6. Pine Tree

There was a 40-ft high x 40' wide Torrey Pine tree in the front yard.  We, along with the entire neighborhood, loved it, but it had to go.

The roots were so invasive that they not only buckled & broke the original red-brick driveway, but they reached all the way through the courtyard, buckling the breezeway bricks & causing leaks in the copper water lines.

The last straw was when the roots caused a leak in the water supply line from the meter to the house.  To access the line to repair it, I had to dig a huge trough & cut through endless crisscrossing roots, some of them over 6" in diameter.  The valve on the water meter didn't shut off completely, making it extra-tough to solder the repair joint.

After completing that repair, I decided not to wait for another leak & had the tree removed.

Links To Blog Posts:
1. Discovering a Cliff May Home | 2. Comparing to known Cliff May designs | 3. Olive Tree | 4. Floor Plan | 5. Backyard Brick Path and Clothesline | 6. Pine Tree | 7. Driveway & Mechanic's Pit | 8. Wild Parrots | 9. Misc Pics 

 

7. Driveway & Mechanic's Pit

There was a mechanic's pit in the Garage.  It was a concrete-lined hole in the floor that you could climb down into & park your car over it so you could work standing up.  When not in use, it was covered by a series of heavy wooden planks that rested on a recessed concrete shelf around the rim of the pit.

 The pit had cracked sides and bottom surfaces & water leaked in during the rainy season.  It was really too shallow to be useful & rather than rebuild it,  while replacing the driveway we went ahead & had this filled in also.

The City of San Diego would not allow us to rebuild the driveway out of real red brick in the public right-of-way, which covered all of the apron & over 4 feet of driveway up from the sidewalk.  So we did the next best thing, using stamped concrete to approximat e the original look as much as possible.

Links To Blog Posts:
1. Discovering a Cliff May Home | 2. Comparing to known Cliff May designs | 3. Olive Tree | 4. Floor Plan | 5. Backyard Brick Path and Clothesline | 6. Pine Tree | 7. Driveway & Mechanic's Pit | 8. Wild Parrots | 9. Misc Pics