A close up of the 50′ stone retaining wall was necessary by city code and was created using a cement block back. Carolyn then cut and stacked 4″ strips of flagstone back and forth for the length of the wall. She was followed by 3 helpers who laid the stones in place (sometimes at a clip she could barely keep up with), using minimal cement, to create the dry stacked wall effect.
The retaining wall was required by the Sedona county officials given the lot size and steepness to the areas behind the 2500 sq. ft. adobe house we built from foundation to finihs the prior year. We were happy to return to the job site to not only visit our friends in Arizona, but also to check in and see how the house was performing.
And given we both like new challenges (and working with stone), it was a fun experience, but not for the faint of muscle. We could not have done it without a great crew of helpers we call our “young backs” for their strength and obvious youthfully energy. Something we are running a tad bit low on as the building years rack up on our body odometers!