A Mike Vernelson Backyard- Christmas came early

The only thing better than seeing photos of Mike Vernelson's work is to have a piece of it in your back yard. Early in the spring I was going thru photos in this section and saw a cluster of artifical rocks that Mike has sculpted by the edge of a swimming pool. I was blown away by the detail and realism of the rocks. I started searching the Vertical Artisians forum that Mike mentioned and saw more examples of his work and others as well. And I thought, "how hard can it be". Well, after 2000' of rebar, 1200 sq ft of lathe, 80-92lbs of portland and ten tons of sand later, I have a very unique rock sculpture in my back yard thanks to MIKE!. This summer I will finish a stamped concrete patio with a fire pit in the center to wrap it up. I spent the spring and summer doing the armature, lathe, and first coat of concrete and Mike flew out in early Dec for five days to do the final coat and detailing. It was nothing short of amazing to watch the guy work. We lucked out with amazing weather which allowed him to get twice as much done as I had hoped for.
The photos you're viewing are the unpainted concrete. Lichens will be added and it will have to be painted when the weather warms.
Mike is an incredible craftsman. I couldn't be happier!

 

A few more pics

 

Some pics of the early rebar and structure

 

pics of what it looked like with just the first scratch coat of concrete everything.

 

I knew this project was a huge undertaking when I began. I'll blame it on breathing too many lacquer fumes for thirty years. Initially I thought I would muddle thru and finish the project myself. By the time I got the structure made and scratch coat on, I understood that it was going to be worth the money to have Mike come out and do the detail carving. We emailed back and forth thru the summer and fall to try to find an opening in our schedules that would allow him to fly out. I had a 20x40 fireworks tent reserved because I knew that in early december in Missouri that the weather would not be our friend. I cancelled the tent a couple days before and we ended up have temps in the 60's. Murphy was on vacation that week.
Some of you will ask how he does what he does. After watching him work for five days I cannot answer that. The process is to apply 2-4" of cement to the structure, trowel some general shape and let it set up for several hours. Then he has a narrow window as it's setting to cut, and carve, and gouge details into the concrete. It's nothing short of amazing to watch. These low res pics don't do it justice.
We had two cement mixers going and several helpers I conned into mixing and moving mudd. One of them was Jeff Compton, world champ fish carver.
Anyway, my hat is off to Mike for making it all possible.

 

Mike is a bad influence. On the last evening he was there we were sitting on the deck enjoying a beer and I was pumping him for ideas on how to bring steps down off the east side of the deck or what to do about a railing when I re-do the deck. He's standing there on the edge of the deck looking down and says I think I'd have to create a water feature and have a small stream flowing from under the deck and cascading over some rocks and paralleling the rock work on this side and end up down there to an area about thirty feet away. I asked him some specifics and just that quickly I could visualize how cool it could be. I'm now the proud owner of a 4000 gallon per hr pump just waiting for the ground to thaw. Damn him anyway.

 

I was surprised to see this post come back around. I will post some pics of the finished patio and surrounding landscaping. We have sat many nights around the fire pit. I'm glad I started the project but the success is all on Mike. The wood deck needs to be resurfaced this spring and the handrail finished before I can move on to the next project. Would still love to do the stream but that may have to wait for things to slow down a little around here. My honey-do list is pretty long.