The Nest's Backyard Transformation

Our Transformation Of The Nest's Back Yard - A New Patio And Sod

You're probably sick of hearing about how the backyard was nothing but dirt and this and that and blah, blah, blah by now, so I won't gop there. Other than to say that the backyard being nothing but dirt is the reason why we're doing all of this and you're reading about it now. We're finally getting to the finish line, where we can have a yard we can be proud of and enjoy. This is where we finally make our backyard one we want to hang around in. One where we want to be. One with a garden scale train, and a garden to go with it. We're getting close, but we're not there yet.

(August 2016)
With the trees gone and the shed moved to its new home, we're finally able to get at the root cause of the trouble in the backyard... All the dirt! We've talked about putting in a paver patio along the side of the garage where I've long since since replaced the window with a door. And we've been looking at pavers everywhere. Lowe's. Home Depot. Ace. Not sure where else to look. I don't think RoMac, the local lumber yard, carries anything like that. Ann finds an 84 Lumber of all things, and nearby us. Not as close as all the others I mentioned, but close enough to go and check it out. We hop in the truck and head out there to have a look.

Well, for this being the first time there, we certainly were NOT made to feel welcome. In fact, just the opposite, like our money wasn't good enough for them. Perhaps we weren't "licensed contractor" enough for them. In any case, we didn't really see much there that we couldn't get anywhere else, and a helluva lot closer at that! So much for the first (and last) time we went to 84 Lumber... I kind of got the feeling if I spoke more like a redneck southerner and spat my chaw on the floor we would have been more welcome. Maybe, maybe not. While we're disappointed by our unfriendly treatment, we're more disappointed that we have yet to find any pavers we're satisfied with that don't cost a bazillion dollars per square foot.

Then our neighbors told us about an outlet place up in Leesburg, Pat's Sales, where they have close outs and much, much more. Cabinets. Doors. Windows. Carpet. Tile. Hardware. You name it, they probably have it. The question is whether they will have what it is we're looking for. Well, we get there, and they do. Actually, Ann and Nick venture out there without me. They have a number of pallets of "surplus" pavers, leftovers from a job, at an unbelievably low price. They call me and tell me to get out there with the truck. At least, that's how I remember it. They may have come home and we all headed out there in the truck. Dunno. Can't Remember Shit (CRS).

They have two pallets of pavers we're interested in, so we'll have to make at least two trips. Well, when they try to load the bigger of the two, the truck sinks down to the axles with the load! Wow. I didn't think those paver we're that heavy. So we ask them if they have another pallet we can move some of them to. They set us up outside, in the blazing summer heat. Thanks guys! Drenched with sweat, we've finally managed to divide the pallet up onto three, and go in search of someone to load the truck. Long story short, when we get back to the house with the first load, we have to unload it onto the driveway in front of the garage and head back for the other two.

We thought that was the hardest part... Nope. The hardest part was digging out ALL THE ROOTS to level the paver base. Just when we thought we had it smooth and level, another root. And as we pull it, it uncovers more roots, and tears up what we've already levelled. Even the puppy is helping rip out the roots. It's comical listening to him whine at it as he tries to rip it out of the ground. When he finally finds one too big, he refuses to give up. He finally manages to snap one end of it off, but I can't budge the other end. I get almost half of the paver base prepared and tamped. Then it pours down rain and washes it out. That's alright...

I've been struggling with the paver pattern on the computer, one takes too many of one type, another too many of another type. I finally find one that will work with just a few pavers left over - if I alter the dimensions smaller. Ann's okay with it and I finally manage to get it all level, sloped away from the garage, and tamped and ready for paver base. Ann found this kind of foam underlayment that's supposed to save on the amount of sand and tamping needed so we're going to give it a shot. It seems to work fine, and the only extra work is cutting the pieces to size at the edges. Next up, laying the pavers!

Ann helps me by grabbing the pavers I need while I set them in place, following my pattern print out. There are three types, let's call them ½x½ (A), ½x1 (B), and 1x1 (C) where 1 represents the actual length of a full sized side. In our case, roughly ten inches. It seems the (B) style pavers have a tendency to want to crack along the middle, and when they do, I swap them with a good one. That is, until I know I'll be out of them if I swap any more. I make some quick changes in the pattern, along the edge where it won't be as noticable, to handle to it.

The next step is to apply the "keepers" around the ege of the pavers - essentially plastic angle "iron" and stakes to hold them in place and keep the pavers from moving. They go in easy. The hard part is figuring out how to join them, both at the ends and the corners. I finally figure out how they go togther and get them put in. Every so often I still manage to find a root and have to move the stake to the next hole. The last bit is to backfill the keepers with dirt. With all that, the patio is now complete. All we need now is a walkway from the back door to it.

We have another set of pavers left over, but they're not the same size as the other ones we used for the patio. Ann asks if we can use those for a walkway from the back door to the patio, so I come up with a pattern that uses what we have and looks kind of like train tracks. If we had used gravel around and between the pavers that represented the ties instead of pavers, it really would have looked like train tracks. But at least we'll know, just like the giant railroad crossing crossbucks I built into the patio pattern.

(September 2016)
Now all I have to do is get all the roots out of the walkway and level and tamp it. Sure. Like it takes ten minutes or something. Like the patio, it takes time to setup for the pavers. Once that's done, then the pavers can go down. So the preparation takes another weekend. I thought the roots were bad in front of the garage. Not. Even. Close. Bud. Now we're in the two big oak trees just came out of here territory. For much of it, I would get the majority of the root out of the way by just snapping it off where I could and leaving the edges and other spots to clean up later with the sawzall.

Ann wants to put in some raised beds for flowers along the short fence and the soon to be installed walkway. While I could have used some of the leftover 4x4s, we buy all new ones. She wants one at the end by the garage and the other at the end by the gate. The middle stays open so we can have a bigger sized tree planted to replace the huge ones we just had cut down. I have to cut the 4x4s for the ends, but my chopsaw stop just short of making it all the way through one, so I have to flip it over and hit it to get that last little bit still holding everything together. "Made of the finest quality Chinesium"!

The next weekend, when I got to the back porch, I had to pull out the "step" I added with concrete blocks, then tamp the area level and replace them. Still, trying to get that area to mesh with the surroundings was tough, but I did my best. It was the full up putting down sand and tamping for the paver base, cutting the paver base to size, then laying the pavers starting from the patio and working our way toward the house. It was very difficult to get everything level by the back porch, and it still wants to run downhill toward the gate, but the path way is done and now we can order the sod!

Looks like I'd better figure out how I'm going to get that railing pipe out of the way. What railing pipe you ask? Well, let me tell you about this back porch... It's more of a back "stoop". The back porch proper is about eight feet by the width of the house. The stoop appears to be a small concrete slab, perhaps poured in place on top of the four corner blocks supporting it. Or maybe it was allowed to cure once poured then raised onto those block. I don't know. Everything about this back porch is weird

Ann ordered three pallets of sod. And when they arrived, we laid three all three with none to spare... We probably could have used another half pallet, but for now it covers most of the dirt, and the backyard is green for the first time since we bought the house! We decide to put in some raised beds to help with the areas where there is no sod. The sod does really well until we over water it, just like we did at the other house. Ann keeps telling me to water it, water it, water it. I try to tell her we're over watering it and mold and fungus are going to start growing. Next thing we know, there's a ton of mushrooms growing, and they are everywhere!

(October 2016)
Between the stress on the roots from the fungus from over watering and the constant rip roaring traffic of the dogs tearing it up, the new sod didn't stand a chance. I started installing the garden scale loops I had taken out when we had the trees taken out several months back. We're already seeing spots, literally, every place the dogs pee. Every time the pup finds a stick, he can't just chase it or chew on it. Nope. He has to drag it along the ground, shredding and digging up the brand new sod with every stretch. That's alright. This garden railroad is going back in and it's going to be better than it ever was!

Our niece and her family stopped by to visit while they were down here at Disney. Her son Myles had fun playing with the flea market find engine and some cars. I even connected up a power pack so he could run them back and forth, but he soon grew bored with the whole idea of not having at least a loop of track to run it all the way around. I was just as disappointed as him that we still couldn't run trains. I decided I'd had enough. It's time to get at least a simple loop finished. I constructed the templates I'd need, both for tangent and the 10' diameter curves I'd need for going behind the shed and back. I ripped 2x4 after 2x4 into stringer slats. As I emptied the bin of spacer blocks, I'd cut enough more to refill it, and kept going.

(August 2017)
That lasts a month or so until the kitchen remodel becomes the project du joir so to speak. It takes until June of 2017 to get to the point where the countertops are installed and I'm finally able to devote some time to the backyard railroad again. If it weren't for the loop of track that kept the dogs from tearing through it, there would be no sod left at all. Disappointing to say the least. So now we're back to nothing but dirt pretty much everywhere the railroad tracks didn't keep the dogs from running around and digging and tearing it up... Artificial turf to the rescue!

We didn't do all this work to still not be able to enjoy time in the backyard on the patio. We slowly covered the dirt with carpet... We added another raised bed along the edge of the patio... We even installed a sunsetter awning for shade over the patio! Ann found a really nice set of patio chairs for a really good price. Even the railroad ran... Past tense. Turns out the sod wasn't all the dogs had destroyed... But more about that later.