Today was the day that made all the work seem worthwhile. A lot of people’s projects are starting to really look nice: Brittany’s concrete bench, Ty and Chris’s backsplash for the dump space, even Lyle’s full-height wall is growing on me.

Today was also a major victory for the gabions. Luke finished forming the remaining gabions while I adjusted some of the shading structure’s hardware to accommodate the addition. He kept working on those like a champ while I fixed them in place and began adding rock. We planned on adding lids once the rock was added but later decided to leave them open except for a few rebar ties. The cages will still hold their shape, it’ll save us hours on stitching, and should make for a nice, uninhibited moment at the bench.

We finished and filled all ten cages well before the end of the day. I started working with Paul and Mike on the cedar bench which should be done by tomorrow. We even began adding rock between the gabions and the pavers of the ‘street’. From a distance, it looks as if the rock has suddenly been sucked up into a vertical sheet just in front of the cabin. As nice as the interior is looking, the shading structure is quickly becoming a very special space. Tomorrow we’ll add some more rock between the shading structure and the cabin to really make it pop.