Laying a Pavestone Patio – Part 3: Removing Tree Stumps

I know I posted a while ago that we were just about done with the pavestone patio… but 6 months later I mean it for real!

Originally we paved around the tree stumps and were going to make planters out of them, but after a while realized that the pretty much killed the space we had to work with. So the tree stumps had to come out. I did it the old fashioned way, with an axe & mattock. Had to dig down deep enough to get to the tap root, then about an hour of chopping and they came right out (i’m making it sound easier than it is)

I averaged about one tree stump per weekend, so this took most of my time (there were 6 stumps to remove). Also, after the rainy season, i’d discovered that my initial pavestone laying job wasn’t so even. There were little dips in the patio where water would collect in big puddles. So I used the tree stumps as an excuse to pull up the rest of the pavestones and re-level them.

This time I did it the right way by using a Vibra-Plate rented from Home Depot. It’s basically a machine with a vibrating plate on the bottom that flattens & compacts the bricks into the sand below it.

Here’s the final outcome

Apparently, I am NOT a plumber

So we had a small leak in our bathtub faucet. How hard could it be to replace the faucet & handles? (Oh my naivete) My first big homeowner lesson is that you don’t EFF with plumbing..

First up, I shut off the water to the house. Then I took off the old faucet & handles & bought a new set from home depot. I was thinking all I needed to do was swap out the old with the new right? Well after a few hours & me thinking i’d done a wonderful job, I turned everything on, only to find a massive leak WAY bigger than before.

Apparently, you can’t swap out any handles- they have to have to have the same base. Also, you need to change out all the seats for the handles (another new plumbing term i just learned). I could link to all sorts of online instructions & yadda yadda yadda… but seriously, just call a plumber. (thanks to flathead’s brother Will for coming out & saving our asses!)

Installing Shelves & Expanding Stokke Junior Crib

Socket got a few upgrades to his room! First, he helped install some new corner shelves (courtesy of ikea’s as-is section) which double as bookshelves & a low table to play with his computer/tools – You can see Socket below scanning himself with the stud-finder…

Next thing we knew, we were waking up in the morning with Socket standing by our bed – He’d figured out how to climb out of the crib! Time for the big boy bed… The Stokke Sleepi crib has a pretty cool function, where the front of the crib comes off and attaches to the back, extending it and turning it into a junior bed. Here’s what it looks like:

But of course, after all the hard work, this is how he fell asleep…

So mama took a nap instead

Replacing a Broken Water Heater

Happy New Year!  I guess our new years resolution should be to get caught up on blog posts…

Here’s one from around Thanksgiving time – we got back from a trip to Portland and discovered our water heater had broken & the garage had flooded…

The first step when you have a leaking water heater is to turn off the water (There should be a lever towards the top of the water heater). Next thing you need to do is diagnose if the heater needs replacement, or if it’s simply a faulty pipe. Good rule of thumb is if it’s leaking from somewhere near the top of the water heater, it’s probably a pipe. Find the leak and replace the faulty part. If it’s leaking from the bottom, the water heater has corroded and needs to be replaced.

Ours was definitely leaking from the bottom and needed replacing. I’d gotten as far as draining the water heater (you can connect a hose water and your plants, wash your car, or fill up a kiddie pool with warm water and let the kids go nuts), then went down to home depot to check out water heater prices ($600-$900!!!)

Luckily Flathead remembered we had a 1 year home warranty when we bought the house and they’d replace the water heater for a $45 deductible. Unfortunately it was a Saturday, so we had to sit out the weekend with no hot water, but them’s the breaks for free stuff.

In case you don’t know the difference between Homeowner’s Insurance & a Home Warranty, the former only protects the structure of your house in case of a disaster, and the latter covers items & appliances within your house (water heater, air conditioner, dishwasher, etc..). I’d think most of the time a home warranty probably wouldn’t be worth the money, but if you’re moving into a new house that has old appliances, it’d be highly beneficial to negotiate it into the escrow agreement. It saved us about $800…

Anyway, here’s what the brand spanking new water heater looks like, complete with an overflow pan which the previous owners didn’t install before:

Since we got the replacement installed for free, I don’t have pictures of the extra steps involved in replacing the heater yourself (it would have been kind of awkward standing behind the repairman taking pictures…), so if you need further instructions, here’s a good resource:

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/h2installwaterheater

Laying a Pavestone Patio – Part 2: Cutting Edger Bricks

It’s been a busy past few weeks since starting the backyard, but we finally have the patio mostly done

Here were the remaining steps:

Step 1: Mark & cut the bricks to fill in the edges around the perimeter of the patio. This was the most time consuming part, as there were literally hundreds of cuts to make. Took about 3 to 4 weekends to finally finish.

I highly recommend shelling out the extra dough for a diamond tipped blade ($80). I tried starting off the cheap way with the $5 masonry blades, but it took about 5 minutes to cut 1 brick (and they wear out quickly). The diamond tipped masonry blade cuts through bricks like butter, and still cuts like new hundreds of cuts later.

Step 2: Brush paver sand into the spaces between the bricks. We had to do a couple of runs – brush the sand in, wet it & let it settle – then after it dries, repeat again. After time the sand hardens like concrete between the cracks.

Finishing Up: We’re testing putting in groundcover around the tree stumps to see if they’ll take. Then we need to get started on building planter boxes & the new backyard fence!

Laying a Pavestone Patio – Part 1: Getting Started

We have grand plans for the backyard. Currently it looks nice, but it’s not very functional. It has an oddly curved cement patio which only really allows you to sit on one small portion of the backyard – the rest is all dirt.

The eventual plan is to completely re-do the fence, build a planterbox & benches along the perimeter, dig out the dirt and lay down pavestones to complete the patio, then build a pond for our turtle Worst. Master plans are below:

First up is laying the pavestones. Laying pavestones is a 3 step process.

Step 1: You have to dig out about 4-6 inches of the existing dirt to allow room for the foundation sand & bricks. For this we rented a rotor-tiller from Home Depot to loosen up the dirt, then had to shovel & wheel barrel it out of the backyard.

This step is the biggest pain in the ass of the whole process. Of course the day we did it it was about 90 degrees out – it was so hot my mouth was getting sweaty from my face mask, so i ended up taking it off. Smart move that resulted in me filling my lungs with dirt & catching a cold for a week.

Step 2: Define the shape of the patio & lay down paver sand. To lock in the bricks/sand, we’re using edge-all guards. They’re pricey, about $8 each, but they work really well & bend easily around corners. If you wanted to be cheaper, you could build a perimeter with wood, but it would be a bit more work. The edge-all guards are the black liners in the photo below:

When laying the sand, you usually need to lay a few inches of gravel as a base, then about an inch of sand to allow you work the brick into a level surface. Since our backyard dirt has clay in it, it’s really strong and stable, so we eventually figured out we didn’t need so much of the gravel & were able to save some money.

Step 2b: Enlist the Yips! Flathead’s folks triple as babysitters, gardeners, and master patio levelers. To help get the sand level completely level with the cement, they dug trenches & laid 2×4′s down that they could level perfectly with how deep the sand should be.

Step 3: Once you have your sand laid out, compacted, and leveled, you’re onto the easiest step – laying the pavestones. This is pretty quick and easy – lay them out and use a rubber mallet to work them into the sand, making sure they stay level with the rest of the bricks.

We’re about halfway done – more pics to follow soon, plus the painstaking process of cutting the edger bricks around the rounded patio…

UPDATE: More pics of the finished patio here

UPDATE 2: We’re finally done!

Building Cabinets

In the office, Flathead wanted to create some storage and workspace inside the closet. We took off one closet door, and her dad helped build the wall & some shelves using nice wood purchased for super cheap in Ikea’s AS-IS section. Then, inspired by Adam’s furniture, I took my first crack at building cabinet doors for the shelves. Had the wood cut to size, painted & lacquered it, then spent about an hour trying to get them to hang evenly so they’d close right! It was a little difficult because the shelves weren’t 100% level, but it turned out all right. Toss on some handles & magnet latches & boom, nice green office cabinets.

$20 Bathroom Flooring

Installing the hardwood floors throughout the house wiped out our funds for a little bit, so we were looking for something cheap & easy to cover up the bathroom floors until we could afford to do something nicer with it.

Before:

We went down to home depot to check out linoleum, and found stick on tiles for $0.50 each! We figured it might not look so great, but it’s only temporary, so who cares? We were surprised at how nice it actually ended up looking – and it only cost $20 to do the entire bathroom!

After:

We also did some preliminary work on the terrarium, laying in some rocks, plants & moss. There’s still a lot more we want to do, but this was a cheap & easy start…

Installing Baseboards

One of the last steps before our house is no longer a living tool shed is to install the new baseboards (the other is to finish changing out the loose electrical sockets before the baby tries to eat them…)

My brother Ryan saved the day by bringing his fancy finishing nail gun & miter saw. This saved me from having to rent them, or even worse, from attempting to hammer hundreds of nails manually since i usually like to make things difficult.

We got almost the entire house done in one day – it was quick and easy work. All it entails is:

• Getting your cuts precise (i recommend shelling out the extra dough for a fine cut saw blade)
• Putting some caulk on the back of the boards so they stick well
• Using the kick ass nail gun to put them in their place

Eventually i’ll need to caulk any gaps in between the connections & spackle in the finishing nail holes, but i’m too damn tired and it looks beautiful as is right now

The BANG of the nail gun & WHIIIIIRRRR of the miter saw didn’t seem to bother baby Socket much.

Improved Wallpaper Stripping Technique

After a laborious first shot at stripping wallpaper, I figured out a much more effective way to strip. Before I was steaming, then attempting to scrape the wallpaper off. I found a much easier way is to start steaming at the top of the wallpaper, then slowly start peeling down (i know, this is probably stripping 101 knowledge, but it’s my first time!).

I keep the steamer directly below where I’m pulling and the wallpaper just peels off in one clean sheet! No more scraping! However, you still do need to score the wallpaper so that the steam can penetrate properly.

Here’s what it looked like when we were all done!

Now on to patching up the wall, sealing the remaining wallpaper edges with caulk, and priming the room for paint…