You got a statue for Christmas?

[PhilNH5]

My wife and I are at the stage in our life where we really struggle to come up with Christmas present suggestions. We really don't want nor need anything. We have skipped exchanging gifts a few times due to this. This past Christmas we decide to get a statue for the yard. Our daughter is a flutist so we chose a girl playing the flute.

We wanted to mount it to a piece of granite. But even a hammer drill and a very expensive bit made little progress. So we built a form and set some rebar to make a base.

Pic one is mixing the cement. I purposely keep the hose away - i have a tendancy to make soup. The watering can works fine

After filling the form(pic 2) my wife smoothed out the concrete (pic 3)

After a week to cure we mounted the statue. She is bronze and weighs a bit so she got a ride in the tractor bucket while I drilled the mounting holes (pic 4).
She has nuts welded to the bass. So 8 inch long bolts and epoxy in the drilled holes and she was set tight.

Pic 5 is how she looks.

 

[jinman]

No matter how you made the base, that statue is a beauty. The red bark mulch just doesn't do it justice. You almost need a rock garden with a flowing waterfall to complete the scene.

 

[Tig]

Very nice. Makes me feel peaceful just looking at it.

 

[davitk]

boy, if I'd have stopped to take a picture while my wife was troweling concrete I'd be so dead.....

 

[czechsonofagun]

Great idea and well done project.

 

[310-510]

PhilNH5,
That's one nice statue. You and the wife will hopefully get many years of enjoyment and memories of this Christmas present. (Including the installation)

 

[tony123]

Phil, beautiful statue. I'm a Landscape Architect, and we use similar statues on many projects. Your idea is exactly how we detail for contractors to install for us. It's about the best solution for security purposes. A thief would either have to ruin the statue to take it, or spend time busting concrete. Either way is not attractive to the thief.

The last project we did like this, the contractor did manage to get through about 18" of granite boulder. I'm pretty sure he used a hammer drill. But the mulch over concrete is a nice solution none the less.

 

[PhilNH5]

Thanks for the replies. We thought the statue was an unusual idea but we really like the way it turned out.

"boy, if I'd have stopped to take a picture while my wife was troweling concrete I'd be so dead....."
Davitk if you look in the lower right side on that pic you will see the tips of my sneakers. I was shoveling in the wet concrete. My neighbor took the pic.

My wife is great at helping with projects. She loves her chainsaw and back pack blower.

 

[EddieWalker]

Nice looking statue and landscaping feature!!! I can't imaigne what you mean when refering to the concrete, I thought it looked great, and it's exactly what I would have done. In fact, one day, I look forward to adding some statues to my place.

Thanks for sharing,
Eddie

 

[jinman]

My wife is great at helping with projects. She loves her chainsaw and back pack blower.

Phil, I have two saw horses just like the ones you have. I added a 2x4 across the top by using screws from inside the metal top. Since the 2x4s are outside, they don't get in the way of the legs folding and they provide a buffer when I cut through with my Skilsaw or drill through wood.

 

[davitk]

"boy, if I'd have stopped to take a picture while my wife was troweling concrete I'd be so dead....."
Davitk if you look in the lower right side on that pic you will see the tips of my sneakers. I was shoveling in the wet concrete. My neighbor took the pic.

guess that 'splains why you're live enough to post on TBN

It is a nice project; just ribbing you, though, since my wife and I just poured 4 1/2 yards from lleh