Category Archives: Backyard
Sorry little dudes
I don’t know why August (broken glass, water damage) has featured a bunch of new problems at our Casa. Guess, it just worked out that way. I promise Nate and I are so elated with our fence install that none of these other issue have broken our smile. I swear.
The Winged Problem
A couple months ago, we started seeing yellow and black winged insects in the backyard. They weren’t bothering us, so we left them alone. We try and practice live and let live at our house. (Okay except for flies which Nate and the cats expertly kill on sight.)
But then they started building a nest in the fascia of our shed …. and THEN Nate got stung on the ear. They were no longer our friendly neighbors.
The little guys were paper wasps. Not as aggressive as yellow jackets or hornets, but will attack if they feel you are threatening their hive.
And that’s where lies the problem.
There was not one, but two nest on our roof line. One is very close to the shallow end of the pool and we would be mortified if a guest got stung.
We asked friends, neighbors and family what to do. Most said to spray them, but we wanted that to be the last resort.
Trap them
What was the most safest way to kill the wasps?
Our local home improvement store carries an environmentally safe trap called the WHY Reusable Wasp Trap. The trap works without pesticides. Instead the wasps are lured in with attractant and then can’t get out. Plus, it can be used from Spring through Fall in California.
Through their handy website, I also learned our invaders were European Paper Wasps. They have a “tendency to nest within voids and other manmade structures…increasing the chances of accidentally disturbing a hidden nest.” Which was exactly what they were doing in our backyard.
So we hooked up the trap and checked it daily. We even moved it to a new location, but after two weeks we had only caught one wasp. We were so disappointed. We had high hopes it would work out for us.
Other alternatives
Since the WHY trap didn’t work, we researched other options.
You can make your own trap out of a plastic bottle, but this was too similar to the WHY trap for us to try out.
We were told you can smoke the wasps out, but that seemed dangerous especially after finding stories of accidental fires started doing this.
You can even buy this fake wasp nest called the Waspinator, but since our wasps had already set up home it didn’t seem that much of a deterrent. I think I would try this in the Spring when the queen is looking to set up shop.
Use the spray
In the end, the popular vote won. We would use the spray to kill them, but with every precaution.
The directions stated to spray in the early morning or at dusk when the wasps are less active. Even though these guys are not aggressive, there is the chance they will try to sting you.
Early Saturday morning, I suited up. I always enjoy breaking out my coveralls and this was the perfect reason. I wasn’t going to take a chance of being stung so I had two layers on plus rubber bands around my sleeves and pant legs.
I also strapped on a jacket, gloves, sunglasses and a painters mask. I didn’t have an inch of skin exposed.
The wasp spray is actually a foam so make sure to shake the can well before using. I sprayed the solution up between the wood panels directly into the nest and along the opening. As the foam dried up, I sprayed more and repeated this a few times.
At first nothing happened. Then the wasps started falling. As they hit the pavement, I squashed them with my sneaker to give them a quick death.
Loki watched the whole ordeal from a safe spot on our air conditioning unit. He eventually went inside with his sister so they didn’t try to eat any of the dead wasps.
We let the foam work for the remainder of the day before we cleaned up and washed down the area.
All in all, I killed about 50 wasps between the two nests. I haven’t seen a wasp in the backyard since and that was 5 days ago.
I know this is a morbid topic of discussion, but it had to be done.
I am glad I undertook it myself instead of hiring an exterminator. If these little dudes had to die at least it was by my hand.
I don’t mean to sound like a bad-ass, it’s just the honest truth. Killing the wasps was a horrible, but responsible decision for the house.
Next Spring, if we see the yellow and black insects flying around we will try one of the other alternatives. Perhaps the Waspinator to try to avoid using the pesticide again. But for the safety of us and our guests, we will do what we have to do.
Can’t get rid of it
We have a little storage problem.
Remember the Front yard? Dirt piles.
And the side of our house? Mounds of dirt.
The backyard? Well after the fence install it’s pretty much all dirt.
In fact, on of my favorite sayings has been “you don’t get rid of good dirt” because we didn’t want to just give it way, but at the same time we need to use it. We can just keep it in piles.
Our first thought was to move some of the dirt into a new concrete planter around the hydrangeas along the back.
Last year we removed most of the original planters in the backyard, but kept one remaining around the fig tree. We wanted to now mirror it with a second planter on the other side of the yard. The planter also will help us keep a boundary between the bed and the “future” lawn.
So between fencing building and BBQs, Nate has been working in the dirt pile.
I mean he has literally been covered with dirt. He’s such a good sport.
He dug out a trench for the planter and then built it with two layers of concrete blocks.
Now our hydrangeas have a nice deep foundation. All the other plants will be transplanted, but some got trampled during the fence install. Fingers crossed they all make it.
And the rest of the dirt? We are still making plans. Some of it will remain on the side of the house for whatever is planted there. Some will probably go to the front yard.
But the rest? To be determined.
Any ideas?
Finishing the fence
The second day of our fence project started with a bunch of clipping and pruning. It was a great workout for my arms.
Our back neighbors graciously allowed us to prune and/or remove the trees along the property line. This was partly to clear out for the new fence and partly for our benefit. We wanted to trim back the foliage as much as possible to gain more “head space” at the property line as we could.
First up was the Avocado tree. We needed to cut down two low and massive branches that would be obstructing the new fence.
I first trimmed off all the small stuff and then Nate (with some neighborly help) sawed off the massive pieces.
Next, we cut down a few trees that needed to be removed. Finally, we trimmed back a variety of Holly tree that was so overgrown it looked like a big spider nest.
Again, we were lucky to have help from our neighbor Lee and my Dad who have much more expertise with a chainsaw than we do.
At the end of the day, we accumulated a giant pile of green waste to break down later this week, but it was so worth it! I bet we gained a couple feet along the property line of usable space.
New fence
The final day of the project started with Nate and Dan installing the new fence.
First the 8′ rails were attached to the steel posts. Here you can see how easily the rails attach to the Postmaster post.
The fence planks were then screwed into the rails. Since we were splitting the cost of the fence with our neighbor, we used a “good neighbor” design plan. This means on every other panel, the railings flip to the opposite side. The assumption is that the side that shows the railings is the “bad” side so you and your neighbor split it. On the reverse, if your neighbor is not splitting the cost with you, you can use a “bad neighbor” design and give them nothing but rails! Personally, the rail side wasn’t that bad to us, but we were happy to go good neighbor for the sake of the project.
You will also notice a 6″ gap on the bottom of the fence. This is for a kick board that we will install once we fix our landscaping.
The boys continued to install panel by panel for the rest of the day. As you can tell by the fence color, we ended up using all new wood. It was a bummer to not reuse the old wood, but there was just too many inconsistencies with the old pieces. We will save them for another project.
I should also mention that we did make the decision to purchased the more expensive “premium” wood panels. To us, it was worth paying a little more for the better quality wood because it will last longer and save us money down the road from having to replace crappy product.
After a long day at the office, I was very excited to get home and see the boys’ progress. By the time I got home, the fence was finished. Ta-da!!
Here’s the fence with the trimmed back Holly tree above it. You can see we pruned a back a lot. Eventually the tree will fill out again, but now it can do so in a healthy way. No more gross spider nest.
Here’s the fence with the Avocado tree. Now your eye goes up and sees it’s great majestic height instead of just a mass of low branches. It also allows the planter box below the tree to get some much needed sunlight.
Summary on the project
We spend $900 on labor and supplies for the full project. Our fence is 65′ long. The quotes we received from the fencing companies averaged at $1300, but if we hired an arborist to trim the trees it would have cost us at least another $500 making the money saved to about $900 by doing the work ourselves. That’s 50% savings!
Since, we are splitting the cost with our neighbor, Nate and I spent only $450 and three days of our own sweat and tears on the project.
Overall, we are both glad we tackled this ourselves vs. hiring out the work. We learned a lot of skills along the way and it gave us the time to prune the trees correctly and really focus on the aesthetics of the back of our yard.
Now that the backdrop of our yard is completed, we can move on to the next chapter of projects. This includes finishing the planter boxes and ….wait for it….the concrete patio!
I hope I was thorough enough on our process for anyone attempting this sort of project at home, but if you have question please comment below. Thanks!
This is the third installment of our fence project. Click to see the first and second post of the story.
Removing barriers
Purchasing the supplies
As I mentioned in the last post, we made the decision to rebuild our back fence with help from our friend Dan.
The original fence had rotten posts and no longer had any support to keep it upright except the trees along the neighbor’s yard.
So we borrowed my parents’ minivan and went shopping for supplies. Nate had wisely made a round of calls to local vendors checking on supply and cost so we had a pretty good idea of what we were going to get.
We want this fence to last a long, long time so we purchased steel posts instead of wood.
After researching our options, we went with 7’6″ Master Halco PostMaster U-shaped Steel posts.
The benefits of using the Postmasters over standard posts include:
- They won’t rot and are very strong
- The have pre-fabricated holes so you don’t need to use any additional fasteners or brackets to attach rails to them
- Their design helps avoid moisture collection in the post
- They are coated with galvanized zinc that prevents rust
All in all, we paid a little bit more for the name brand Postmasters, but we think it will be well worth it considering their benefits. We are also using screws instead of nails on the install so later we can easily replace any piece of the fence that becomes damaged.
Along with the Postmasters, we bought all new wood rails and 20 boards plus 24 5o lb bags of concrete. Our hope was to reuse as many of the old fence boards as possible so we only bought a few extra to compensate until we tore the fence down and had an exact number.
Back at home
On Day 1 of the install, Dan and Nate took down the old fence panels. It always amazes me how quickly demo goes. In less than an hour, the whole fence was removed.
As the panels came off, Nate went through all the used lumber and threw them in either a reuse and toss pile. Then he began to remove all the old rusty nails from the wood.
We ended up needing more panels that we originally thought, but we will still be able to use a lot of the old panels for other outdoor projects.
Next, Nate and Dan measured out each 8′ panel using a string line and a level so they could dig the new post holes at the right increments. Of course along the way they found a bunch of impediments like rotten lumber, old patches of concrete and roots that had to be removed too.
When all the holes were finally dug, the guys remeasured and re-leveled before moving on to the concrete. They certainly didn’t want to get the placement wrong!
Then Nate kept each post level as Dan mixed the concrete into each hole until it was secure.
For the rest of the day, we kept each post well watered while the concrete cured. The water allows the concrete to strengthen while also preventing moisture from evaporating and reducing the chance of cracks.
We decided to let the concrete set a full 48 hours and focused on tree pruning on Day 2, but that’s a story for tomorrow. Stay tuned…
65 feet of lumber
Our whole backyard seems to be one giant project these days. I feel its one of those puzzles with one movable piece you use to arrange all the other pieces into order so they make a picture. Every piece is dependent on each other to fit correctly.
It made sense to focus on the back fence before the concrete patio or the landscaping projects. It made sense to fix it first to get it out of the way.
Although the fence was still intact, all the supports had rotted through. It was only standing up because it was supported by our neighbor’s trees and a telephone poll. The trees were actually the second part of the project. They needed a big trim to keep them off the new fence and to allow more light into our yard.
Three bids and a friend
There were two ways for us to fix the fence. Hire a fencing company or do it ourselves.
We contacted three Angie’s List vendors ( a great resource for finding vendors) for bids to get an idea of pricing options. Going with a fencing company can save you a lot of time. These guys are extremely efficient, but you do pay for the convenience of getting a fence installed in a short amount of time.
Nate called around to get an idea of what fencing supplies would cost us if we did it ourselves. We realized we could save a lot of money this way, but neither of us had ever built a fence before. We just didn’t feel very comfortable attempting it, so in the end we hired a friend to help us install the fence. This still saved us money, but gave us more peace of mind that it would last.
The final step was getting buy in from our neighbors behind us to split the cost and we were good to go with the project. We decided on our start date and headed to get supplies.
Boo! Learning from our mistakes
You may recall we’ve been planning to paint our back porch. With a 4th of July BBQ looming on the horizon, Nate took control of the task. We planned two coats of paint and then to seal it, but we made some rookie mistakes.
The project was just a little discouraging. In fact, please don’t say the word “sealer” in Nate’s presence for at least a couple weeks.
BUT we are determined to learn from our mistakes and so can you. Here’s a few tips we’ve learned through the process.
What we learned about painting and sealing a concrete porch
1. Test your color choices.
No matter how well you clean it, there is going to be dirt and debris on the back porch so work with it. Find a color that will work (or hide) the dirt. We tested a bunch of colors before we purchased. After the paint dried, we did a happy dance over our color selection. Both of us are totally in love with the Martha Stewart Chianti color.
2. Keep pets out of the paint.
This is simple to do when painting outside. Keep those pets inside. It still makes you feel guilty, but is much better than having to hogtie them down to get paint off their feet.
4. Follow the temperature guides.
It’s been a weird year here in Sacramento. Cooler temperatures and rain storms plagued us into June. But we still decided to paint our porch when the temps rose to the high 90s. Although this may not have been the root cause of our failures (see next item), I am sure it aggravated the situation. It’s best to keep the temperatures specified in mind before starting on a painting project. Behr suggests painting between temps of 50-90°F (10-32°C).
3 & 4. Research products you haven’t used before and if possible test before you apply.
This was out biggest problem. We didn’t research the best way to paint and seal our porch.
Mistake #1 – I bought interior paint instead of exterior. This resulted in the paint taking longer to dry and not adhering well to the surface. We corrected this on paint coat #3 with much better results.
Mistake #2 – We applied sealer without testing it. This was our biggest mistake. We followed the directions on the back of the container, but we found out much later that the application has to be very thin to dry clear.
5. Accept failure and move on.
When problems happen figure out how to fix them. Sometimes a short term solution is the only one available.
For us, it meant sanding down the sealer with 400-grit sandpaper and applying a final coat of exterior paint. To make sure we had no more issues, Nate even hung up a contraption to keep the kumquat blossoms off the drying paint. It sort-of worked. :/
The project was a learning experience. We will probably try sealing the patio later this year, but not until we figure out the best method.
In the end, our 4th of July BBQ was a blast. We accessorized the porch with potted plants after the paint dried. Everyone was in the pool having a grand time. The porch color was a hit and no one noticed anything wrong with it!
On to shed organization.
Did you know that we don’t have a garage, basement nor an attic? Concrete block construction and a flat roof leave little space for any of those things. So our backyard shed is the only place for us to store tools, paint and seasonal decorations outside.
The shed is a cool structure. It could easily be converted into a cabana or bar for the summertime. It has two giant sliding barn doors and even a light.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t fare so well during the winter months. Rain floods the ground and recently the roof has begun to leak. We even had a bunch of fungi this year.
We have grand plans to perhaps add an attic and/or convert our carport to a garage in the future. Until that happens, we are making the best of our shed.
The roof will be repaired this summer and with a bunch of reorganization we hope to avoid more disasters this year.
Nate took the responsibility of organizing the shed last week during his first few days of summer vacation. It was a mess and pretty difficult to maneuver.
Now, everything has its place and is labeled.
The left side has all our holiday decorations, camping gear, ice chests, tools and pool supplies. We have organized all our parts based on project so we can actually find something when we are looking for it.
All our extra paint, gardening tools and lawnmower sit on the right side.
Nate was able to recycle tons of cardboard and many odds and ends we have been holding onto “in case we needed them” them.
As the household hoarder (Nate’s term not mine), I went through my own boxes of childhood stuff and consolidated them down to two.
I found my inherited silverware set that I thought was lost, chuckled over my dragon Halloween costume from college and marveled at the many labeled boxes of thimbles I have from my grandmother (above).
The best part is all my favorite children’s books now have a home inside along with a few other keepsakes like my chunk of amethyst (my birthstone) and a ceramic mouse my mom made me. It makes me feel good to incorporate all these memories into my current home.
I also found this iridescent snack set I picked up in college. I don’t think I have ever seen a snack set as beautiful as this one. It went straight into the dishwasher so I can use it soon.
