This is the first really big job i did as a professional on my own here in Stowe. It's all planted and finished.. it looks like a million bucks. i'm so glad i was a part of it all.. now htat its all done.

This wall was actually 13" taller.. the homeowner here wanted his drive way higher so he just burried the wall. i was heart broken. but its stunning any way.

This walk way is 50 feet long and 12 feet wide. we laid it in two days at 85 degrees and higher. It was the kind of rush and pressure that i never want to revisit. I pushed a crew of 7 men and women as hard as they could go, for as long as we could stand it. After all that, the delivery truck backed over it to remove a lift from inside the house, and broke almost every stone.

This brick step was a pleasure to build. Anthony and I built it in one day. Its the most recent, to date, project i've worked at... besides the carrot sticks...

This is the main entry to the house, the brick had all deteriorated after 20 years of only part time use.. i guess the snow and ice was just too much.. we took all the brick off and put new stuff back. I was at it with the muriatic acid and the home owner said to stop .. that he actually loved the white on the bricks. then he brought us cold beers and i had to relax about my anxieties.

The stones for the seat at this bench were in a big heap in the back yard when I arrived. They were a wrestling match to get to the wall, but once placed so beautiful. It looked to me like the river itself was running along the top of them. These benches were built to receive stone carvings from Scottish sculptor Ian Hamilton FInlay.

Cordillera, Near Eagle, Colorado, September 2006. Worked with Jay Huddleston to build these walls, while he worked 12 hour days prepping and fussing, i went in and made magic and then went away and climbed mountains. Somehow i got the better half of the deal.

Cordillera, Near Eagle, Colorado, September 2006. Darn, we built a purty wall.

Cordillera, Near Eagle, Colorado, September 2006. We did all the work, and planted enough trees so no one else could see it.

Cordillera, Near Eagle, Colorado, September 2006. Winter, Summer, winter, summer.. its colorado. you get both at the same time!





















Dave Fromers patio under construction.

Dave Fromers patio completed.

Hammer fit stone joinery.

Ward Joyces house in Riverton. Chris and I arrived early and spread out all the stones. The next day, Jess and i went back and got to work. We were finished in four or five days. Though, as is typical, in this business, they were not consecutive days.

Um. yeah. well , thats me.

This was the most colorful and playful stone i've ever worked with.

Here you can clearly see the stone traveling down the steps and around the corner, We added some boulders from the woods beside the house, and worked with the slope of the ground to keep the flow of the wall interesting.

I discovered that this top step was not wood, but concrete. Oops.

this is the initial lay-out for the grate insert for the step. I had a metal foot grate fabricated locally, and fitted it with a stone saw to these four pieces of rock, each one a different thickness... it was more a pain that you can imagine to get the whole thing level and squared up.

5 Steps and some patio action.

Ward Joyce's house project completed.

Ward Joyces project completed.

It sure was a pretty thing! I cant wait to go back there this spring and see how the landscaping finished up.

Ward Joyces stairs.

Paul Bernheisels stairs at the Lake House.

Chris Conely's patio finished.

Chris Conelys patio finished.

Chris took all the cut pieces of stone and made this decorative edging. Beware the toes! but its so pretty.

Setting this boot grate was painful, but the end result, pretty darn beautiful.

Yes, i do chimneys.

Laskaris Farm Boulder wall under construction.

Laskaris Barn finished.

Laskaris Barn ramp is finished! It was the hottest day of the year.

Roberts stair well, day 1

Roberts stair well, day 2

Roberts stairwell day 3

Roberts stair well day 4

Connelley patio finished.

Roberts patio finished

Roberts stair well and patio. Right at the beginning of this project, i fell and broke my leg, the day i was coming back to work, i fell and broke my other leg. So the project progressed slowly until i had both feet again.

Bobby Roberts is a lucky man.

Nina Atkinsons wall area before i takcled into it.

Nina Atkinson, end of day 2

Nina Atkinson end of day 3

Nina's stair well

Ninas stairwell

Two benches in the English countryside. the brick area is ready for a sculptural insert from the studio of Ian Hamilton Finlay.

Plans of Mark Lutchens architect, for the Tarr Steps house in England. We build these with modifications in the summer of 2007

Steps under constructin in the UK with My international team of volunteer workers, on e from Poland, one from the UK, one German, and one Swiss. .. and lots of cheer leaders.

These steps were created in a dry stack style using breeze blocks and backfilling with dirt and rubble. the top layer was top soil so grass could grow. Every other step had a break in the middle of it for stairs. When i return to England, we'll be putting stair steps around the perimeter of each of these big landing steps.

benches to enjoy the view with.

theres nothing prettier than a garden growing.

Back yard patio next summer, this will be all gardens!

Circular patio

Circular patio and a few stairs.

Roberts house day 5

We took out the garden beds i did last summer and placed pillars and made the patio area a bit more formal, next, we dressed the side wall of the house with stone. This project took twice as long as i expected and used 3 times the amount of stone that i thought. the home owners were very patient! they get the award for understanding this season.

Regularity in a very irregular world.

As soon as i made the commitment to move away from my beautiful home, i started to invest heavily in it. I wish with all my heart that i didnt have to move away.

Ori Ben-Akiva entry way. We took out the dead trees, and planted new fresh ones and some boulders from around the corner, and then created drainage and some decorative stone walls for the plow guys to avoid.

This is the most precise and regular stone work i've ever done.



I'm usually a lot more curvey and curley. but i like how this project turned out in the end.

theas house.

A place to sit and think

Some chimney work.

We rebuilt this chimney, then faced it with mortar. It looks so much better!

A quick walkway at the end of the season. this was the last project we did this year, and got snowed out.

Brand new walkway.

Grown in garden. a few years ago, we built these garden beds and the walkway, this year, everything is mature and beautiful.

To fix this patio and wall problem, we removed both completely and removed the garden inside the patio walls as well. We extended the patio to the full 24 feet and reset everything, adding more stone all over the place. We finished the top of it with tennis court clay to hold back the ants a bit and prevent tracking into the house of sand and dirt.

Here you see the lawns and seating of the English country side, where I began work this last summer. All the shrubbery and rootstock had to be removed from the retaining wall below. After 25 tons of material was brought in, this 100 foot wall with long bench seating areas emerged with brick inserts ready for Ian Hamilton Finlay to do his magic.

We used a bob cat skid - steer to move these boulders and make a rock garden into a patio with bench seats.

This is a sunken patio at the edge of a big field. The home owner liked the idea of her gardens pouring right into the field, and that the whole thing felt and looked like the ocean.

Sunken patio under construction.

Theres nothing more beautiful than a pleasong curve.

Long wall in Starksboro restored. These stones came from a quarry located across the road and up the hill a bit the farmer next door let me know. Back in the day, they brought them all here to make this wall. He remembered quarrying them. I was happy to make the wall straight again, and take the roots out from between the stones. Its amazing what can happen to a wall in its life span. I think this ones feeling like it had a fresh shave just now.



The River Patio. Adds beauty and the feeling of the flow of water through the side of the farm field house where it lives.







River Patio. We try to see ordinary events and parts of life through eyes that have no preset limits and rules that we know so we can push them as far as they can go.

Ori Ben-Akivas stairwell.. mud turns to stone.



we took apart this wall and pushed it back 2 feet and rebuilt it. Now it will hold back the embankment and be pretty at the same time. or should i say pulchritudinous?

Wall base for tripple flip, curves through the tall pines in my yard.

Springer-MillerThat's a girl working over that 14" diamond bit stone saw. She's Jess the amazing. I love her big. She's one of the people you'd want on an island with you for the rest of your life were you to ever be stuck on an island...

Springer-Miller Sam working the torches, after the wall has had the final fitting with the big saw. On the big sweep of this wall, we pre- cut the stones to 'close' and when they all were in place, Sam climbed up onto the wall, and cut the arch perfectly from above..

sm00156 Springer-Miller These stones were cut to be 28" wide and maximize every part of every stone. I think the joinery on these stones is unparalleled in Vermont. Jess did the layouts and really interpreted where each stone fit best. Ask her sometime about the maps she drew.

Springer- Miller. Here is another view of the patio around the big pool.

Springer-Miller. Back yard enclosure. Spectacular view. this is the end of 300 feet of wall.

The beautiful summer and my beauty Amy. Qualified helpers are hard to find. In Vermont we have to make them. Photo by Robyn Alvin 2006









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