Backyard (never ending) project

[comingdown]

This cold weather has me miserable and longing for the sunshine and long days of summer to return. I’ve been making a list of projects to finish and thought maybe someone would like to see this, but probably not and that’s okay.

It started small, built a Covid pizza oven. Then we wanted to expand the patio over to it, and pour a separate pad (20x25) for a pavilion. And then my wife insisted on a pickleball court. She had never played or seen a pickleball or paddle prior to this, but it sounded fun so I said let’s go. I don’t have great before pictures but I have some during.

This is before, was basically trees and where our chickens roamed before the raccoons feasted on them.

 

[comingdown]

The concrete came out really good, and we got a lot of use out of the sport court.

Everything formed up.

Here you can see the pizza oven finally getting a walkway


Best day of my kids life I think I can say. Non stop action.

 

[comingdown]

Went with the dominator net, hoop and light. I love it and highly recommend it if you’re in the market.


This light is bright. I almost feel bad for my neighbors but not really.

Started prepping a bunch of 8x8 beams to accept the 12x6 beams. Don’t assume I knew what I was doing. This is engineered on the fly with occasional guidance from my brother who is a structural engineer.

Then my bro in law came down from Idaho and we got them stood up. Our sprinkler system got destroyed during the concrete installation and messed up worse by me later accidentally. Those sunflowers are not intentionally there, just weeds I lost ambition to fight.

Why I cut those beams so wierd. Wasn’t sure how else to finish it.

This really shows how defeated I was. A once green lawn was a sad dirt and weed patch.

The utter sprinkler fail comes into play now. My non pickleball playing wife said well if we’re gonna do a pool later, may as well do it now. So then everything started to get real crazy. My yard has decent slope so we had to step it down a few times.

Holes dug.

They showed up randomly one day unexpectedly. I had just dug a trench to run a gas line to my shop for the heater and here they come. Park the crane truck right where my trench was. We were excited though. We did fiberglass. Fast install and easy to maintain, and less (barely) expensive then gunnite but still damn expensive.

 

[comingdown]

Coco will be proud cause I figured out how to add pictures to the text. Flying it in over my shop and neighbors house.

Contact. After lots of readjusting we had a unlevel pool in the hole.

And shortly after, filled with water and getting the deck and coping poured. Super unimpressed with the concrete work here, definitely inferior to my sports court and other pads I had poured. But I try not to dwell on it.

And done just in time to not use it at all for the winter. Oh well.

Started forming up for some pour in place pavers I guess.


Putting the Mrs to work.

She wasn’t the best help so my nephew and bro in law showed up to help. 37 bags of 80lb concrete mixed.

Done. Had a wierd slope going on but it looks better once grass is in.

 

[Tonkaman]

Holy hell that’s 20 years worth of work done in just a few posts! Very impressive

 

[comingdown]

We’ve had a in ground trampoline in boxes in the garage for years. Finally got to put it together. Turned out pretty good.

My neighbor brought his mini-x over and dug this out for me. We leveled it up. And back filled it.

Got the LED lights out on it. It’s fun and also wierd seeing what’s below you jumping. Kids love it.

Finally got the roof on and finished this beast too along the way.

And got the TV hung up. Doing summer movie nights in the pool is awesome.

Started welding up posts for shade sails.

Coated with epoxy ready to be set.

 

[comingdown]

Got sprinklers in and grass. I welded up a steel retaining wall but didn’t get great pictures. It turned out pretty crappy honestly so I think it’ll be re-done.

I was trying to compact it and the skid steer got too close, smooshed it. So that sucked, should’ve used a jumping jack. Live and learn.

Finally some grass. Ordered too much so I hurried and threw sprinklers in and laid out the rest.

Dug holes and set the shade sail posts.

Waiting for it to cure.

Then shade. Hoping it helps keep water temps down in summer.

Also added a slide as you can see here.
And that was where I left it.

Big plans for spring and summer. Gonna add a deck and stairs to connect sports court to pool. Do a proper fire pit. Finish adding my landscaping rock. Finish the sod in that small section. Plant a bunch of trees. And fix or re-do retaining wall. I’ll update it as I got.

 

[Hickey]

The first image of that in-ground trampoline, I thought it was a cattle feeder, which reminded me immediately that I want a pet moo-cow on a seasonal basis. Do cows eat weeds? Are chickens louder than cows? Things to ponder.

 

[mbryson]

If you want weeds gone, you want a goat. Cows are a pain (but so seem goats)


AMAZING transformation @comingdown

 

[Pike2350]

Wow..that's a crazy amount of work in a relatively small timeframe. Very awesome....great family activities all around.

Wish I had a larger piece of land to work on.

 

[Stephen]

This thread makes me feel lazy...

 

[N-Smooth]

Looks fun! I know I'm getting old because like backyard threads about as much as build threads these days. I was a little confused by the sport court suddenly changing to a covered patio but I like it

 

[comingdown]

Looks fun! I know I'm getting old because like backyard threads about as much as build threads these days. I was a little confused by the sport court suddenly changing to a covered patio but I like it

It didn’t, sport court and a covered patio. Sport court is alive and well.

 

[comingdown]

If you want weeds gone, you want a goat. Cows are a pain (but so seem goats)


AMAZING transformation @comingdown

My neighbor brought over their goat. Stripped my apple tree and left most of the weeds. So that was unfortunate.

 

[comingdown]

Looks fun! I know I'm getting old because like backyard threads about as much as build threads these days. I was a little confused by the sport court suddenly changing to a covered patio but I like it

And also yeah, I have no build at the moment. This is taking enough money for some badass builds though. I need to get my priorities straight again.

 

[N-Smooth]

It didn’t, sport court and a covered patio. Sport court is alive and well.

Ohhhh I see it now. Two totally separate pads. I thought you changed it. My bad

 

[N-Smooth]

And also yeah, I have no build at the moment. This is taking enough money for some badass builds though. I need to get my priorities straight again.

I get it. My shop build has me feeling broke as a joke. I’m checking couch cushions for buggy parts money