You could tint it using a couple of methods. Either pickup a gallon or two of new sealer that is tinted more towards the color you are seeking (clear for a thinned down redwood color or a brown to tone down the reddish color and make it more rich) Option two is to go toa paint store and purchase universal pigmentation and add drops of black to achieve the same richening effect. It takes very little black pigment to make a stain brown. Mix all of your sealer together then add the pigment in drops and stir well to determine your color. My preference would be for you to mix factory colors.

As others have said, if you own the land, then it's your land and you can visit as much as you want to. When I visit and know there will be people working, I usually take some coffee or food. It goes a long way in your relationship. You'll know when the basement has been waterproofed when you can't see the concrete from the outside. It should be covered in something black. Read online to learn the difference between damp proof and water proof, then talk to your builder about what they're planning on doing. Bare minimum code might not cover what you had intended. The two pipes on the exterior of the house tied to the drain tile might be bi-directional clean outs. It's a little difficult to tell from the photo, but if the vertical pipes are connected to the horizontal with a "y" rather than a "t", and they're facing opposite directions, then that's what it could be. Tough to tell what the other two pipes are from your picture. The PVC is a large diameter pipe that sits away from an exterior wall. This rules out sump pit connection since those sit close to the wall. It can be assumed that it ties to the interior drain tile so it might be a floor drain? Not sure what the thin one is but it looks like 1" copper with a fitting on the end? Do you know if the water valve is installed in the yard? Could be water. If you have plans to rough in a 1/2 bath, then judging by the pea gravel that appears to be in, you should see PVC for the toilet and sink sticking up. Ask your builder. You also don't appear to have any stacks for the other floors so plumbing probably still has to come in to lay the basement rough in and start the stacks. They'll also either have to dig under the footing or drill through the basement wall to connect to sewer, depending on your height differential. It's important to find out how high your basement is above street sewer tie in. Judging by the other houses, I'm guessing you'll be high enough and they'll dig under the footing to connect to sewer. Question: What's with the hole to get into the garage? Are you planning storage under the garage and using a precast concrete garage floor?

I'm going to speak plainly, and I mean no offense. Is he over 18? Shove him out the door and tell him he's on his own. The things you are doing are NOT helping him. You are hurting him because you are enabling him. Before retirement, I worked at a fairly large company. In the rear of my building was the HR department, and one day an older woman came down my hall looking for that office. Trailing behind her was a man of about 30. She told me she was taking her son to the HR office so he could apply for a custodial position we had open. I looked at him incredulously and he smirked at me. They were two of the most pitiful people I have ever seen in my life: Him - because he so obviously was trailing Mama just to appease her, and Her because she was being so foolish. That happened about 10 years ago and I imagine she is still supporting him. WE certainly didn't hire him.

Thanks @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a), your answer was extremely helpful, and exactly the kind of help I was looking for! I'm very grateful for that! There are few things I want to say, as I didn't specify exact soil mix I planned to use and details about it... You asked me why would I ruin my perfect soil particle mix by using small organics like coir... Well I did not know that much about particle size importance when I was buying stuff for it, also lot of people made very simillar mixes (I based my mix on youtuber "Cactimania" one that used 1/4 organics like loam compost or coco coir with worm droppings and 3/4 lava pumice and grit, since he lives in UK and I in Poland and our weather is slightly more dry so I wanted to maybe make it slightly less fast drying so it would hold water a bit longer - hence the 1/3 organic...) I also heard a lot of good stuff about coco coir an how much plants love it, I've heard it also holds air pretty good and most importantly isnt that annoying to water as peat, as I absolutely hate how it shrinks, becomes hydrophobic and sticks to roots like it had some glue in it about the dust on lava I was just really curious especially that many sources stated it has a lot of those minerals but after your recomendations and the ph I discovered it had I defintely gonna wash this stuff off I was planning to make a mix 1/3 organic or 1/4 organic and it follows something like that: 1 Part Coco Coir + 0.5 part Worm Droppings 1 Part Red Lava Rock (I ll try to do something about the size) 1 Part (or 1,5 Part) Pumice (1-5mm) 0.5 Part that weird grey lava rock (1-5mm) About the Coco Coir: I bought Plagron Coco brix which are supposed to be buffered with calcium, as well have adjusted ph, trichodermia added, in general they are supposed to be highly processed and I've read good reviews about it... I wanted to use it since I've heard that it retains water in a good way but also its quite loose so it still holds air and it is less annoying than peat to water About the worm dropings: I dont know what to say exactly, they were supposed to be "soil conditioner" and "add organics" into the mix They are also from Plagron since I was buying from one hydroponics shop, they look to have a lot o peat in them and dont disolve a lot of stuff in water, since it only looks murky from the dust but doesn't change color that much... On the website it doesn't provide much info either and says that they dont provide much nutriens as a fertiliser... Next time If I will be using them I will buy local ones, that appear to be better quality and dont have much peat and rather actual droppings high in organics made from horse manure processed by worms... In general I planned to use them more as weak organic fertiliser for the coir so it isn't totally empty... Also I decided to measure ph of the lava and rest of the stuff and oh boy, I'm making sure to wash all this dust off! While the ph of gray lava dust appeared to be slighly basic but close to 7 (maybe 7.5?) the ph of red lava dust was definitely above 8, probably solid 9 since it was all nice blue on the indicator the ph of Coco coir was something between 5-6 and worm dropings were something arround 6,5 maybe 7? - they were hard to measure the organic stuff had ph as advertised while the lava was supposed to be neutral - DEFINITELY wasn't (ofc I used good quality deionised water, but had only liquid ph indicator and those ph strips that are just a pain and a mess, I kinda need to buy digital ph meter) here are the results if you are curious and wanna see the mess I made trying to measure ph of these things: https://imgur.com/a/pD88EDc So what I'm gonna do now? Im not sure exactly... I've read your responce as well as link included and there was A LOT of info to take in, so I kinda need to read it few times again You recommend me using other things than coir, like fine pine/fir bark that I would need to buy (but also find in right size, which can be sometimes a pain like with that lava rocks)... Im definitelly still gonna use that lava and pumice but defintelly gonna wash it I was trying to create really good mix, maybe not the perfect one, also I wanted something that actually will hold good amount of water (but not in a soaking wet way but rather lightly moist but for longer) and still provide air between the water holding medium... Im not that concerned about the medium decomposition as I plan to repot them more oftem like every other year my cacti even in store bought soil they had when bought grow really fast (altrough they are in very small pots and when I water them I touch the soil with paper towel to drain the excess - since its completly detached from the pot and in one piece) that is the reason why I really need to repot them as I did not expect them to outgrow the original pots and soil that fast... Soooooo as I understand I could use Coir + wick combination to drain excess water and maybe even use it to water plants through it (I actually thought about this so maybe I could water my plants with less effort) Or pine bark instead and water normally I kinda do not know what to do since I totally wasn't concerned about coir and rather just on lava, now Im like back to the hanging point but instead of thinking of lava I think of coir... My only concern is that the pine bark chips will dry too fast tho Again I have to read your link once more and think about this, also Its quite late and I need to go to sleep... Thanks again for the answer and info!