When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
We have had rain about 2 days in the last 3 weeks. Temps are all over the place but we have 77-90, over the next 10 days, in the forecast and still not much rain. I'm hoping we get the rain that was predicted for today. After today, next potential for rain tis the 25th.
Little man had his first day a "striping" class. Morning after a cold front, hence the sweatshirt. Trying to get this kid to wear clothes is a giant task in itself after playing in the pool and water everyday.
Damn, I run mine for about 2hrs (25 mins per zone) 3 times a week, unless rain is forecasted.
Is the soil bone dry?
Yes for the most part. Starting to see the soil crack in the not so thick areas. Trying to grow grass around the patio is a pain in the ass right now. It is slowly coming in.
After a month of watering regularly and keeping the dog/kid off of it as much as possible, we have grass! It still needs quite a bit of work but I am happy with it so far. Cut it for the first time the other night. Was about 8Inches long in some spots, raised the deck to keep it longer than normal. I put down more seed in the thin areas to get that to thicken up a bit. Should be about 10 days to see that coming in. Next will be rolling the yard flat and thinning out the tree overhead to get more sun on the ground, but it does get good light early morning and mid afternoon.
Plan is to get more dirt in a couple months when it isn't so hot out and get the other side of the yard going where I have neglected it for some time now. I still need to build the ramp into the shed and finish the area around it. Haven't come up with something I will be happy with just yet. I do plan on putting river rock in the corner behind it. We get a ton of run off water from the neighbor and I have never been able to grow grass behind the old shed. Not enough sun, water pooling and the dog running thru there constantly. Rock would be my best option I believe.
Looking good. I understand the difficulty of keeping the dogs off the new growth areas. I play that game every year in the backyard when I am filling spots they have destroyed.
But if money is no object, the Irrigreen system is pretty cool. It only puts water where you want it (it adjusts the flow during the entire sweep to avoid obstacles, even stopping the flow entirely). But like I mentioned, money would have to be no object. The controller, wiring and a single head is $2k. Each additional head is $330.
The upside is you don't need as many heads. My entire system has 6 zones and ~20 heads. I would only need 6 heads with their system, and it would actually cover more ground.
I looked into this. There website is actually very helpful. To do my whole yard with good coverage would be 9 heads and $4747. I don't think that includes install though. Front yard alone would be 5 heads to cover everything if I want 2 individual head to cover the strips on grass between sidewalk and street. This should give me a good idea of what other companies would charge and if they are high/low. Got me thinking now. Wife won't approve but I can add it to the wishlist!
Looks great. We're still in recovery mode from the pool install. Seeing what grows back & where I'll need to get some sod put down.
Too damn hot to right now though.
Looking good. I understand the difficulty of keeping the dogs off the new growth areas. I play that game every year in the backyard when I am filling spots they have destroyed.
Everything came together really well back there.
It really has. I am really happy with it now. Need ideas for string lights now. Been toying with the idea of half whiskey barrels with 4x4 or 6x6 cemented into them, half way up, and turn the rest into planters. would need 5 or 6 of those. Trying to keep from having to drill/hang off the house.
We are also looking for an umbrella (chili red for contrast) for mid day shade when the sun is cooking us out there. Wife wants a cantilevered one and able to move throughout the day for shade or where she wants to sit or have the kids play. Although I like the look of them the weighted base takes up too much real-estate (roughly 40"x40") That's just too much space for me and pretty heavy to be moving around all the time. I thought about getting umbrella mounts and placing them at the edge of the concrete in several locations so we can just pull the umbrella out and move it to the new spot and not have a weighted base. I haven't found any that were worth trying yet, but still throwing that idea around.
Well it has been quite sometime since an update. Shortly after my last post here, my daughter was born 3 weeks early and had to spend 9 days in NICU. Those were the longest days of my life. Fell into a little bit of a slump after and was not very motivated to do much around the house as far as updates. But I was able to put together a padded box for the hearth of the fireplace so no one bumps their heads on the stone that was there.
After a few weeks of a tall step in and out of the house I knew I had to do something, I took measurements and drew up some plans for a walk out landing with a few steps down and go to it.
Still not completed with it but it is functional and looks great. I plan to stain it dark brown this fall now that the treated lumber has dried out for 2 years now.
This past spring when the snow melted, we had some pretty strong storms roll thru with high winds. I thought we would make it thru just fine without any leaves on the trees, but my maple wasn't so lucky. The winds split the trunk in 2 and put it on top of the shed...
Had some high winds in the forecast for the next 2-3 days so I had my tree guy come out and take it off the shed to prevent further damage. $600 later, the tree was on the ground and not causing any other issues.
He told me the following week he would quote me for the remaining clean up and stump removal. About choked when I saw the quote. Wanted another $2300 to finish the job. So I reached out to a neighbors buddy to finish it. That was $750 chipped, ground and hauled away. He did leave me the bigger pieces.
An old neighbor of mine has a log splitter, so I bought him some lunch and we got it done in 3 hours.
Ended up building a new wood shed to stack what we had split. Luckily I didn't pull my old wood shed apart because I ended up needing that one as well. Didn't think I needed it until I started stacking. There was a ton of wood!
Left side on both of these is double stacked 8"-10" pieces and the right sides are 20" pieces.
Needed some changes in my storage area. Bins were unorganized and mis labeled. Drew up plans for a bin holder and quickly put it together.
Had to knock out a half wall to get the width I needed. That is still a work in progress to this day. Need to figure out some electrical things first.
The wife and I like to entertain and our patio needed some lights. I drew up some plans for planter box posts and ended up with 6 instead of 5 as I had planned. The span between 3 over 35' was a little too long for my liking. 4 fit better and looks great!
The plan is to stain all the wood dark brown this fall.
As I get older and enjoy keeping a clean cut yard, I have enjoyed planting flowers in the beds and keeping those clean as well. This year I have had some of the best results as far as anything blooming. People are always giving compliments.
We get all our hanging baskets from an amazing greenhouse close to my house.
I received some plants from my neighbor thinning out her beds and wanted something different around my birch in the front instead of the normal hostas. Here they were beginning this year.
Here is what they turned into. I am satisfied with this look for now. I will probably change it up eventually.
Recently took advantage of Bambu's 3 Year Anniversary sale and picked up a P1S. Can't wait to start making things.
I did have plans for a main level/mudroom/kitchen remodel and even went as far as modeling it myself. I shared the plans with a few contractors and was given quotes of $100k-$140k. Yup, that didn't happen. Now the plan is to tackle it myself starting this fall. Hopefully I don't get in over my head, but it doesn't seem too hard. I will probably contract out the electrical work, since I don't trust myself, but other than that the rest shouldn't be too bad. Might contract out the drywall work as well since that is tedious and can look like shit if not done right.
I will post photos of the storage area once I tidy up the electrical and drywall. Tool storage is next on my list in that area.
That back yard looks amazing, well done! Congrats on the new printer too! Oh and the baby as well...
Good call to outsource the drywall, it's awful and best left to the pros. They'll do it way faster and with a better result. Electrical isn't bad, just spend some time reading and attending university of YT and you'll be fine.
