railroad timbers high) for the majority of the run. Toward the front, where the yard goes uphill, he may need to make it 5 feet or so. We plan on leveling off the yard, as well, which will increase the usable yard we’ll have. Wahoo for not losing lawnmowers over the edge of our yard!
Doug started the wall on July 1st, as he had every Monday in July off (but was paid for them, due to budgeted days with Fulton County Schools). Doug is currently working on “level 3” out of 9, installing “dead men” (timbers that run perpendicular to the wall, to reinforce its strength). It took him quite a while to chop out a six-foot tree root with an ax. Unfortunately the area where this root was located was not accessible to use a stump grinder, nor could he use a chainsaw, as the mud would just gum up the blade. L
We are eating, sleeping and breathing this crazy retaining wall. We’re both ready for normal life to resume, ready to stop talking about this crazy wall! It is shaping up nicely, though. I will be sure to post updates as they occur.
Peace, love and shiver-me-timbers :-),
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
Our friendly turtle! It doesn't look terribly big, but it actually was! After seeing this turtle, a few weeks later we noticed two little baby turtles that buried themselves in the sand of our creek.
Mr. (or Mrs.?) Turtle
These are BEFORE pictures. Hoping to be able to provide AFTER pictures soon! This is the failing retaining wall that was put in before we bought the house.
Tying into the existing concrete silt filter on one side, busting out the other side in an attempt to reroute the creek away from our house.
One hard workin' man...
Our resident bullfrog. There are at least two that live in this area...
Mr. Frog.
Now with the drain pipe behind the first layer of timbers.
Landscape fabric to hold back dirt.
Junction of drain pipes.
Backfilled dirt at the corner, toward the back of our house.
Our backyard is a construction zone, complete with dirt and gravel piles. Neighbors love us, I'm sure!
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