If you’re passing through Northfield on Lincoln Street this Spring, check out a renovation project we did on a home close to the corner of Lincoln Street and Lincoln Lane. For those of you familiar with Northfield, you probably noticed our trucks parked in front of the house (across from the St. Olaf practice fields) for a good part of last summer.
Many years ago a previous owner had done a nice job of landscaping on this home, but time took its toll, and it was time to start over. They contacted local landscape architect Spencer Jones, who came up with an ambitious landscape plan to renovate their entire front yard. The plan included a bluestone patio, an upper lawn area, the landscape plantings, several retaining walls, and three step systems.

We had Jim Gleason and his crew from American Excavation do the demolition and grading.They started by tearing out all of the existing steps, walkways, and old plantings, including a couple of large shade trees. The only tree left was a huge hackberry that provided shade for the front yard. They then re-graded the whole yard and excavated for the retaining walls that we put in. See the photo at left to view the project after the demolition process. (Click photo to enlarge)

Part of the challenge was to make the retaining walls to look like they had been there for years. The clients had seen some stone that they liked when they were on a trip to Arkansas, and they had it shipped to Northfield to use for the project. It has a unique brown color with a nice aged look (see photo at right). Constructing the walls was the most time-consuming phase of the project, because no two stones were alike.
We also constructed a bluestone patio was constructed out of 1-2″ thick bluestone pieces that came in various square and rectangular sizes (called an ashlar pattern). They are quarried out of New York and Pennsylvania.

We finished up the landscaping and sodding in the early fall. It will be exciting to see their new landscaping come to life this Spring!

I will give you an update this spring with photos of the finished project.

Left: Tony Line and Brian Blackford of Straight Line Concrete working on one of the concrete step systems. There is a total of 3 step systems, connected with exposed aggregate landings and walkways.