Nick's house build thread

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I just head down to the local Home Depot and pick up a few Hombre's to help me with stuff like that. Which typically ends up with me sitting with a cold beer in my hand directing.

For some reason your pics are not loading for me.

I did that for part of the dirt removal. The guys here in Seattle won't move gravel and dirt for less than $20/hour. They wanted $100/each to remove the dirt and fill in 2 yards of gravel. One guy got pissed off and left after removal so I only gave him half the money. He wanted $100 just for the removal and that wasn't the deal. The other guy stuck around because "he hated the reputation people had of "bad mexicans"". In the end, it was more money and hassle than it was worth to hire them. My spanish isn't good enough to ensure that I don't get ripped off. I needed the gym time anyway. lol
 
Really? that is frowned upon? To be honest, it does sort of feel like picking up a hooker while they swarm your car and you're seeing who does the best work for the least amount of money per hour.
There are organizations that want you to hire legit workers. http://casa-latina.org/get-involved/hire-worker

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Spent the better part of the last 3-4 weeks on the back yard. Fuck me, it was a LOT of work. It really sucks not having direct access to the yard. I had to wheel barrow 5 yards of gravel from the front of the house to the back yard. I tried to find a landscaping business that would do the work. None would touch something this size. They all wanted really big projects and some were booked through the end of September. I got a really good deal on the artifical turf. That piece is as high quality as you can get, would have cost about $600 buying online. I learned that nobody sells to home owners. Everybody wants to deal with just the contractors and landscapers. I got a remnant from a business for only $120. So that was good.

The other hard parts of the project were dealing with the junction box. It wasn't square to the house. So that was a huge pain in the ass. The grade from the main house patio down to the junction box also threw a curveball.

Side note: my first job ever was when I was 10 years old. For 3 summers I worked at a blueberry farm. I bought my Sega Genesis when I was 13 with the money that I earned. So guess how happy I was to see a blueberry tree in the back yard when I bought the house. Fuck that tree!


On to the pictures!
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That old concrete slab the plant/feeder stand was on is crooked now. Keeps throwing me off.

What's the wood thing in the dirt?
 
That old concrete slab the plant/feeder stand was on is crooked now. Keeps throwing me off.

What's the wood thing in the dirt?

What do mean by "crooked"? It wasn't built square to the house and I can't move it. I basically used it as a base for a 6'x10' paver patio. the walkway on the side of the grass isn't off by a whole lot, the last two pavers had to be cut 1/4" over the 2 feet of bricks.

And the wood thing is an arbor. We hang plants from it. We'll be adding lighting later this week.
 
What do mean by "crooked"? It wasn't built square to the house and I can't move it. I basically used it as a base for a 6'x10' paver patio. the walkway on the side of the grass isn't off by a whole lot, the last two pavers had to be cut 1/4" over the 2 feet of bricks.

And the wood thing is an arbor. We hang plants from it. We'll be adding lighting later this week.

I figured you couldn't move it. All your work looks awesome, but it's just slightly off from your line that bugs me.
 
Looks great man! Surprised you didn't go all sand set paver. Any reason not to? Possible dog in the future? I'm also thinking of doing the sand set pavers around the house, once I finish the training wall.

I have that big trellis behind my house and I actually ripped the clematis and others out because it was a ton of work to maintain. We'll probably go to just hanging plants like you're doing.
 
Looks good!

Luckily I've never had issues with our Messicans once they're onsite. My step father did, dude wouldn't do the work for the agreed price so he made the guy walk home.. lol
 
Looks great man! Surprised you didn't go all sand set paver. Any reason not to? Possible dog in the future? I'm also thinking of doing the sand set pavers around the house, once I finish the training wall.

I have that big trellis behind my house and I actually ripped the clematis and others out because it was a ton of work to maintain. We'll probably go to just hanging plants like you're doing.

I did polymer sand. So it was 1/4" minus base, washed sand, then filled the gaps with polymer sand and used a plate compactor. Watered the polymer sand to hold it in place. No dog plans, but the woman wants one. I told her one of the cats has to die first. lol

Should be big enough to do outdoor draft this year if needed. :D
 
I figured you couldn't move it. All your work looks awesome, but it's just slightly off from your line that bugs me.

So here's a close up of the paver cut. I made the path perfectly straight to the junction box and cut the pavers to fit. (i need another bag of polymer sand, the gaps were full but the compactor shook it down to the base, which I wasn't expecting as much to shake down). As for the 6x10, i chose to make it perfectly square rather than line up with the house. Since I would have had to get a concrete saw, it just wasn't worth it for 4 bricks on a side of the house that doesn't have access. Is that the line part you are referring to? Here's a picture of that line as well. How would you have done it? I honeslty didn't have a good idea what would be best.

Again, i'm going to have more polymer sand in these gaps, they'll look flush. And I spend HOURS gapping the pavers. They were literally perfect. Using the compactor shifted them off by millimeters.


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can see em now

looks great :thumbup:

1 caution on the artificial grass... i dont know what kind of sun exposure it gets but that shit gets hotter than fuck in a lot of sun
(disclaimer: my experience with fake grass is in Tucson where depending on the time of year literally everything is hotter than fuck)
also if you lightly mist it with some water about 20 min later you can walk on it barefoot and almost not tell the difference from real grass


but seriously that is coming along very nicely
 
can see em now

looks great :thumbup:

1 caution on the artificial grass... i dont know what kind of sun exposure it gets but that shit gets hotter than fuck in a lot of sun
(disclaimer: my experience with fake grass is in Tucson where depending on the time of year literally everything is hotter than fuck)
also if you lightly mist it with some water about 20 min later you can walk on it barefoot and almost not tell the difference from real grass


but seriously that is coming along very nicely

It was 80 degrees on Sunday when I was finishing and had to put down a kneeling pad and wear gloves. The turf was hot as hell. The infill that i'm going to get claims to reduce the temperature by 25 degrees. So hopefully that helps a bit.
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well that was an interesting rabbit hole, and now i know more about artificial lawn and infill than i ever cared to know
 
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