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Hello, I have had my house in Chepachet, RI (two bed, two bath, w/office) up for sale for three months and am thinking that the pooper in the front yard may be the problem for lack of interest.
Supposedly it is a state of the art high tech pooper. It had to be more than 50 feet from my well, and there you have it, right in the front yard. It doesn't bother me, and I am sure Cousin Eddie would love it.
Does anyone have any ideas to make it less noticeable. I am not too fond of the bushes surrounding it.
Any advice would be appreciated as I have this house listed below cost and am not sure what to do. I was even thinking of renting it out as a last resort.
You're saying its a septic system? It has a lot of gravel over it- does it have to be open to the air? Aren't most septic systems less obvious????
If you can't change it, about all you can do is landscape around it or maybe over it? Your current plantings are nice but don't do much to disguise the center part. What about a big raised deck surrounded by some ornamental trees? Or if that's too expensive, a raised platform with dirt in it to make a raised planting bed for flowers or a vegetable garden? I'm flying blind here but hope this helps....
Actually, the raised deck someone suggested would be easy to improvise, too. Just put boards over the existing frame.
The bushes around the perimeter draw more attention to it. Make it look planned instead of like an empty space surrounded by bushes. Maybe put a fountain, a bench and some potted plants.... You could easily make it look like a garden area.
I can see a trellis there too. It would make it look inviting.
Hollytree, I was trying to be funny with my reference to Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation. Yes, it is a self-contained septic system. The holding tank is under the upper structure and the lower part is the drainage field. It had to be constructed like this due to the soil's lack of drainage. The liquid is filtered and sent out to the contained drainage bed to evaporate.
The bushes around it draw attention to it. I'd make it a deck and add more bushes and gardens around the property. That way you would see several areas of bushes or seating, garden areas of flowers and bushes. make it look like just one area of garden that is part of many areas.
Ah.....it sounds like you have bad soil that will not leach liquid. So what is required is to raise the leach field using loose gravel and sand. The tank is separate and likely not under that raised bed.
You can not plant anything that has hard roots near that bed. Small bushes are ok. If a tree's roots were any place close to that bed then during any dry spells those roots will seek out that leach field for a drink. Those roots will break those perforated PVC pipes and then you are in for some trouble.
Most of these ideas are good but do not put any wood root trees near it.
You could always put a few tombstones in the gravel area to disguise it...
Too bad the house doesn't look oriental. The gravel could be topped to look like a Japanese rock garden. The angle it is at and the position makes a lot of possibilities impractical.
I think you'll need a pro landscape architect to get you out of this one. I'm thinking renovation of the drive, some boxwood hedges, and specimen plants to distract attention away from your pooper.
Thanks again for all the responses. I plan to remove the bulky looking trees around it. Maybe little pines would look nice. I could lay some lumber across the top and put my grill up there. But the septic isn't as disturbing as some of the local yocal's yards.
You should see the guy at the end of the street whose junk car from the 50s or 60s is parked halfway into his garage and the garage door with broken windows is resting on the roof.
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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I like the idea of a deck, although you might need to check codes. I don't know about that kind of septic system, but I know around here, you can't put anything permanent within 10 feet of a well or over the footprint of the septic tank. And a deck counts as permanent. But thats Maryland for ya LOL
The rock garden idea sounds neat, too. Can you walk on this area? Could you just stage it like a patio as is?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris M
You should see the guy at the end of the street whose junk car from the 50s or 60s is parked halfway into his garage and the garage door with broken windows is resting on the roof.
Sadly, this may be something keeping people away and there isn't anything you can do about it
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