Working on my backyard

[geekd]

Hey all.

My wife and I have been working on our backyard since late July.  We're slowly getting it all together.

We live in a tiny beach cottage in San Diego, 2 blocks from the ocean.  We have the front half of the lot, and a small backyard.   The backyard was mostly wasted, dog bathroom was pretty much all we used it for.  We finally got the money together to do something with it.  

Here's some pics:

This is the "Before" pic


We had some guys come out and take out some of the driveway, a sidewalk, and all the grass:



We had a slab poured for the hot tub, and then layed some paver bricks around it:


Then we started in on the deck.  It was just my wife and I, and the foundation took about 9 hours of digging, man handling the Dek Blocks, and leveling.  It was hard work.




Then 3 full days of putting the decking on, and 2 full days of laying pavers, 1 full day of painting the back fence.





Next weekend we will put in the rest of the fence posts, and prepare for sod.  Then the weekend after that, we put the sod in, and are mostly done.

We both work full time office jobs, so weekend labors are not exactly our idea of "fun", but it will be worth it in the long run.  We've done all the work ourselves, except the demolition & pouring the slab.  We had a friend help with the paver bricks, though.

We had no idea what we were doing when we started.  I had a year of shop class in high school, 20 years ago, but that's it.  If it wasn't for the internet and forums like this one, we would have had to pay a contractor to do all this stuff.


-geekd

[Neil]

OB, MB, PB, IB or somewhere else?


I sure miss San Diego.  

The work you've done looks good! You going to show the finished project?

[96SC]

Looks great, I even learned something just by looking at your patio's skeleton.  One thing I couldn't see, did you fasten your deck joists to your house?  I didn't see any fasteners, but my eyes  'ain't what they use to be'.

I couldn't figure out why you had side by side 2x8s (2x10s) until I saw the finished product, very impressive.

If you plan a trip to South Carolina in the semi near future let me know, we could use some expert help.

[Bonibelle]

Wow! that looks fantastic!  My hubby and I used to love to do projects together. It is especially nice when they turn out to be what you expected or better....Now that we are old, we talk about projects but they seldom get done  :-/  Enjoy!!

[geekd]

Neil:  we are in OB.

96SC:  The joists are not attached to the house. The Dek Block people say not to do that with a floating deck.

Thanks guys!

-geekd

[Gomboman]

geekd, I like those lattice fence extensions. Can you buy those seperate and install them on top of your existing fence or was it one unit?

[geekd]

geekd, I like those lattice fence extensions. Can you buy those seperate and install them on top of your existing fence or was it one unit?

They are separate.  Home Depot has them in 1'x8' or 2'x8' (which we got).

The ones in place right now are on my back and side neighbors fences.  We will be putting them on our fences also.  With a 6' fence, that gives us 8' of privacy.

Hey I just noticed, if you look in the picture of the empty slab, to the right there are the ones we bought for our fence.

-geekd

[geekd]

Ok, the grass has been in for several weeks, and I've even mowed it a few times.  We got our shed delivered and put together.

We still have 2 fence panels to put up (one on each side), the latice needs to go on the top of the fence all the way around, and the fence needs to get a few coats of sealant.

Here's the pics:





-geekd

[tanstaafl2]

It looks great but I am curious if you deliberately chose not to connect the tub slab to the deck with pavers rather than have some kind of connecting walkway.

Well, duh. Obviously you chose not to so I guess I am curious why you elected to do so. I might have created some direct connection between the two but perhaps you had a specific reason for not doing so?

I think I might have even filled in the little L shaped area of grass on the stage left side of your deck with pavers and made it continuous with the tub area thus creating a bit more deck area. Not to mention less grass to cut!

 8-)

[geekd]

I think I might have even filled in the little L shaped area of grass on the stage left side of your deck with pavers and made it continuous with the tub area thus creating a bit more deck area. Not to mention less grass to cut!

 8-)

That's what I wanted to do but I was overruled by my wife.  

-geekd

[tanstaafl2]

I think I might have even filled in the little L shaped area of grass on the stage left side of your deck with pavers and made it continuous with the tub area thus creating a bit more deck area. Not to mention less grass to cut!

 8-)

That's what I wanted to do but I was overruled by my wife.  

-geekd

Say no more! SWMBO is a factor I occasionally must deal with as well...

 

[anne]

Wow! that all looks great. And I totally understand your elation and being able to get it done yourself! That was a huge motivationg factor for me, too, and I think it adds to the enjoyment afterwards. Your pavers and deck look beautiful. Oh, and the tub too