Backyard Makeover

A few weeks ago, I posted that we put up a new fence.  I may have mentioned the need for an entire yard makeover, that has been needed for years now but always seemed such an overwhelming and costly task.  However, building the fence sort of motivated us to move forward on it a little at a time.  And when I say "us", I really mean Dave and the boys, since I am sort of useless right now.  It pains me that I cannot take part physically in this process, as I always love being a part of projects.  I love getting my hands dirty, trying new power tools, and just working alongside my husband.  To me, it is so fun and rewarding.  But for now, I will be a spectator, designer, shopping companion, and refreshment coordinator :-)

I thought it would be fun to blog the process of the makeover, because frankly, who doesn't like a good makeover? It's so much fun!  I thought it would also be fun to show others how projects can be done by being thrifty, thinking outside the box, and by considering various alternatives to the "normal". I want to encourage people that they can accomplish their dream projects, even with monetary hindrances!  I happen to be married to a very handy, very mechanical, very creative minded husband, and that is helpful too!  So welcome to...............................................

Project DeShong Backyard Makeover

Left side of yard before.  Nice dead grass, weeds, holes from dogs digging.....

Right side of yard before.  Same story as the other side.

Goal:  To turn a yard full of dead grass/weeds into a beautiful haven for fun, rest, and relaxation.  The goal is to landscape the side yard, plant grass in the backyard, and build a deck complete with fire pit!  Since there is a logical order to doing things, here is the step by step.  This is more for me, so I can organize my thoughts:

1) Rototill side yard (check)
2) Lay gas line for future fire pit on future deck (check)
3) Build frame for deck, so we can move on to step 4 (halfway finished)
4) Backfill deck with dirt from side yard
5) Landscape side yard (details to follow, including how we will do this on the extreme cheap....I can't wait to share)!
6) Rototill side one of the yard, and plant grass seed  (so the dogs will still have access to one side of the yard at a time)
7) Meanwhile, while grass is growing and becoming established, build deck (stay tuned for how we plan to do this for next to nothing in cost)
8) Rototill side two of yard and plant grass seed
9) DONE!  Ah, I can't wait for the day!



Step 1: We were blessed to borrow a rototiller from some dear friends, and since they hardly ever use it, we are able to keep it for a while, and use it at our leisure, instead of the cost of renting a machine for 4 hours at a time.  The first thing Dave did was to kill the remaining grass and weeds with total vegetation killer.  One container did the job, and Austin did the whole thing.  Dave soaked the side yard with water to make it easier to rototill, and then he was able to make light of the job.  It took him a weekend and he had the entire side yard rototilled up.  I wish I had a before pic of this side yard.  It was knee high in weeds, most of them already dead.  It was not a pretty sight.

Step 2:  One of the things we have longed to do in the yard was to build a small deck in the back corner (pretty much where Dave and Vance are standing in the pic below) ,and put in a fire pit.  So the next step before any more work could be done was to dig a trench to run the gas line from the house to our future deck site, since it needs to be buried underground.   Here is breaking ground for the trench.

And here is the gas line.  We had to run it from the house to this spot, about 10 feet.  We now have fire.

Step 3:  Build the frame for the future deck.  This needed to be done before we could level out the side yard, since we needed to use all the leftover fill dirt to fill the deck area.  After considering all our cost options, we came up with the idea to use railroad ties as the frame for our deck!

I have always loved the rustic look, and at $16 a piece, this is an extremely cheap way to do it, as opposed to stacking bricks or other building materials.  And, it takes a jiffy to build.  That's a plus.  The first layer of them had to be buried about halfway in the ground, so here is Dave at work doing this just last weekend.

And here is half of the first level buried.

Once the first level is completely buried, Dave will stack on levels two and three, attaching them to each other with brackets, and using rebar for extra support.   Stay tuned for more pics and an update. Thanks for coming along with us on this adventure!