A bunch of our friends came by on Saturday to help us take down half of our deck and a useless fence in our backyard. The deck used to wrap around our pool, but after we took the pool out it just wrapped around as a giant safety violation. It was also poorly built and hazardous all on its own (more on that later). The fence cut our yard in half without doing anything useful. It was clear that they both needed to go.
This is what our yard looked like before we started:
As you can see, the deck just ends. Also, that fence (just to the right of the deck, a little tricky to see) is really ugly.
Home improvement shows have led me to believe that any project takes about 45 seconds plus a commercial break to complete. Imagine my surprise when it took us all day to get rid of the deck and fence!
Our friends were awesome. I was really and truly touched that they would volunteer to spend an entire Saturday working in our backyard. There is literally no way that we could have done this without them, because it took about five people working together to get each of the fence posts out. You’ll be shocked to hear this, but concrete is heavy.
I was really impressed with our ability to work together efficiently while still having fun. It doesn’t hurt that we’re all pretty handy with power tools. I think we used something like five different cordless drills.
I was also really impressed with our friend Josh’s ability to knock down one of the posts with a flying kick.
(There was too much cement at the bottom of that one. It wasn’t going anywhere).
Even our friend’s two-year-old did some digging.
It needs a lot of love, but our yard looks so much bigger and nicer without that fence and the busted part of the deck.
The deck itself? Scary. A family friend told us that it wasn’t safe and that it needed to come down. We trust him completely, which is why the deck is now in bits and pieces. But I hadn’t quite grasped the unsafeness. The people who put it up didn’t just half-ass it. They quarter-assed it. I joked at the beginning that there were parts of it that were held together by spit and chewing gum. Sadly, I wasn’t that far off the mark. There were large sections that were held together by nothing more than a little glue and gravity. Yikes.
This is what our yard looks like now:
We still have a lot of work to do. While it’s fun (for now) to have the world’s largest sandbox, we eventually want to turn it into a patio. And those railroad ties that hold together the sand/gravel area are already starting to buckle out, which means that they need to be replaced. Our plan is to rake all of the gravel back, take the railroad ties out and then replace them with a stone border. We’ll have to dig down a couple of feet to anchor the stones underground. Then, we’ll put pavers where the sand is. It will look really nice… some day.
We’re talking about having a landscaper do all of that for us, but it’s looking like we won’t be able to afford it. 🙁
For now, I’m happy to have all of the demolition done, touched that our friends were so willing to help us and totally stoked to have a nicer area outside where we can hang out.
mazol tov!
L’chaim!!! :p
You have some amazing friends! I’m sure it will look fabulous.
We really do! We’re so lucky!
i’ve actually never seen your backyard before. looks pretty sweet now!!!
We’re going to have to change that! I’m hoping to have a bunch of BBQs this summer!
Oooh, that’s looking nice. Good job on the demolition! Can’t wait to see what you garden there 🙂
Great start to the yard-improvement!!
I started twitching at the description of deck construction. I have to admit, that’s part of the reason I like to DIY (besides the saving money thing) – hiring a pro doesn’t always mean you’re going to end up with a great job. Sometimes it’s better to just get in there and make sure it’s done the way you want, even if it takes longer (um, years in our case…)
WOW! Your backyard is huge! I definitely can see why you’d want to find a better way to utilize it. Good for you guys taking on the project yourselves!
That sandbox is very peculiar…wonder what the previous owners used it for?
The previous owners were extreme DIYers. I think we’d be much better off if they’d occasionally hired some pros!
There used to be a pool where the sand is. It was horrible and it leaked, so we got rid of it. :p