Backyard Beautification: Part Three

 

Wow, I'm on a roll with these posts lately huh?!?  Awesome!  Ok so to continue with the backyard patio project.   

 

Yay!  The last of the gravel is in the back!  Finally.  Three yards of gravel is kind of a lot. 

 

 

Cheetah Boy helping level the gravel with his bulldozer.  Awesome job!  You are being SO helpful!  Although, perhaps not as helpful as you think.  But I am glad you are having fun! :) 

 

 

So, fast forward a couple days until I had all the stepping stones laid out.  well not all, but most of them.  So I THOUGHT that I would just lay them out and be good.  They didn't all have to match and be even, like this.  Well not exactly like this, as they would all be there, but see not even. 

 

 

But I only thought this because I forgot I was crazy for a little bit.  Of course I would need them to be even.  (Sigh)  Looks like more work for The Super Mommy.  So I got some old wood that came from something Doggie chewed up.  (Don't worry about it Grumpy.)  As it turned out, they worked perfectly for spacers.  See.

 

Little Miss, why did you decide you needed to dig RIGHT WHERE I WAS WORKING???  Oh yeah, cause that's right where I was working. 

 

And then she decided to walk on the stones I just spaced out.  I had to remind myself that she weighs less than the stones, so she probably wouldn't be able to move them and mess up the spacing.  However, I started putting some gravel in between to help hold them there. 

 

Looking pretty good eh?  We got this like sand/cement type stuff that will go in the gaps and then you just need to lightly spray it down and it will harden.  It sounded easier than cement.  But I don't really know. 

 

 

So it turns out making a patio, when you are crazy and need it all to line up perfectly, and you are trying to do this with a little one walking all over it, is hard work.  And can seem impossible.  So after I did the above, I was feeling like this.

 

 

But then that Little Miss had to come give me a hug. 

 

Ok, maybe I should just wait until Grumpy isn't at work, and I can devote all my time and attention on this project. 

 

"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!"

 

Until next time!!!

 

Kisses~

 

Has anyone used that sand/cement stuff you spray?  And would cement just be easier?!?

Backyard Beautification: Part Two

I just love switching projects around on you!  I can't seem to stick with one all the way through until I finish it.  I always have to start another one.  I just have to keep myself busy I guess!  So where did I leave off with the backyard?  Oh yes, HERE.

Well I finished putting up all the lattice around the bottom of the deck and built the fence for Doggie.  Poor Doggie.  I'm sorry that Grumpy hates you to much. 

 

But see all this mud still?!?!

 

 

So much mud!  Everywhere.  I hate it.  The children LOVE it of course, but I hate it, and so does my washing machine.  Its pores are all clogged up from mud!!

 

Oh wait, look!!  Here is some grass growing over on the side yard!  Can you see it in this picture?  I don't have my glasses on.  I feel like you can, but I'm not sure.  I think I took this one when it first started to grow.  And this is over on the side, not in the place of the two earlier mud pictures... although this spot was MORE MUD. 

 

Ok, I got majorly sidetracked there.  Back to the larger mud pit.  I will be making a patio on half of it and half will be bark chips.  (Child safe ones).  We are using these reddish stepping stones for the patio.  This is just some of them. well I think there are 40 here, however we have to get about 200 of them.  Well no like 150 maybe.  I don't know a lot.  And they are like 25 pounds each!   

 

But before we put the stones down, we need gravel down.  That mud pit does NOT drain.  Well our whole yard does not drain well.  It is very annoying.  But I don't want water pits on my new patio, so I read up on it and thought about it and came up with gravel under for the solution.  It turns out this is really what you are supposed to do though for drainage, so I didn't just make it up. 

 

Anyway, we got three yards of gravel.  And we started slowly taking it to the back.  In this picture I know it looks like the wheelbarrow is not totally full, but WOW it is HEAVY.  Who knew that gravel, well rock, would be heavy?!  I didn't!  So yeah, i'm getting a work out for sure.  Grumpy has been helping.  (He has maybe done about oh 1/8 of as much as I have of course, but he has done some.)  I'm kidding he has been working hard too. 

 

I had to lay some out so that I would see what it is going to look like.  This isn't close to being done, but just an idea.  And this picture is really weird because I took it straight down from up on the deck.  But it is making me dizzy looking at it.  Maybe cause I don't have my glasses one.  (Oh yeah, I didn't tell you.  Little Miss broke my glasses!  I have been warring my contacts, but I took them out for the night already.) 

 

So yes, it is going to look gooooooooooood!   

 

Alright.  That is it for now!  There is more to come though, so stay tuned!!!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Kisses~

 

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Front Yard: Part Three (I think)

Hello.

Do you even remember who I am?  I don't.  Let me remind you.  I'm that hilarious blogger you just LOVE.  Here is my first post to help refresh your memory, or if you have recently joined this program, to let you know a little about me and my blog!!

Anyway, because of the lovely weather we have been having, well not today obviously, but recently, I have started a few new outside projects!!  However, this post I will be describing some of the projects happening in the front yard.  If you remember, this is where we started with the ugly front yard.  Or there is this one too.  So we have already done a lot of work in the front.  But I want to do more.  It still needs to be pretty-ed up!  So let's see if I can find some current pictures so show you what new project I am working on.

Well here is the products we will be using anyway!!  ROcks, and rocks and more rocks!!

 

This isn't a totally before picture, but we will just skip ahead a little so you don't get too bored.  If you would notice on the right there is a wall/border deal.  Well it doesn't go all the way to the fence, however for a more polished look I want it to.  We did already get some new bark chips, as you can see, however we will get more to fill it all in after the wall is finished.  And in this picture we did already start with the rock wall.  That would be the rocks on the left side.  They look a little different than the other rocks, but I think it will look good. 

 

Those rocks were f'ing HEAVY.  Eh!  Heavy, heavy!!  I kept having to yell at Grumpy to lift with his knees, but he doesn't always listen well.  And I totally carried way more heavy rocks than he did.  Just saying. 

 

This rock below we named Big Pointy.  Grumpy was angry and felt that it didn't go, however as you will see with the after pictures it all worked out just fine.  I also had to keep reminding him just to do as I say and trust it would all work out.  He isn't creative in the least, and he can't "visualize" things unless he actually sees them so he kept getting all worried.  I had to remind him several times that I'm in charge, and just do as your told and don't worry about it. 

 

You can kind of see in the below picture that there is gravel behind the rocks here, just to help get them in place and drainage/no weeds growing or whatever else.  I don't know how to do this, but it seems to be working!!

 

 

So it is looking pretty good huh??  I can't wait until it is all done!  It will look splendid!!!!

 

Oh and the Super-Mommy is back.  Peace.  Out. 

 

Kisses~

Backyard Beautification: Part One

So now that we have our new lovely deck!  We need to clean up the huge mess that is our backyard.  We need to plant grass in the huge mud mess where there used to be this weird wooden patio deal.  I didn't take a before picture apparently, but you will see the muck as we go on.  So first I had to go to Home Depot for supplies.  Oh wait I am getting ahead of my self!

So we need to play grass, but as you know we have Doggie, who will destroy any grass we plant, so FIRST we need to fence off part of the yard that will be JUST for Doggie, it will be nice because then anytime we are not out with her, she will be in her place, so hopefully will just poop there instead of all over our yard.... So I wanted to fence off the lower part of the yard, and then I had this plan to also put up lattice so then she will have the area under the lower deck, where I don't really want children crawling under or anything anyway. 

Ok, back to getting supplies.  I measured out the amount of lattice and fence I needed and was off.  I went by myself and felt all cool and handy getting out these huge pieces of lattice, 8 feet long each, and I had to get 4 of them.  They were on the top shelf, OF COURSE, so I had to like stand on the bottom shelf to get them down.  And I had to put it on this huge flatbed cart deal, which was really hard to steer.  I had several people ask me if I needed help during the whole ordeal, but I said no because I felt they were all just asking because I was a girl, so I got all offended.

Anyway, this is about how I felt after.

 

Yup, pretty cool.  Then I placed all the supplies in the back.  Se this is the end of the yard being fenced off.  Not this WHOLE part, just the end of it. 

 

Side note:  as I am typing this Little Miss just figured out how to say "Kitty car, meeowww" and she is saying it over and over again.  Pretty f'ing cute.

 

Ok so here is the deck, and you can see a bunch of mud.  Kind of,  The lighting is weird because it was like in the afternoon so the sun is hitting it weird.

 

MUD MUD MUD.  We need grass!  But here this is what is used to look like.  Yeah, huge difference.

 

So I laid all the lattice out and measured to figure out the sizes I needed.

 

Grumpy kindly offered to cut them for me.  (I needed to make him feel useful somehow, obviously I could have sawed them....)

 

 

Ta-da!!  There is some of it.  Oh wait, that is before I actually put it up, that is just all the pieces cut.

 

There we go, that's better.  So see all the mud!!!  And this is before Grumpy cut some parts around the posts so it is a little bent here. 

 

This is what I looked like after.  Oh and I forgot to mention it was close to freezing out during this time, so my knees were like numb.

 

I got mud in my pretty fake nails!  Probably was a bad idea to get nails on right before this project.... as you can see my thumb one fell off.  (sad face)

 

So there you have it.  Well the first part anyway.  It is getting there!

 

Kisses~

 

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Back Deck: Part 9

World record of longest time between posts.  Seriously. 

I'm going to kind of fast forward a bunch.  Or at least put a bunch into one post.... Because, well the back deck is done and I'm SICK OF IT, well I mean sick of it not being done and whatever else.

So here is about what happened.  We were working on the deck and there was a huge mess in the backyard! 

 

I was rehired as level manager... and fired and rehired again.  I don't know.  But maybe I was the only one there so Grandpa Obi-Mon didn't have a choice but  to use me as level manager.

 

 

Until the day that Uncle Crazy Pants showed up to help and apparently he is better with the level then I am.  Boo!!  However, I don't think he really is any better, but Grandpa trusts him when he says it's level so he doesn't double check it all.  Whatever.  

 

 

But it was super cool he came up to help because we were able to lay down a bunch more decking!!  And that same day my mom came up and watched the kids so Uncle, Grandpa and I got a lot of work done!  Grumpy just slept.... But he is working nights soooo I guess that was ok.

 

 

 

Little Miss wanted to nurse while I was working one of the days.  I think this was actually before the day that my mom and brother came up.... But I don't remember. They all kind of melt together.  That is what happens when I don't blog for a long time, then I forget all my funny sayings I thought of while working and taking pictures. And I forget the order of it all.

 

 

Luckily Little Miss decided playing in the dirt was more fun.  Well yeah obviously this was before the previous pictures because there is no deck there... and there was in the other pictures.

 

Looking good!!!  There are some stairs!!!

 

POOF!  Just like magic it is done!  Ok not magic.  Poof after like 6 months it is finally done!!! 

 

It looks so good!  I need to get a picture of it from the yard and then show you all what it used to look like again!  I will do that another day.

So there you are!  Awesome back deck.  Seriously so awesome. 

Kisses~

Back Deck: Part 8

No, the deck will never be finished.  Ever.  (Weep, weep, weep)  Well that is how it feels anyway.

Where did I leave off??  Oh yeah here. 

Oh my goodness, look at that mess!!! It literally brings tears to my eyes!  It is terrible.  TERRIBLE.  But I think I told you last time, we got a dumpster, so Grumpy's job, (all he has to do, I don't make him build the deck or anything) is get rid of that all.  Check back later to see if he completed his task.  (What do you think I should give him as a reward if he does?  Hmmm.)

 

Anyway, I had to go around and tighten all the bolts I had previously hammered in with a wrench.  (Oooo, like all my fancy construction talk there?) I don't know what I'm talking about. 

 

Oh!  That reminds me.  I had to hammer in MORE bolts for the new posts Grandpa Obi-Mon set up, and I told him how I think my hammering skills are improving.  He made some sort of noise, like he heard me, but he wasn't going to agree or disagree.  I am really not sure what he meant.  But I have improved.  Really, I have.

 

This is Grandpa trying to make sure the post will be level.  I think he was getting a tad bit frustrated, because the posts did not want to be level, but of course he got it in the end.  I was also re-hired and allowed to use the level.  Well, that is what my dad said, however he did double check all my level-ok-skills before he hammered anything in sooooo.... I don't know.

 

 

The lower deck has started! 

 

This is supposed to show how dirty I am... like from working in the hot sun and dirt all day.  I just look weird and am not really sure I will show you this picture....

 

More notes by Grandpa Obi-Mon.  If you can even see it.  There is a drawing of the stairs and there are some measurements.  Or at least numbers that Grandpa Obi-Mon magically knows what they mean.  It tells him the size of the stairs from all angles and where the posts need to be and all sorts of crazy stuff for building the stairs. 

 

Time for me to screw in some more decking!!!

 

"Not intended for ground contact."  Giggle, giggle, giggle.  Ok sorry, I'm tired.

 

Ok, end note that has NOTHING to do with the deck.  I THINK I am going to go look at something from Craigslist tomorrow.  I know.  If you remember I am not a fan of used items...   However, I did finally check out some garage sales and found I loved it.  so time for the next step. Craigslist.  We will see if I actually follow through or not.  I am a little frightened, and I think I will take someone with me.  Grumpy will probably pass out from shock reading this.  He is thinking "She isn't going to do it.  Or if she does she will call me from the car when she is parked, weeping."  Yes, I might do that.  But I will try.  Hey, I emailed and set up a meeting time!  That is a start right??

 

Ok, really I will let you go now.

 

Kisses~

 

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Back Deck: Part 7

Working on the deck, working on the deck.  Grandpa Obi-Mon came up to help work on the deck the day after Hood to Coast.  I was sore and luckily I didn't have to do too much that day.  I was mostly screwing in the decking, while my Daddy-oh was putting in more posts.

Let's see if I can find some pictures from the day.

Ohhh so cute!  Cheetah Boy was outside helping and Little Miss wanted to join!

 

I was screwing in decking and Grandpa was over there mumbling numbers and things like "Ok, 12 so that would be 24 and then 5 and 3/8 and 6 and 7/8 and so..."  Yeah, I have no idea what he was doing, but I think he was writing notes on the side of the deck here.

 

It is good!!

 

Oh and remember what the backyard used to look like?  Hmm let me find it for you.  Ok well here is some of the mess.  I guess I didn't really have one of the whole backyard.  Well I convinced Grumpy to get one of these. 

 

I am very excited.  Grumpy has been cutting up the hot tub with his new saw.  I am very concerned he will hurt himself.  We won't talk about it.

 

So here is the little bit more Grandpa Obi-Mon got together.

 

 

The backyard is looking MUCH better.  Still some junk, but not nearly as bad as it was.

 

See the trash bags?  That side of the house has ALOT more.  We are going to have to get another dumpster.  (Yes Grumpy, we are getting another one.)

 

Slowly but surely it is getting there!

 

Kisses~

 

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