Hi John, I finally finished my wall at home. I started mid-September and just finished last weekend (April) . I didn't have that much time to work on it because I was organizing a conference for October, went to China for 3 weeks in November (climbed the Great Wall - awesome experience) and given Vancouver rains there were weeks that I didn't touch it at all. I have attached a few pictures. The first attachment, the Word doc, is a before and after compilation. Then there are a few of the wall from different angles. I can send more if you like, lots more of progress along the wall.
The wall is 40' across the front and 40' up the driveway. Most of the stone was free or cheap. I got some from Craig's List when people were tearing down walls to build with Allen Block, some from building demolitions (including the 300' of granite capstones which I also used for the stairs), and even from the side of the road. I collected stone for 1 1/2 years before I started the project and in the end still had to buy maybe 1/4 of what I needed. I would guess that there is about 40+ tons of stone in there.
I learned a lot, but it was your course at Northwest about 2 years ago that gave me the confidence to tackle the project. I have already had job offers to build for neighbours! Maybe after I retire.
Brian Thom
