Wednesday Vignette: Hazard Zone

We've lived in our current house for more than 7 years.  We've talked on and off about renovating our kitchen.  My issues mainly have to do with the work surfaces, cabinetry, and aging appliances.  My husband is more concerned with the layout and the annoying upper cabinet he still bumps his head on.  Our discussions never led anywhere until the cabinets literally began falling apart.  We met with a contractor and designer who'd done work for a neighbor and, as these things go, we fell down a rabbit hole.  My husband, who I thought was committed to keeping the project small, proposed raising the roof height over the kitchen and pushing one wall into the existing patio area by 5 feet.  I thought the roof height change might be an issue.  It wasn't.  But pushing out the wall is.  The city we live in has designated an open spaces hazard zone, intended to address landslide risks.  We knew that but we'd received notice in 2012 that the city was planning to move the hazard zone east.  For whatever reason, that hasn't happened.  And it seems that the current hazard zone runs right through the middle of our house.  So we filed the appropriate paperwork and paid a fee to request a review.  The city geologist didn't see any obvious problems but we were told we had to obtain and submit a formal evaluation of the site.  That meant hiring a geologist and digging some very big holes.  The geologist's team arrived bright and early yesterday morning.

The change we've proposed would involve extending the kitchen wall (the one with the garden window on the left) to align with the back portion of the house that's already bumped out.  We cleared the space for the geology crew and my husband erected a shade cover before they arrived so they wouldn't be working in direct sun.

As it turned out, instead of 2 holes in the patio area next to the kitchen, they dug one there, one at the patio's edge near the mimosa tree, and another at the bottom of the back slope.  So the shade cover was of minimal use.  I kept the crew supplied with water and coffee cake, though.

This was hard work, involving jackhammers as well as shovels.  The temperature outside reached 95F by mid-day.

The biggest hole, dug until they reached bedrock, was 5.5 feet in depth (shown here with the geologist in an orange shirt standing in it)

They took soil samples from each hole.  In general terms, our soil is classified as volcanic basalt.

Digging the holes, data collection, and restoring the area took 5 hours.  The diggers worked incredibly hard.  It was all the more impressive as we're in the middle of yet another heatwave.  The off-the-cuff comments were positive.  As the crew reached bedrock between 3.5 and 5. 5 feet in all 3 cases, the foundation for our kitchen extension doesn't present any obvious issues, although it'll be weeks yet before we get the formal report.  Then we have to submit it to the city with a good-sized check for review.  If approved, we then have to fit our project into the contractor's and designer's schedules.  Fun.  This adventure represents my Wednesday Vignette.  For more, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.

In addition to the holes dug into our patio and garden, I faced another hazard this week: the heat.  After the damage done by the early July heatwave, I'm gun-shy and I've gone to great lengths to protect my garden from further heat damage.  I spent a good part of last weekend deep watering selected areas and spreading more mulch.  My husband and I also erected shade covers of various sorts.

Covering a big area of my succulent bed on the south side may seem odd but, in the middle there is my Metrosideros 'Springfire'.  After July 6th's 110F temperature, it's barely hanging on so I'm doing everything I can to baby it.

I've been waiting for the green blooms of the Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) in this bed for months now.  The plants were scorched in the last heatwave so I purchased a beach umbrella to protect it this time.

The lath house may look the same at first glance but emergency measures have been taken there too as the structure didn't protect all the plants inside during the last heat blast

Until we can construct more attractive shade covers for use during the summer season, we tacked up an old sheet in the roof rafters.  I moved most of the plants on the upper shelves to the floor too.

I also brought out a broken umbrella to provide additional shade for the Fatsia japonica and other plants

The heatwave is expected to peak today with the temperature here approaching the century mark but, oddly, we awoke to fog blowing in.

It feels a little like an episode of the Twilight Zone.   The world around us has suddenly disappeared.  Even the harbor seems strangely quiet this morning.  Not that I'm complaining!  The weather forecasters are continuing to tell us it's going to be hot, Hot, HOT!

All hazards pose challenges.  Some are easier to tackle on one's own than others.  My fingers are crossed that we'll successfully work our way through both of the challenges addressed in this post.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party