JG LI's new house seeding...

[jglongisland]

Here are photos at the one-year anniversary (first ones are where we had a party - I have a separate thread showing the progress of my reseeding of that area).

[jglongisland]

[jglongisland]

[jglongisland]

[ken-n-nancy]

Very nice! Not just the lawn, but the flowerbeds, too!

[jglongisland]

Cleaned out the beds and leaves this past Sunday (used to take multiple weekends at the old house, was able to do it in one loooong day here). Put final urea down and watered it in. The party damage is pretty much filled in other than the area by one of the pots that kept getting washed out.

[jglongisland]

[Green]

Awesome that the damage is mostly recovered.
And wow...your lawn was ready for final winterizer already!

[JohnP]

Looking good!! Needs more air conditioners though

[andy10917]

Nice work, Jon.

[jglongisland]

Thanks guys. Before the hard freeze Friday night the last 7 days was 51 degrees, the lawn barely grew 1 inch over the prior 11 days before last mow. And its Bewitched. All that to me said this was pretty close to an ideal time to winterize. Also, forecast is such that average temps for next two weeks are in the 40's or lower so there won't be much top growth.

Yeah, we have a lot of AC units. This house is well "over-thought". 7 ecobee stats, lots of zones and control.

Hoping for a better season next year. I did discover that the base soil was quite compacted; I have between 8 and 20" of beautiful loam as a base, but the sub soil, even with all the prep work, is still pretty hard. Over the past 3-4 months I used Aerify Plus every 2 weeks (I know we make our own on this forum but I didn't have the time). Next season I hope to be able to get into a more regular lawn routine so I can improve the soil tilth down low. I'm trying to do it without increasing the organic matter too much too quickly.

[andy10917]

I'm trying to do it without increasing the organic matter too much too quickly.

There is only one person on the planet that has ever succeeded at doing that. I have calculated a few times what it would take to do that. The math is staggering.

[jglongisland]

I don't want to do it again, not sure it was worth it in the long term. The guy who bought my place is the beneficiary of that work, not sure he has any idea (almost had tears in my eyes when I had to go there to pick up a package that was sent there by mistake).

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I don't want to do it again, not sure it was worth it in the long term. The guy who bought my place is the beneficiary of that work, not sure he has any idea (almost had tears in my eyes when I had to go there to pick up a package that was sent there by mistake).

Been there, bro!

Not to derail, but I'm a huge fan of the smart home. I have a two zone HVAC system but don't have thermostats yet. Can't imagine 7 zones.

[jglongisland]

Been there, bro!

Not to derail, but I'm a huge fan of the smart home. I have a two zone HVAC system but don't have thermostats yet. Can't imagine 7 zones.

To get totally off topic...

We have each of the upstairs bedrooms on their own zone (with a VAV); my son is in college and my daughter has turned his bedroom into her study. She likes a warm room and the rest of us like it cool. At 9PM I walked into that room and she had it at 72 degrees, it felt like a sauna, and the other bedrooms were at a temperature 66-68. That was a satisfying moment.

[bernstem]

I would love to zone all of our bedrooms separately, but I am still living with decisions of previous owners. One of the downsides of a 100+ year old house is that it gets very expensive to add in all the newest tech. It is getting better with stronger, more reliable wireless, but plaster walls and concrete floors are still a bear to do any renovation work so previous bad decisions are harder to fix.

As a slight thread jack... We recently redid our kitchen and raised the ceiling height to match the rest of the first floor. We had to remove a 10x4 inch I beam and replace it higher. The engineer said it was easily 3-4 times more beam than was needed, but they didn't calculate loads back then so they just picked BIG.

[jglongisland]

I've got a bad leak in the house from flashing around the chimney that has ruined my floors in my family room. Trying to get a roofer here with single degree temps and snow on the roof isn't so easy.

[bernstem]

Ouch. I feel for you. I had a tarp on my office roof for three months waiting for the roofer.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I've got a bad leak in the house from flashing around the chimney that has ruined my floors in my family room. Trying to get a roofer here with single degree temps and snow on the roof isn't so easy.

Yikes. I hate chimneys. I installed one on my own at my cabin and will never do it again. Dangerous up on that roof, plus the risk of leaks if not done right the first time. AND, inspectors are super picky about them (rightfully so)