I really appreciate your input on yesterday’s post on how to get the look I want for my front porch baseboard! My mind is now spinning with ideas and at this point I’m not quite sure which direction to take. Luckily, I have a little more time to think about it because it’s pouring rain right now. While I’m sad to miss a day of outdoor work today, I’m also a little relieved to not feel the pressure (pressure I put on myself) to make a quick decision about it today.
I took some time yesterday to test my idea of using my hand grinder to cut the fronts of the retaining wall blocks. It didn’t go well. I made my mark around the block using a Sharpie marker and then cut as deep as I could using the hand grinder on all four sides. But even then, the cuts couldn’t cut through the entire block. I then tried to break off the entire front using a crowbar and hammer, but it just ripped off significant portions of the front that I wanted to keep.
It might have gone better if I had a proper stone chisel, but since I want to cut such a thin slice from the front of each block, I think I’d probably still lose some of them in the process. So this technique is not an option.
I have a wet tile saw that will cut through concrete very easily with the right blade. That’s what I used to cut the pavers for the side steps of the studio. The problem is that the retaining wall blocks are too tall to fit under my saw blade.
I spent some time trying to find a way to place the blocks under the sheet, and I think there is a way to do it. You couldn’t use the rolling table that the block is on in the image above. That table has wheels that roll on rails and those wheels raise the table well above the water tank below. So if I can prepare a way for the block to sit lower, just above the water level, I would probably make it work. But it sure would be a lot of work to cut them all with that saw without the rolling table to make the job much easier.
I read all the comments about other options for cutting: rent it, get a concrete blade for my circular saw, rent one of the big concrete saws, etc. But after thinking about it more, I think I’m going to abandon the idea of cutting the blocks completely.
One idea several people had was to create a mold (or probably several molds) using the retaining wall block and then pour my own concrete blocks (or face slices) using concrete. I actually love that idea and think it would be a lot easier than cutting concrete blocks.
I’ve seen a lot of videos of people making their own molds for various projects, but I found a video that seemed like the way to go. This man makes silicone molds using silicone putty and cornstarch! That creates a moldable silicone with the consistency of Play-Doh.
Even if I don’t use that idea for this project, I want to create silicone molds now. Add food coloring to your molds, but I don’t see the need to do so for my purpose. You would only need silicone caulk and cornstarch. That’s all. While it looks like a lot of fun, I’m not sure how long it would take. I think you would need at least five molds to not pour one “brick” at a time. This idea is definitely a candidate, but I need to think about it more. Whether or not I use this idea for this project, you can be sure that I will be making some silicone molds in the future. This seems too fun and useful to pass up.
The other idea I really like is to simply paint the concrete porch baseboard and then build an actual retaining wall planter around the porch. I really like this idea a lot. The challenge I face is knowing where to start and stop that retaining wall.
Here’s another look at the landscape plan of the front of the house.
So if I just painted the front porch baseboard and then made an actual area to plant a retaining wall, I guess I would just follow the line of the walkway shown in the plan above, right? Because there really isn’t enough space around the porch to have a raised area with a retaining wall plus a lower planting area between the retaining wall and the planned walkway. And then I guess I would continue with the retaining wall on the other side of the house, i.e. the area in front of our bedroom door. Basically, the side of the walkway closest to the house that surrounds the entire front of the house would be a retaining wall. It wouldn’t have to be tall. It would be perhaps two blocks high, or three at most if you consider that the first row would be partially below the current ground level.
I’m not sure if that makes sense, but I think I can imagine it and I think it would look great. But then I would have to figure out how to attach the steps in front of our bedroom to the retaining wall and walkway.
Or maybe I’m overthinking it. But what I do know is that there is not enough space between the front porch and the planned walkway for a retaining wall planting bed and a lower planting bed in front of it, unless the retaining wall planting bed is only a foot between the porch and the retaining wall.
*Sigh* I have no idea what I’m doing. Can you tell landscape design is not my thing? I know. It’s obvious. I have fun thinking about options, but it also stresses me out. I’ll feel a little relieved once I can get back to my indoor projects, where I feel much more secure and confident. But it’s really fun for me to come up with ideas and see if I can imagine what this would be like.
If it wasn’t pouring rain, I would go get some spray paint and try to mark these ideas on the ground so I could visualize them better. Maybe we’ll have better weather this weekend so we can do it. I need to mark the path on each side of the house and then see how much space I have to work with for the flower beds. But overall, I love the idea of using the retaining wall blocks to build actual planting beds! And that would make the porch project much easier if you could just paint the baseboard area and move on.
Those are the ideas that really caught my attention and made me think, plan and dream. What are your thoughts?
UPDATE: We had a break in the rain so I went outside and took some measurements. Y’all, I was dead wrong. There’s plenty of room for a raised retaining wall bed with a lower planting area in front of it! I don’t know what I was thinking. There is a full nine feet of space between the porch and where the planned walkway will go.
So that brings me to this question. If I do the raised retaining wall planting bed, would I wrap around the side of the porch like this?
Or would I just leave it in front of the porch like this?
And if I do one on that side of the front steps, I think I’d have to continue it on the other side of the steps too, right? You all know my obsessive need for symmetry and this makes sense in my opinion.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 upper that my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and can’t do physical work, so I do most of the house work myself. You can learn more about me here.
