If you don't want to mess with hay you can use burlap instead. Use some with a more loose weave and it will eventually just rott into the soil.

 

Chris ain't no horse...

 

I have baby grass!

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reminds me of my first girlfriend...

 

 

Fixed another patch of dead/missing grass. This one was in the front yard. For the guys that have been following this thread, the kid that ripped me off killed all my grass in the front, dumped rock and tree shreds everywhere and ran off with my money. When my buddy and his other company came to finish the job, they finished the yard, but didn't seed all the way to the bit of healthy grass, and there was a patch in the middle that was just rocks and dead grass. I named this patch the "potato patch" because my friend nicknamed the asshole that ripped me off Potato Head because he had a giant melon head and ripped me off. Here's a before after I raked out all the rock and weeds.
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So after I raked out and removed all the giant rocks, I threw down my seed
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Then I hand spread the lawn soil over it to protect it from the birds
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Another patch fixed, only took me an hour total to complete. Only about 17 more spots to do

 

Also, my first patch has been coming in really good, here's a pic I took on Saturday.
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It looked twice as thick this morning after a couple more rains and watering

 

Have you tried patching any spots in the back yard with the dogs at all? That is really where I need to do patching and I have yet to find a successful way of doing so. Have you come up with any ideas for this?

I am thinking I am going to have to get stakes and mesh fence and section off parts at a time so I can let new grass grow in thick and full before allowing them on it little by little.

 

That's awesome, Chris...I enjoy your updates.

 

I haven't done any inside the fence yet, as I am working my way around to the back since it has the most spots/holes that will need dealt with. Part of the patches that didn't grow are from them romping and playing and tearing up seedlings. I'll post a picture of what I'll be dealing with, the areas where the straw clumped together is the areas where the grass did not really grow at all. it's always going to be a struggle with dogs, but I'd say 80-85% of the seed took in there, so it's really just a struggle to keep up. I thought about roping certain areas off, but it would be too hard to keep the dogs out. I'm planning to just put straw down again and try to keep them away from those areas. I may leash them for a bit just to have better control of where they go.

Thanks buddy, it's a lot of work, and sometimes I feel stupid posting stuff like this, but I know you guys all deal with the same kind of crap so it's fun to share.

 

My yard was so unfinished for so long thanks to dbag ripping me off, that I'm really taking a lot more pride in the yard and the yard work to make it look as good as I can now that it's near finished. I have already got a quote for the next stage of work to happen up behind the wall on the hill facing the street. Can't wait to keep moving forward

 

You're a good dude...
good things come to (on) you!

Keep on truckin...

 

You fertilizing at all? Milorganite can be used now with those seedlings.

 

I love reading them so keep it coming
going to put plants between the wall edge and the fence?

 

I'm using Scott's Lawn Soil which has seed starter fertilizer in it. I used weed and feed on the rest of the lawn already

 

 

Used Scotts weed and feed for the first time this year it's a little less aggressive than the previous fertilizer I used but did its job and eliminated the dandelions, some other minor weeds.

 

I do the weed and feed every 3 months or so...

 

Right on, I got another bag of it, I will put it down again after the seed gets going

 

good cover for your hydroponics endeavor too!
ship me some, bru!

 

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I want a daily grass update!
Gotta be 3" tall by now!

 

Just cut the grass inside the fence, it seems to be growing way faster than the rest of the yard. It was close to a foot tall, and the dogs were high stepping over it

My latest seedlings started showing yesterday when I checked. Been raining all night, I'm sure they're loving it.

 

I did a little fertilizing myself this morning...some new palms we transplanted.
I love being a homo
wner.

Rock on, Chris, have a great weekend.

 

But I'm hung like one

 

^^^ I am surprised this comment took so long to appear

 

Well, I had a lot of plans for my nice long weekend, but all of it ended up getting screwed by a leak in my kitchen sink. I washed all my dishes, then went down to start laundry in the laundry room only to discover that water was leaking through the ceiling and down through the cabinet above. Luckily in my 9 years of home ownership I've become quite the amateur plumber, so I went to work.

So after pulling all the cleaning chemicals and such from under the sink. I discovered the problem pretty quickly. The piece that screws on to the bottom of the sink was rusted and cracked.
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The trap was also full of water and pretty gummed up, so I cleaned it out while I was at it.
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After a quick trip to Lowe's and $15 I was ready to fix it up
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Voila, shiny new pipe all installed.
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I went with metal because I wanted it to fix the other side at least for now. Next year I am ripping out the cabinets and replacing the sink, so just needed it fixed in the mean time. Nice quick $15 fix.

 

My browser on this laptop has been shitting the bed, and I missed it until today

 

Well, it's been raining all week so my latest grass seed came in great. Didn't take any pics since it's been pouring. I finally decided to start tackling the main bathroom which needs a LOT of work.

To start off, I had mold growing on the ceiling above the shower. It was there when I bought the house, and I had chased it off once, but it recently came back with a vengeance. So I sprayed it with some fungicide and scrubbed it all... good times. Since I was already in the bathroom and had a mask and gloves on, I went to work on the wallpaper. It's been peeling off and looking shitty for years. It's a marble design, but looks terrible and dated. I went to work ripping down the wallpaper, and got about halfway done.

Here's a couple befores, you can see where the mold was to the top left side of the shower.

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You can also see how the wallpaper was separating. And my ex peeled up the edges one day for god knows what reason, so it's been like that for some time

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Here's the hideous "marble" pattern... so 80's
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And here's the old dated medicine cabinet which is also going away very soon
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And here's what I did so far
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Bought a steamer, and am going to have to steam off the glue layer, but I wanted to get as much off by hand first as I could. Got about half way done with the first step, but it feels good, it feels damn good

 

Nice work. Are you just going to do paint and a new medicine cabinet or are you planning for a full bathroom reno?

 

i LOVE YOUR UPDATES...THE HOUSE IS COMING TOGETHER SO NICELY.

 

Paint, new sink and vanity, new medicine cabinet, and new floor. Going to leave the shower alone for now. I had bought a groupon for a $1000 shower makeover and the guy never called me back and it expired, so the shower is going to stay for now. Going to paint everything and redo the floor with some better tile. The linoleum stick on crab is beat, paint and medicine cabinet will def be first once I get all the wallpaper and glue down

Thanks dood, slowly but surely it's coming along.

 

That is a pretty substantial reno. Can't wait to see the end result.

 

are you doing most of this stuff yourself?
or do you have a pantless party planned with your ex to finish what she started?

 

Another good tip for removing old wallpaper is to get some water as hot as your hand can handle and add dawn to it and sponge on and remove.

My experience with the steamer was okay, lots of water had to use a drop cloth.

Note: No glue can remain on the walls or else you did all that work for nothing, paint will not stick to the glue.

 

Almost forgot, when done be sure to use a primer before you paint the wall, Zinsser 123 will work just fine..

 

Nicks knows his shit.

 

I literally just went through removing wallpaper and glue. It is a junky and messy job! Glad it`s over.

 

Thanks man, it will be slow going since I'm switching jobs right now, and don't have the money to throw at the new vanity and such, but I figure I'll use the spare time I have burning vacation days to get a jump on the stuff that I can do myself

Doing everything myself, that's how I roll

I wouldn't touch my ex now with Justin's crab infested dick...

 

Maybe you should...you know, teach her a lesson