February 2002 - The Fuerst Family (Apple Canyon Lake)

ELEMENTS: Brick Walkway, Stone Walls, Firepit & Stone Bench

The Fuerst Family home sits on a huge lake lot in Apple Canyon Lake. A central location combined with a wide open back yard provides a view of almost the entire lake. The Fuerst family purchased the home a few years ago and decided to update and upgrade the landscaping last year. Working with local landscape designer Evelyn Clemmans, Dave Fuerst and the rest of the family developed a plan to completely redo the front of the home.

Evelyn’s plan called for removing the original plantings and concrete walk. The area would then be leveled and defined by installing a stone wall. Although the plantings were not difficult to remove, the original concrete sidewalk presented some challenges. While jackhammering concrete is rarely fun, under the sidewalk we found a concrete footing that was attached to the home foundation. The height of the top of the footing would not allow us to install the brick walk all at one level. Because we knew we would run into something unexpected under the sidewalk, we had asked Dave Fuerst if he could be at the home the day we did the demolition to help us answer any unexpected questions. Of course, with the home owner on the site, the crew couldn’t even swear properly when they discovered the hidden footing. Our solution was to create a brick landing step bordered with treated wood beams on top of the concrete footing. The beams were anchored directly to the concrete with steel rebar. As you can see from the photos below, the landing creates a nice transition from the walk to the home.

The native quarry stone retaining wall that borders the front garden is roughly the same height as the garden itself. Consequently, we had to make sure that any rain water that might fall in the area had an avenue of escape. To that end, we installed a small drain with an inconspicuous black grate. The drain pipe empties between the joint of two of the stones in the wall so that neither end of the drain pipe distracts from the visual appearance of the garden.

Dave also asked us to install a firepit and stone bench behind the home. The stone bench is actually a two layer wall set at chair height. As you can see from the last few photos, it is a great place for a family gathering.

We would like to thank Dave and the rest of the Fuerst family for allowing us to show you their landscape.

PLEASE CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE.