Retaining Walls
For several years, we lived with a wall constructed of trestle ties which was camouflaged by a number of tall landscape shrubs that all died one year, leaving the ugly trestles exposed to the lake view. It was ugly. But worse than that, the trestle ties were caving in and the support was about to collapse allowing our entire hillside to tumble down.
We contracted with Jim Bouma of Smoky Mountain Rockscapes to reinforce the wall with a stone wall of his own design. He painstakingly laid each stone in place and we now how not only a beautiful stone wall, but a stabilized hillside as well. Jim’s work is outstanding. He is an artist and a craftsman. And he is also the hardest working individual we have ever met. Five hundred years from now, our house may be gone, but rest assured, Jim’s wall will still be standing.
Tom Jester and Jenny Hines
Knoxville, TN.
Fireplaces
We are more than pleased with the job that Jim did on our fireplaces. We had an idea of what we wanted that would reflect our personalities. We gave them to him and with his thoughts, ideas, and ability to see in our minds; he created a beautiful piece of art that we will enjoy for the rest of our lives. It is amazing! We love the "shelf" rocks and our favorite rock that he incorporated in for us. He made our fireplace unique to us and our personalities which made them more beautiful than we ever expected. Jim has been a pleasure to work with. He did everything he said he would from the time he started; his honesty, work ethics, cost and quality of his work never changed.
God Bless,
Jim & Carolyn W.
Friendsville, TN.
Retaining Home Wall StoneWork
Mr. James Bouma performed stone masonry services on our home in Mancos Colorado during 2006; completing an exterior stone foundation overlay, two (2) retaining walls, home entrance stairs along with interior fireplace hearth.
The work performed on our home clearly demonstrates his skill and craftsmanship. Jim’s honest business practices and impeccable work ethic also made it a pleasure to work with him. I have no doubt our home will have more value that can be directly attributed to Jim’s contribution.
Gregg & Mark K.
Mancos, Colorado
Patio and Retaining Wall
We had the pleasure of working with Jim on a retaining wall & patio on our summer home in Colorado. Jim took the time to walk the property, listen to our thoughts and then design and build a project that exceeded our hopes.
It was a pleasure to finally deal with a craftsman that showed up when he said he would, worked hard, completed the project ahead of schedule and took obvious pride in his craftsmanship. Jim is truly an old-world stone mason who has paid his dues and runs his business the old fashion way, with honesty and integrity.
We are looking forward to building our main cabin in the near future and working with Jim, especially on the fireplace. We are also happy that the patio came through an extreme winter with more snow than the locals can remember for a long time. Again back to doing the job right, with pride.
Steve and Nan C.
Mancos, Colorado