Decorative Concrete Expert

Four-season appeal

Alves asked her designer friend at some point as she pondered the stamped concrete building material, "Don't patios get cold in the winter?"

Yes, even in sunny California. "Not if you install radiant heat," Ralston remembers replying.

"Have you ever done that before?"

"No," he admitted. "But I'd like to try."

So seat walls with radiant-heated wall caps became a cozy part of the project.

"Tom made a lot of drawings," says Mary. As the married couple's enthusiasm grew and imaginations began to run free, she says, "the whole project took on a mind of its own."

You'll find something to draw the eye wherever you look. At the top of the hill is a fire pit with colored glass broadcast into the concrete. "A really cool multicolored look" is how Dr. Magid describes it.

The greenish-hued concrete patios and steps ('They fit right into the landscaping," says Alves) were strikingly finished with a sandstone color hardener with weathered sage release agent.

Lucky number 13

Ralston has established a reputation as an innovator in concrete countertops. For his clients' kitchen and barbecue pit at the bottom of the hill, he set-about designing a two-inch-thick countertop that would serve as a focal point. It was a project component that he and the wife half of the client duo took very seriously.

Alves recalls being presented with sample after sample of countertop, each prototype constructed by Ralston.

"We experimented with numerous compositions and hit it on the 13th try,"_ he says.

The selected slab features embedded stones from Bali and was finished with a blend of three acid stains: fern green, weathered bronze and faded terra cotta with an oyster-white color hardener. It was sealed with a two-part UV-resistant, polyurethane.