Backyard work - Week 2

Since the kids love going to the beach so much, we decided to put in a huge sandbox. Okay not really. The sand is a base for the travertine pavers. Luckily the kids didn't see all the sand.


Here's the far side of the patio where the fire pit and the barbecue island are going to go. You can see the gas riser and the electrical and plumbing facilities.


Here are the pavers before they sanded and compressed them down further.


Here's the pool coping edge. We kept the old pool deck so they have to cover it still. The advantage is that you avoid all the labor to demo the concrete decking but you raise your deck by 2" and you have this extra 4" tile on the side.


Here's the increased patio area.


We put in stepping stones to the back where we are hopefully going to build a garden planter.


The kids enjoyed playing on the mounds of rock.


More stepping stones along the side.


Here's the 4" tile facing that hides the old concrete deck. Water line tile will go below that.


Here's the path along the side of the house.


Here's the start of the fire pit. You can see the gas riser. We actually had them move it another foot the following day.




Here's the fire pit with the travertine cap. Still need to put the stone on the side.


The pool column was finally removed and here's part of the water feature. They still need to add another layer of block on top. They are actually expecting to finish in another week.

Let it rain

It doesn't rain much in Arizona but when it does, it rains hard. Unfortunately our roof design would create a nice waterfall right over our front patio entrance so I thought it was time to fix that little feature. Since we were having lots of pavers put in, I might as well add gutters to those areas as well so the rain doesn't damage those areas. Here you can see a drain pipe being put in on the side of the house. Also note that this is our nice "soil". They had to use a jack hammer to dig the trench.


Here you can see one of the downspouts going right into the drain underground.


Here's a 60ft seamless run with two downspouts that feed into the drain pipe.


Here's the machine that makes the seamless gutters. You feed the raw aluminum rolls on the other end and out come the gutters.


Here they are carrying the 60 ft gutter.


Here's the side of the yard after the drainage pipe and gutters installed.


Here's one of the sides near the front door that creates a nice waterfall.


This downspout will feed into a river rock bed and hopefully flow out into the street. That's the plan at least.


Here's the other side of the front patio that was creating a double waterfall.


We had one other downspout that had a drain that snaked onto the driveway which looked a little ugly. The pipe in the front of the picture is where the drain exits. Hopefully all the water exits from there and goes down the driveway.


The previous downspout wrapping around the column looked a little ugly so I had them connect this pipe to the main drainage pipe. I wished I had thought of that before they had covered and buried the drainage pipe. It looks much cleaner though.

As you can tell from the shear number of pictures, I'm pretty excited to see if this will work. I'll spare you guys the rain photos during the first heavy rain though.

Trick or Treat

Cole and Lauren right before going out to trick or treat.


The pumpkins a few days ago after being carved.


This was the first year where I didn't have to carve both pumpkins. Lauren helped trace and cut out the pattern. Cole was busy playing with his trains.

Backyard work - Day 1

Our landscaping was due for an overhaul. After finalizing on a company and design, the work started this past week. Things seem to be moving pretty fast. Luckily I was able to drain the pool before they started.


Here's during the first day. Notice the Weeping Willow in the corner among other things is missing.


Finally those ugly water features will be removed.


The grass on the wall is actually to protect the wall from the demolition.


Hopefully our neighbors won't mind all the materials in the road.

Contractor after contractor

I had to stay at home for a Home Energy Audit (post to come later), so I decided to schedule as many contractors as possible for the same day. Here is our snail shower where we had to put up a shower curtain because the draft would make the shower so cold. We've had this up for almost 3 years now and decided it was time to upgrade.


Here you can see our 3/8" clear frameless shower door with US Horizon hardware.


Our old 75 Gallon water heater started leaking as well so I arranged to have it replaced.


Here's our new 50 Gallon Bradford and White water heater. I looked into getting a tank-less gas water heater but the federal tax credit ended last year and it's just too costly to convert over. Plus, we didn't have the luxury of waiting any more since it was leaking already. The gas line would need to be upgraded to 3/4" and the vent pipes would need to be upgraded to a stainless steel.

Peeping Tom?

If you look closely at our neighbor's tree, you'll see something peeking at us.




Our friend from before but this time hiding in the tree.

Cloudy to clear

The next project on the to do list was to fix the cloudy headlights on our car.


I bought this from Target which turned out to be cheaper than Amazon.


Since the kit is basically sandpaper, I put on painter's tape to make sure I didn't damage the surrounding paint.


Here's the finished product. Next up is to have a professional put on a clearbra over the headlights so that they don't get scratched up and cloudy again.

Lunch date

Scorpion hunting

First time scorpion hunting. Managed to find five. Four in the back and one in the front yard. Might be time to get an exterminator or go hunting on a weekly basis.

Kitchen modifications

Sabbatical is a great time to finish all the things that we were just too busy to do. First was adding some storage for all the cutting boards and bakeware. We bought these Copco storage racks from Crate and Barrel but you can find them a little bit cheaper at Amazon.


We had to go with these removable racks because our cabinet has an electrical box and conduit in it that prevents us from mounting something more permanent.


Here's the finished product. So much better.


Here's another project that we've been meaning to do since we moved into the house. Here are the existing garbage cans. Notice they are square in shape so they only hold 27 qt. Also, with this design you have to open the door all the way and then slide the cans out.


Here are the new cans. These are 35 qt each and the door mounts directly to the system so you only have to pull the door open and everything opens up. This is a Rev a Shelf storage solution. Fairly easy to install but you need to make sure you order the right version to fit your cabinet opening.

Fearless @ Capilano bridge

Legoland

This year's San Diego trip included Legoland for the first time. Here Cole is earning his driver's license. The amusement park is perfect for kids age 3-8.


The kids are taking in a show in fun town.


Christy and Lauren are enjoying a nice boat ride. Luckily you can't sink.


One of the many incredible city replicas made out of legos.




After 2 days at Legoland, the kids enjoyed the beach. Here they were venturing out in the water waiting for a wave.


Both hard at work.


Next up was the USS Midway.




What's a vacation without a carousel ride.


The kids loved finding snails by Legoland.

Vacation - Top Pot