Home improvement projects this summer?

[seremtan]

Its the best way to kill grass without using chemicals. Perhaps I should buy a shotgun and shoot my lawn till its all dead...would that satisfy you?

oh man i lolled

gramps you plonker

[werldhed]

@gramps:
1. Why would you want to use chemicals on your lawn? If they're harsh enough to kill your grass, why won't they kill everything else?
2. Not all weed killer kills grass.
3. If your neighbors don't want to live next to someone who doesn't have a golf course, they shouldn't live next to neighbors.

@zark: Good luck with the lawn. Sounds like a great idea. Just be sure to plant native non-invasive plants.

[Giraffe }{unter]

After having great success with restoring the front lawn using only Scott's 4 step process and choosing the "do not water at all method" after 2 summers this was my result.



This year I've been working on the back yard all summer. We ripped out 2 dogwoods, 3 large pine bushes, and a giant uncontrollable bush that pissed me off I reclaimed a few hundred sq feet of yard space. I'm waiting until the fall to grow the remaining grass. I have been slowly ripping out grass under the fence and making sod by hand then re-planting it where the bare spots are.

This is the a during and after in the back of the yard where I found we had an extra 200 sq feet once I located the property line.



We also Removed a ton of trees and bushes from the garage area. At first I took down the 2 pine trees, then proceeded to cut and bundle them and take them to the curb for weeks at a time. Finally I got someone to come in and remove the remaining dogwoods, pine bush and giant annoying bush, then stump it all for around $600.00. Totally worth the cost considering how much it would have cost me to cut, bundle and rent a stumper.



This is the whole yard before and after, 2 years ago the grass was dead I used same 2 year program on the rear lawn, it went from Shit to green with minimal work, however it did take 2 years. Removing the bushes and finding the property line gained me some serious sq footage.



Over the last few weekends I have been sodding the grass from under the fence and mulching so I can mow without edging. Wheelbarrows of dirt and sod since I am digging out at least 3 -4" for mulch.

[plained]

looks nice i prefer to leave evergreens if its possable becuz they really bring the mood in the cold winter snowy months.

i like ur fence nice~!

i would just throw down the ground overlay/weed blocker(only the pro stuff will do) and riverwash rock/crush granite/whatever overtop directly under the fence

i also would prolly install a stip o grass between the driveway and loose stone to act as a buffer area for stray stones and an area of safty to hit wile snowbloweing

[Dark Metal]

Also, a few friends and I have been painting the rock.

[YourGrandpa]

@gramps:
1. Why would you want to use chemicals on your lawn? If they're harsh enough to kill your grass, why won't they kill everything else?

You only spray it on your lawn so it only kills your lawn. After a week it dissipates or dilutes to a point to where it's not harmful.

2. Not all weed killer kills grass.

And... So you buy one that does.

3. If your neighbors don't want to live next to someone who doesn't have a golf course, they shouldn't live next to neighbors.

Call me crazy, but I've never desired to live next to or across from a house that has black plastic all over the yard. Especially when it's for several months. The facts are, there are many other ways to kill the grass in your yard without making your house look like some kind of nuclear waste site.

[Giraffe }{unter]

A couple of weeks ago, I dug up the back yard along with a pile of tree roots and laid down patio pavers. Then had a really big BBQ.

Photo of the work in progress. The second photo isn't finished yet, the finished work extends another 2 feet or so.

Nice work on the pavers, I'm not looking forward to laying my patio, with the frost in the winter I have to dig down about 8" and lay gravel, then sand, then pavers... lots of humping earth that I am not looking forward to.

[MKJ]

Also, a few friends and I have been painting the rock.

true story

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

Good thing herbicide is invisible eh gwamps? You dumb twat.

[Fender]

wash and stained the deck end of May

getting new carpet downstairs in a couple weeks

[R00k]

I'm wiring my house with ethernet this year. I already got a panel/box for the connections that I'm going to install in the next couple of weeks. I got a large one, because I plan to route all my audio/video through it as well, and just have wall jacks for everything.

I'm still putting off my home theater (I haven't forgotten about it T&T'ers), because we've been paying off massive amounts of debt since we got married. We're just about finished, and our trip to Cozumel for our anniversary next month is our celebration for being done with it, so we should finally be able to start working on some of the home projects we want to do.
We've got our work cut out for us in the back yard already; I just finished staining and putting together a couple of adirondacks, and I want to lay some paving stones out back with a spot for a hammock, and possibly a firepit. I also want to build a larger deck.

The fact that I'm way underpaid isn't helping, but I'm working on that.

[Fender]

Any reason you are putting in ethernet instead of using 802.11n? Multiple HD streams at the same time?

[R00k]

I have 802.11n, and I'm not planning to get rid of it. It's nice for playing music out on the deck and surfing in general.

Even so, I still want to run ethernet, for a couple of reasons. One is that it is more secure than wireless in general. I know that current wireless encryption is fairly secure, but it's still possible to break through it, whereas you can't hack into ethernet without breaking into the house. Not that I'm running any sort of next-level top-secret data through my house, but even just for online banking and such it gives me more peace of mind. Another reason is that, no matter what I do, I never seem to get the full speeds that N is capable of. I've come to the conclusion that it must be due to interference, because I've used every band and channel (and security level) available, with varying degrees of success. My wife's primary desktop is connected via wireless, so I want to run a physical cable to her machine to take care of the issues, but I want to do it right, with a jack on the wall.

On top of that, it's also easier to connect to -- when my mom comes over with a laptop that she has somehow messed up since the last time she was over, I don't have to sit down at her machine for 10 minutes and get it connected, I can just tell her to plug into the wall and forget about it -- and it ties in with my future a/v plans for cabling.

But more than anything (and maybe I'm just old school), I still think it would be really cool to be able to sit down and jack in from any room in the house (including the garage), and get a full gigabit link to every other node on the LAN -- especially for AoE games over the LAN.

[U4EA]

Very old school, good man

I also haven't moved to wireless pretty much for the same reasons as you, but I've got exposed cables running all over the place. Ugly as sin but I'm fairly sure I don't want to invest in improving it in the house I'm currently in.

[Grandpa Stu]

i just wired my house this spring/summer for ethernet as well. was running wireless N but got sick of the limitations and general reliability that wireless offers. we stream A LOT of video and audio in my house and N just wasn't cutting it. the connection was inconsistant making streaming a headache and transfering files to the server took forever. the 1gig ethernet connections pretty much solved every problem.

yard wise i got a bunch of cinderblock/stone things and made two flowerbeds out front on either side of the front door.

i doubt there will be any more major projects now that i'm back in school full time though.

[Dark Metal]

I just completed assembling a gazebo on one of the decks. Took me far longer than I thought it would, tho I didn't have any assistance.

[Doombrain]

oh well done you.

[Dark Metal]

And now put stairs on the other deck to make the gazebo accessible. In fact I'm sitting in the gazebo now.

[Scourge]

I'm taking this summer off for home improvements. Probably get started again next year.

[R00k]

Aside from the truck and the house, we paid off the rest of our debt this morning. We've paid off between 25 and 30 grand in debt in under a year.

Home improvements here we come -- especially if I can land one of the jobs I'm looking at.

[Fender]

n1

both our cars are paid off as of a couple months ago and we've managed to save quite a bit of cash for a down payment on a bigger house

[R00k]

That's awesome. It's such a good feeling when you finally get out from under debts. Just thinking about what we could have done with $25K over the last year kinda makes me sick - but it also makes me feel good about what we'll be able to do with it now.

We're going to start paying extra on our mortgage again now, pay off the truck, and save the rest. And finally work on some home projects too, of course.

[Doombrain]

I'm taking this summer off for home improvements. Probably get started again next year.

new wheels.

[Ryoki]

I'm considering doing the dishes.

[Giraffe }{unter]

Just started the next big chore. Out hose was uncared for by the previous owner. Overt finishing 90% of the inside i's now time to give back to the neighborhoot and paint the house. With siding quotes coming in at $18,000 - $32,000 I'm going to suck it up and paint it.

In 5 or 6 years when it's time to re-paint hopefully we will have the cash to extend the front of the house and then we will do the siding.