Rock Wall

As I was sitting home and Brian was out of town for two weeks I casually mentioned that if we had the plywood I would just build the the rock wall that we wanted to put behind the stadium seating. I had watched and help build the rock wall for our bar. Brian said we do have it and then started questioning whether or not I would be able to build it by myself. So of course now I was stuck doing it as I couldn’t admit that I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. So I started by measuring out how big I wanted it. Which was bigger then what Brian wanted but I was the one building it, so I was going to make it the way I wanted it. I went and cut the 2×4’s down to size. And then measured the plywood. Now this was a harder to cut as I had never actually used a hand saw.

I take it all down stairs and realize that my neighbor who is not home has our nail gun. So I decide to just screw it together. Unfortunately that did not go as planned. The screws would not go in and there was smoke coming from the screw. So then I decide to just nail them in as I only had a dozen to nail. Ummmm yeah that was not going as planned either. I ended up waiting until I could get my nail gun back.

Once I had my nail gun it was a lot easier to frame it up. I took my plywood that I had cut and laid it on top. It was also too big on one side. I had to take it back outside and cut a little bit more off. I took it back to downstairs to find out that it was crooked and there was a huge gap.

At this point I was at my wits end and about to give up. I even think I started crying a little. But I pushed through grabbed another drink and got the plywood nailed on and a 2×4 underneath where it was crooked. I was going to put cement on it anyways so I didn’t think that was a big deal. I stapled wire mesh on so that the cement had something to hold on to. 

After I had it all together I used this cement to put the first layer on. I decide to lay it flat on the ground to make it easier to put the cement on.

I wanted to put the rocks on while it was laying flat also. However by this point this thing is so heavy that I figure if I put the rocks on I wouldn’t be able to pick it up. So I put the frame in place.

Nail it to the ground and the wall. 

I mixed up some cement and then start putting the rock on.

This part is really fun and can be a little frustrating as you have to make sure all the rocks line up together.

I was limited on the rocks that I had as I was using all the leftovers from Brian’s wall. Thankfully I mastered tetris with this project. I used all but five rocks. On the side closest to the wall I had to take some of the rocks and break them into smaller pieces and fit them in the best that I could.

Next time I have a project this big I might just wait until Brian gets home instead of telling him I can figure out how to do it on my own. Although every time I look at that wall I am amazed that I did it all by myself.

The next big project is the cement counter tops.