Back in May, I had an idea to change the backyard. Well I didn’t, Paola, my Love really wanted to change it. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t like the way it was looking either. I guess I just really needed a push to make it happen.
Here is what it looked like before:
As you can see from the pictures that it is 1. Small 2. Stairs taking up so much yard 3. Did I mention small?
We had the idea that the stairs would have to be changed. Either moved or stepped down. I myself am not at all a builder or gardner, but for some reason I do enjoy Doing things myself. I kept telling Paola that I can do it all myself. She called in her cousin to help me out. We started the project with of course digging holes for the posts. Since I never had the idea to document all this I do not have a picture to show you in regards to what it looked like. Anyways Diego (Paola’s Cousin) and I went to the good old Home Depot and rented an auger for around $75 for 3 hours taxes in.
When we returned the auger we bought:
2 4×4’s 8′ long
2 bags of cement / concrete
We just had to add the quick post cement to the hole once the post was in. The concrete mix set in close to 30 mins but I decided to wait at least a day before we got started.
It was almost 4 days until I got started 🙂 Both Diego and I had things come up and we couldn’t get started.
Once we set on a date to start we met up at Home Depot and bought the following items:
Deck Screws
10 2x6x8 Sienna Boards
3 2x8x16 Sienna Boards
20 JOIST HANGERs
16 BOLTS
4 Hurricane Ties
We started by running the 2 of the 2x8x16 foot boards from my current deck to the posts of the new deck. We used one of the 2x8x16′ boards attaching to the house using the 16 bolts. We drilled using a hammer drill into the brick of my house.
We then hung the joist hangers and used the 2x6x8 boards as joists. We used the Deck Screws to do this. We then attached the Hurricane Ties to the post and the 2×8’s. We did not think we would be finished in time to put the deck boards up, but that wasn’t the case so we had to once again go to Home Depot.
Items Bought:
42 4x6x8 treated boards.
Since the deck was 16′ long we were able to use all the boards. We cut the 2nd row starting board in half to stagger the joints. We screwed the boards down 2 screws every 16″. Once we installed all the boards we called it a day.
Another Day another trip to Home Depot:
773883024080 2x4x8 Sienna <A>
5@6.33 31.65
773883028125 2x8x12Sienna <A>
2@19.96 39.92
773883512129 2×12 Sienna <A>
2@37.94 75.88
773883044088 4x4x8 Sienna <A> 10.93
773883951157 5step Brown <A>
2@18.77 37.54
629219024616 4X4 BOLTDOWN <A>
3@15.87 47.61
Today we started work on the new stairs. I thought about using the old ones but they were not in good shape and had a lot of old nails and screws in them that I decided to get new. I did use the old ones to give myself an idea on what it would look like.
I really wish I had the idea of documenting all that I did prior to writing this out. It would have made my life easier and a lot easier for you to see what I was talking about.
Anyway, we used the 5 step pre build from Home Depot. It cost $36 $18 each just so I wouldn’t have to try and figure out the steps. Once we had the steps laid out we secured them to the decking and started to cut out the runs. We used the 2×12 for the step, and the 2×8 for the backing. Once we started it went pretty quick.
We used the 2x12x12 for the new stairs. We made an L shape with the 2 pieces of wood and attached them together. We then attached the flat (step) end to the 2×8 joist. We had enough space to attached it we just had to remove the first row of decking to get the drill in to screw it to the joist.
The 2×4’s will be used for the railings of not just the stairs but also the railing on the top part of the deck. The 4×4’s will be for the bottom and top posts of the stair railing
Another Day at Home Depot:
773883024080 2x4x8 Sienna <A>
4@6.33 25.32
773883912462 DRILLED CDRL <A>
14@10.52 147.28
773883001210 Rect Stair <A>
2@50.20 100.40
629219029123 Rect Deck <A>
2@68.00 136.00
629219024616 4X4 BOLTDOWN <A> 15.87
629219029123 Rect Deck <A>
2@68.00 136.00
881599018917 Brush <A> 8.98
881599018894 Brush <A> 6.77
2971 BOLTS <A>
16@0.50 8.00
3256 WASHER <A>
16@0.14 2.24
I wanted to go with a cleaner look for the spindles in the railing for both the deck and the stairs. We went with the black rectangle ones. I think they look much nicer.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
After we installed the railing, Diego left me and I was on my own from now on. The total time from the posts to the railings was about 4 days. The rest of the deck would end up taking me another 3 days. I will be finishing up the deck with solar lights as well as a gate to access the underneath of the top deck..
Another Trip to Home Depot:
773883016061 1x6x6 Sienna <A>
25@3.29 82.25
771878768384 SCREWS <A> 13.87
6940989321465 Hammer <A> 9.98
015812502505 EMP12COMBOSQ <A> 17.98
049448020898 36″ TOP PRO. <A> 16.58
033287155828 Ryobi 6pc <A> 298.00
I decided to go and cover up the space under my upper deck with the fence board. I didn’t own any tools that would make my life easier so I went and bought myself the Ryobi 6 pc started One + kit. I enjoy it and so far so good. I have used them for everything I can. My next project will be finishing my basement starting sometime in the Winter. Maybe late Fall (Sept – October) This time I know I will be documenting the whole thing so there will be lots of pictures. 🙂
Another Trip to Home Depot:
773883750316 5/4x6x8PTBRN <A>
3@6.67 20.01
773883016061 1x6x6 Sienna <A>
32@3.49 111.68
773883024080 2x4x8 Sienna <A>
6@6.98 41.88
008925093558 Disc <A> 11.47
033287167012 RY ORBIT SAN <A> 58.98
033287167920 MSNRY SET <A> 24.97
I ran out of the 25 boards I bought the previous day. I bought 32 more thinking that should be enough. Turns out I was short 4 more boards. I also bought myself another Roybi tool the Orbit Sander. Man do I love this thing. To think I was sanding with my drill with a 2.5″ wire disk for most of the old deck. What was I thinking????
Another Trip to Home Depot:
629219029161 Solar Cap. <A>
2@8.30 16.60
067166330556 POLY AEROSOL <A> 7.63
622412340231 EVERBILT <A> 16.97
773883016061 1x6x6 Sienna <A>
4@3.49 13.96
I bought the Solar Caps for the stairs and ended up finding out that I had a Carpenter Bee living under my old deck. For those of you who don’t know what type of bee that is it looks like a bumble bee but eats wood. 🙂 He had made about 30 holes in the front 2×8 on my old deck (Underneath). It was to finish off the joists and didn’t cause any structural harm I bought some spray foam insulation to keep him out once he was out. He hung around for about 2 days after I had blocked his hole and then left. I bought a gate kit from home depot that had the hinges as well as the hardware to make your own. I have never made a gate or door before so I just looked at the gate on my fence and decided to go on my own. I laid down the 1×6 boards and attached another 1×6 on the top and the bottom of the boards. Now that they were all tied together I ran another one diagonal from corner to corner.
The whole cost of this project for me was around $3000 not including around $500 worth of tools I did not have. This price is with taxes and about $500 paid to Paola’s cousin.
Would I do it again? The answer is yes.
I will edit this page with links to the material I used once HD approves me.
I have put together a real quick slide show of the progress. It includes pictures of my yard with my drainage ditch and trees. I’ll post about those some other time.
The Japanese Beetle. What did I do to you? This little guy along with his many other friends have decided to eat my Honeycrisp Apple Tree. I have 3 trees in my back yard. They decided to only hurt this tree. I am no Gardner by far and these 3 trees are the first fruit trees I have ever owned, or planted. I decided to search the internet to find out what these bugs wanted with my tree!
Don’t they look so cute???
I found that using a little bit of dish soap along with water would bug these beetles enough for them to leave your tree along. I decided to put this to a test.
As you can see from the picture above I used about a teaspoon of the Dawn mixed with water using the spray bottle beside the Dawn. I made sure to have rinsed that “Lysol” spray bottle a number of times to make sure there was no left over residue. Once I made the solution I went outside and tested. Take a look at my quick video I made showing the tree with the Japanese Beetles.
Video – Japanese Beetle
Woke up this morning to a noise that I couldn’t believe was happening. Our fridge was making this very loading sort of grinding noise when it turned on. Opening the door would stop the noise. I decided to take a risk and fix the issue.
The fridge is 7 years old but never had an issue with it before. It is a SAMSUNG RF263AFRS fridge. After taking everything out of the fridge I saw that there was only 4 screws to remove the back piece to get access to the fan. After struggling with trying to remove it (it was frozen to the rad) it finally broke free. I was shocked to see where the ice had formed and was happy that it was in fact just ICE buildup. Feel free to watch my first try at video shooting and editing all in one. Oh yeah please excuse my son, as he really wants my attention and loves helping me out!
Take a look here : -> Video of me fixing my fridge
Hi there,
Its been a long while since I have had the urge to do this whole blog thing and well I feel now is the time to do it!
A little about me, I’m Mike from Ajax Ontario a city east of Toronto close to lake Ontario. I have been locked away in a job working at a big corporation for far too long. I remember the days when I was free and not tied down to corporate life. I now have an amazing little family, something I never thought would be me. Anyway enough about that for now.
My main reason for this site is to let other people know of the amazing things this world has to offer. I’ll be doing some testing on random things I have found online in regards to home remedies’, as well as let you into my world of Uber / Lyft driving; something I started doing part time on the weekends, turning it into an amazing experience that I will happily share with you in the coming weeks.