Home and garden projects
 

So, with spring just around the corner (we hope :unsure:), what projects or improvements do you have planned around your home or garden?

I have been working on "finishing" a closet off the bonus room over the garage. I will be doing a full lining of drywall, but first it means moving the insulation from the inside "wall" over to the knee wall on the other side, and roof joists, which has meant adding timber to the wall and roof joists to make room for a full 5.5"-6" of insulation.

Outside I have been felling some trees (count: 9, 65'-81' trees :) ) to increase the sun shining on the turf I laid last summer, and I am hoping to plant some vegetables this year for the first time in three years. As soon as we get some warmer and dry weather I will be replacing the screening on the screen porch because it is getting a bit old and has a couple of small tears.

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Just started replacing all my old X-10 stuff with new Z-wave (via Wink). Doing the inside things first and will move to the external bits (irrigation, security lighting etc.) when it warms up.

The X-10 stuff has been getting more and more erratic presumably because of all the extra noise on the power line from modern gadgets. Not fun when your thermostat suddenly plunges to 49F for no apparent reason! Also gives me the opportunity to fit one of the new fangled door locks that can be opened with a keypad or phone app.

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I have slowly been planning to move a steel shed from one side of the back yard to the other. It will hopefully simultaneously shrink from being 10'x10' to about 5'x5'. That way hopefully less junk will get tossed in it, leaving space for just the gardening stuff it should hold.

p.s. anyone want half a shed?

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If this 2-3 foot blanket of snow ever disappears, I've got a number of outside projects.

First and foremost is ripping up all the stupid weed fabric the owners of this house lay down to make the property look tidy for selling the house. I thought I could work with it (having never dealt with the stuff before) but I was wrong. It's awful & needs to go.

Need to attack the hillside in our back garden.... without catching poison ivy IF possible!! One eroding slope of it needs clearing of weeds & noxious vines and planting with some shrubs & plants that will hold the soil firmly & attract birds, bees, butterflies, etc.

Need to figure out how to access the septic tank. We have no bl**dy idea how/where the hatch is (if that's what you call it), though we have the map & have measured & marked the tank & field dimensions with stakes before all this snow buried everything in the world.

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The hatch shouldn't be more than a few inches below ground (6"-8"), and is almost certainly going to be found directly opposite where the main drain leaves the house. IME (5 systems that I or my in-laws own or have owned) the hatch will be no more than 10-20ft from the house. You can go around with a metal rod and push it into the ground to find the hatch (it will be about 18"x18") - that is what the septic tank companies do. :)

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Thank you for this! :thumb: We'll have to do some more measuring once this infernal snow leaves us....

We've done a bit of probing now & again, then this past autumn thought it would be more methodical to mark out the dimensions. By the time we got the measuring stakes pushed in, the ground was almost too hard to work.

Speaking of those markers ... some local people say you can tell where your leachfield is by the darker green grass, but I can't tell any difference in grass--it's uniformly sparse. :lol:

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The leachfields that I am familiar with are usually marked by slight linear depressions (three parallel line is common, but not universal, in NC), but with poor or no grass they can be hard to discern without those depressions. The leachfield lines can be most noticeable during times of drought, when the moisture has the most differential impact.

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Once the 3ft of snow has gone, and the resulting lake has melted and (hopefully) drained, we will be left with a house surrounded by a patch of ground... Mainly sand, we think. No vegetation whatever, some freshly dug, but not landscaped in, drainage channels and a small swamp leading down to the river.

The contractor who built the house (and the one next door) is on the hook for "landscaping and planting", but I have no clue what that actually means. (Not that I care much honestly, I want grass robust enough for dogs to run on, but I'm not looking for a golf course).

Once that is sorted out, then the rear all needs to be fenced (for the dogs). I need to drop in some sort of hard standing (actually, gravel bed will probably do) for an outbuilding/shed and then a patio/BBQ

We really are starting from scratch. It looks like the moon out there.

[Edit] Oh, and Mrs. N. would like a greenhouse and some raised beds.

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Sorry all you folks are having to wait for all the snow to melt.

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Once the snow has gone - dig out the septic, install new baffles..cant wait for that.

Then build wood store/shed and split and stack the remaining half an oak tree sat under the snow somewhere right now.

Pull the boat out and prep for summer :)

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Till and seed the yard and cover it in straw, then plant two holly bushes, one at each of the front corners of the house, "to anchor it". :nod:Actually, golf course grass is probably exactly what you need, as it is likely hard wearing and slow growing. See if you can find out what the local course put on their fairways and then make sure that that is what your builder sows. :)

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Have finished all the weeding/trimming/cleaning up from winter, so want to get some mulch down in the next week or so, before the weeds come back!

Am planning to get a raised bed or 2 built for veggies, but that has been on the drawing board since 2011 (I have the email flagged:()

Want to install a flower bed to the left of the house, but that will have to wait till the ducks that are currently nesting there have moved on..

Want to install a firepit behind the garage, but that's on a back-burner as not convinced we'll actually use it much..

Inside, I need to get some decorating sorted out. We have color patches all over the walls, and think we hae decided what we want, but not 100%. I want to get someone in to do the high ceiling stuff, but will probably do the lower level stuff myself. Unless anyone in this area has a good (and cheap) contractor they can recommend?

At some point I want to get a sink installed in the laundry room, and convert the dogs area to a more efficient "mud room" - not that we have a lot of mud, but just need somewhere for the kids to dump all their gear as the current system has, err, drawbacks!

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On reflection, what I need is a "Yard "Party".

I can invite you all and you can each bring some of your yard and put it in mine. :)

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Be careful about sending that invitation south of the Mason-Dixon line! :lol:

http://neighborshame.com/wp-content/...-Around-It.jpg

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We were riding out in the country last weekend - my son counted 19 trucks in the area around one house - from what we could see, only one of them appeared to be roadworthy (well, it had 4 tires!) and more than half appeared to be missing an engine! They were all very color coordinated though - apparently rust brown is the new black:lol:

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All of that looks so much better than mine.

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Before the snow, (but not before the ice).

http://yaypics.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-RhWq7Bx-M.jpg

http://yaypics.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-bDcqgDF-M.jpg

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Looks it might be suitable for rice! :rofl:

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Too cold.

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Oh no, those photos of your new garden are such a contrast to your old garden! :blink:

Your wife had a wonderful array of flowers & flowering shrubs growing in raised beds and around the deck. I remember the photos....

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Two good afternoon naps from Young Sir allowed me to dismantle the old shed and drag half of it to the other side of the back yard to be reassembled as a smaller shed.

Not done the roof yet and there's quite a mess still to be cleaned up but I have regained a huge chunk of back yard.

Not bad for a weekends work. Lots of aching muscles though.

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We moved house a month ago and have a ton of projects. Paint, light fixtures, ceiling fans, all the sink faucets, bath faucets, shower and bath drains, carpet and stuff like that. I think I can do everything except the shower and bath plumbing because it looks odd, but all the parts don't come cheap so it may be a longer term plan! I haven't seen the outside since we moved in, it's currently covered with 6"-30" of snow, but I'm sure there will be a few things to take care of.

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I finally emptied the shed this morning. I never considered myself a hoarder until I started clearing the house!

Just finished tidying and weeding the front garden and mulched the borders. Lunch is calling then I'm erecting a new fence to replace the one we lost over the weekend.

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So obviously, it is raining today.

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Silly me, I thought I would have at least a day or two in between the final melting of our winter snow and the emergence of the spring-bulb flowers, in order to rip out the weed fabric the previous owners of this house put down.

But no. :unsure: The snowdrops, crocus, & daffs are already sprouting amongst the melting snow mounds..... They're way too delicate & beautiful to disturb. I'll just have to do my best to remove that horrible stuff piecemeal once the ground softens up.

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Spring is in full swing here. The zoysia grass has started to turn green, and I will need to mow the non-zoysia grass this weekend. I also need to finishing limbing and bucking the pines I cut down ahead of the logs being picked up by the sawyer, hopefully very soon.

If I have time this weekend I need to get some mulch for the beds around the house, and finish up raking pine needless off the lawns and spreading them on the bank, hopefully as an eco-friendly way of eliminating the invasive periwinkle that is trying to take over.

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Just finished my 3rd cut of the year. The first 2 were spread out a few weeks,but think the growth rate has picked up and can see it now being a regular weekly occurrence.

I put 20 bags in last weekend, and have just finished unloading another 20 bags, though they may not get installed (?) this afternoon - may have to wait till the weekend.


Ps - I know,I know, its cheaper to buy in bulk rather than bags, but its a whole lot easier in bags and I can work at my own pace...

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You cut your own grass in Texas? Hippy.

I have finished mulching the front. Mulch bought for the back. Liking the new drive through mulch place. Our major project is to deal with the bit of the yard that floods. Raise the soil level and returf the area. Sigh.

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You must be made of money. I am surprised you don't have the money for replacement "bells & whistles" AC systems in your back pocket. :rolleyes: For $24 I can get my truck bed filled (about 2.5cuyds) with mulch. :)

Funnily enough I needed some mulch in bags last year, so I bought some rubble sacks from Lowes and bagged it myself. :lol:

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I go through phases....I normally get someone to do it once school is out.
Yeah, now they just need to come home and unload it! Was that huge African American guy there? He was tossing two bags of wet mulch at a time from the tailgate to the front of the bed this morning. I was strugglingto do the same with one:o [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Pulaski;11602522] Cut my own grass though;) Its in my sinking fund, well most of it. Doesn't mean I want to spend it unnecessarily though.....

Yeah, but I'd end up with it in there for a few weeks at times....I know its a lot cheaper, but for the way I work (little and often, when I get chance), bags are definitely the way to go.

Glutton for punishment or what:lol:

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We had 16 cubic yards of mulch delivered from the Yard Depot on 290 the weekend before last, and we somehow managed to spread all of it that weekend. Our backs ached.

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Yowch, that's a lot of mulch!

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Yes! We have a corner lot, and my wife likes to overdo these things. She is hoping it will last a year.

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We are effectively on a corner, as we have lake on 2 sides, but still don't get anywhere near that. I think I will probably do about 100/110 cuft total - whats that, about 4 yards? My mulch "consumption" is going down as the landscape matures and the shrubs spread out, I have less to cover, but even at "peak mulch" when the backyard was first "done" I think I was only at about 6 yards. I'm not surprised you were sore the next morning!!

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Just replaced the pressure vacuum breaker on the pool autofill line today. Had been on my list for a while, as it was dripping, and I thought it was a simple repair. However when I got the cover off, found the casing was cracked inside, so it was a replacement instead. In getting it off, I managed to crack the PVC piping which has turned pretty brittle so had a rework of that added to the list. All in all cost me $78 and about an hour, including shopping time. I could have saved about $10 on the part if I'd bought off Amazon instead of Home Depot, but wanted to get it done today. Versus the estimates that neighbours were getting of $300-350 to replace the sprinkler PV breakers last year after a hard freeze, I was still happy.

Tomorrow I will be fixing a leak on the inlet line of the pool heater. I am also expecting that to be a simple O-ring replacement - lets hope that one doesn't "escalate" like todays did.

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That's what chlorine does to plastic. :( .... Good luck with the O ring!

I got my pine logs limbed and bucked last weekend, I just need call the sawyer and jolly him along. I cut the logs into three 10ft logs and six 8ft logs, and one that was some where in between. I cut them all approximately 6" over their nominal length so I can tidy them up and still have standard lengths. :)

The rest of the raking of pine needles, and the mulching awaits. :(

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No, the brittle piping was on the supply line to the pool, so just regular water direct from the mains before it gets any of the pool chems in it.:(

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That's not good! Surely your "city water" doesn't have enough chlorine in it to degrade plastic? :unsure:

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The thing with mulch is it doesn't last that long. I have an area in the back yard that has junipers and mulch around it as its in shadow and I don't need lawn in that area. But damn if I didn't do it last year and this year I'll end up getting about twenty bags from Home Depot to top it up.

I'm thinking of using landscaping pebbles instead They don't blow away and get nicked by every passing squirrel for a nest

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Not a home project, and not really a garden, but I built a little indoor garden in the spare bedroom with a plastic pond tub. I can't grow outside but the room gets nice summer and spring sun, so gonna try and grow some basic vegetables and see how it goes.

I've also got some pumpkin seedlings started inside on the window in a pot, gonna relocate them in May to my wife's mothers yard and try my luck with pumpkins and tomatoes there along with Zucchini and peppers and maybe corn.

Can't plant outside yet, while a warm winter thus far, we are still at risk for frost until early May.

I've also replanted all my indoor plants into larger pots, they need to be replanted once a year generally.

I'd love to have a house so I could have an outdoor garden and pond and stuff.