Home Improvement Thread 2: Electric Redo the Loo

Dtknuckles said:
Remove it, reshape the bed with a stone border that will double as rain collection.
Click to expand...
If the goal is to tear the whole thing out then an excavator or bobcat is going to be worth your while. If it's just the border then you can eventually wear it out with a motorized hand tool. Looks like you've gone through about 2' of a single 10' side there. Just 38' more feet to get the whole thing if it's square. It's your back. Have you run into any reinforcement yet?
 
debianlinux said:
If the goal is to tear the whole thing out then an excavator or bobcat is going to be worth your while. If it's just the border then you can eventually wear it out with a motorized hand tool. Looks like you've gone through about 2' of a single 10' side there. Just 38' more feet to get the whole thing if it's square. It's your back. Have you run into any reinforcement yet?
Click to expand...

I wish I could get a bobcat up there, but there is a retaining wall at the front of my yard. At its smallest it is about a 1’. The wall I’m demoing is only one block high and about 20’.
 
Some of you may have seen my perturbed (ok, angry) profile post last month about the tree removal service that trashed my lawn. Also dented my toolshed. After a few phone calls, we reached settlement. I wasn't super happy with the settlement but decided to move on...the waste area that my backyard became inspired me to do a couple projects that I had been putting off.

First up, a fire pit. I had a little fire bowl thingie on the patio, but this is going to be much better. You can see in the background evidence of my attempt at laying sod chunks in the giant gouges they left. I doubt the sod will take, but it may break down between now and spring and help fill the areas so I can put clover or grass seed.

The sand around the pit came from my old toolshed. The groundhog that resides in there does a LOT of digging. One of the results of his excavations is waist high sand along one wall of that old shed, I used three wheelbarrows full for the pit. I'll have to thank him with an apple.

There is a lot of sand just under the soil where I live, which is why the grass came up so easily.

pit.jpg

Second thing was to build a raised bed. I'll fill it and plant next spring...but I decided to build them because I was on a roll.

In the background you can see a concrete slab. I have a friend with a bit of experience and he knows a concrete supplier, who came to my driveway with the overage on one of their late day loads. I had never laid concrete before, I think it went pretty well, and the price was unbeatable. I also borrowed a sod cutter the day before to clear the areas for the bed and slab.

Also you can see more evidence of how badly the tree company damaged my lawn.
beds.jpg



Then yesterday my son and a couple friends came over and we assembled this, about a 5 hour assembly...so far I'm really happy with it; it's seemingly sturdy and roomy. (8 x 10)

I'm keeping the old metal dented toolshed. Diggy can live in there and do his thing, and I'll store mulch, manure and other stuff...so it's worth leaving in place rather than scrapping.

shed2.jpg
 
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