Saturday, March 19, 2011

New Potting Bench and Fence

We've had a contractor here for the last few days, installing a fence and building an absolutely beautiful potting bench. I am so excited about finally having a potting bench, I have wanted one for a long time! And this one is the culmination of my potting bench dreams.

Isn't it beautiful?

There is so much space for storage and for working, and the one feature that is essential here in the Pacific Northwest -- it has a roof! So I can work there when it's raining (and it rains a lot here). In fact, it rained like a monsoon the whole time Chris Gilliam was here, working on the fence and building the potting bench. There were a couple of days when Chris and his assistant looked like they had been wallowing up to their waists in mud in our back yard, but they kept working.


Oh yeah, the new fence. (I got caught up in gazing in wonder at my potting bench.)


The fence is beautiful too.


Chris Gilliam is the same contractor who helped me last year with the design and build of my back garden. We were so happy with his work and his work ethic that we enthusiastically asked him back to do more work for us.

What I love about Chris is that he's always thinking about ways to improve on his customer's ideas. I brought him the original plans for the potting bench, and he immediately improved on them by adding backs to the shelves, attaching casters to the bottom so that if I want to move it around the garden I can do so easily, and making the workspace even larger.

And he came up with an ingenious way to lock the potting bench onto the side of the house, to keep it from getting blown and battered by the fierce winds we get up here on the ridge south of Seattle.
This baby ain't moving!

If you need a contractor in the Seattle/Tacoma area, or in fact, on the western side of the Sound, on the Kitsap Peninsula, this is the guy to go to -- Gilliam Construction. To reach him call 253-880-2178.

Now I can move all this paraphernalia off my covered porch.

 And this stuff too.
And turn the porch into a restful haven for contemplating life and the meaning of the universe.

Or maybe just my next plant purchases.