Some Easter photos...

For my in-laws and other family that aren't local here in town, this is how the family looked on Easter Sunday. (No pictures of me, as I am the cameraman. No pictures of mom.....well you know mom.)

Can anyone guess who gravitates to the camera more than others? Not a hard one is it...

Tick

So the days have blended on....

We are on about day 13 of actually working the project. I have more work done but I haven't uplaoded the pictures.

Quick update as to where we are now...

Here are a few photos of where we are actually dug down to the roughly 8" deep that we need to be at...

And another...

Now came the hard part of actually getting all of the excess dirt out and doing some measurements to make it semi-flat. The nice part about putting this type of patio in is that you can fix alot of the "level" problems just by making your last exact measurements with the sand. Sand is much easier to manipulate than dirt or gravel.

And as always the opposite side

I will post more pictures of the yard later tonight. I have the gravel all in now and it is just going to be needing the sand first thing tomorrow morning and then the pavers. If everything goes well I will have my entire project finished by Sunday.

We have some left over gravel though, so Christina has already informed me that there is another little "project" that I can do with the left over supplies.

Tick

Day 7

Since my wife is a teacher, and this is the Friday before Spring Break she was able to get out of work around noon and really help me out. While I was busting it for the "Man", she came home and removed all of the water from the moat. A dirty job but something she took care of.

I am not mechanically inclined. So I pretty much study things to overkill before I start. I have been planning the project for over a year and asked Tai about sprinkler info a year ago. Finally got around to it and YEEHAW. Not nearly as hard as I mentally made it out to be. Was actually kinda fun.

Here is what we did today...When I say we, my wife came out and helped me fill the trenches back in and replace the grass. She was a real big help. Thanks sweetie!

















HEre is the pipe that I cut down and capped off. Don't need a sprinkler here, but we did a few feet further down...






























Then I added a "T" joint and about 7 feet of line. And a new sprikler head...


















Notice the strategic use of a water bottle...





























And last but not least.... the "yard" part of the yard almost looks back to normal.

I am going to hammer in the stakes tomorrow and depending on how things go I may be removing some dirt. Gotta fish though and there is hockey so you never know...

Tick

Day 6

Yeah right....

I will make sure that I go home and take some pictures tonight of the moat that I have in my back yard. 2 straight days of rain and my trenches are now full of water with no end in sight. On the way into work this morning it was raining again.

THIS IS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NOT WASHINGTON! THIS IS WHY I LEFT WASHINGTON! AAAARRRRRGHGHGHGHGHHG

So now my deadline of having this done by Easter is going to be very very tight. I am supposed to go fly fishing on Saturday the 8th and then on a deep sea charter fishing thing off of the Channel Islands on the 14th. I am not going to miss either of those! So I may end up having to take another day off from work and get the yard done.

Who knows. I am depressed now though because I was making some major headway.

Tick

Day 4 and 5

So we were finally starting to make some headway.... AND IT STARTS TO RAIN AGAIN! For the love of....

So when I mentioned to the kids that they weren't going to be recieving an allowance this week they were spurned into action...

My youngest wanted to prove how strong she is...

After about 45 minutes of arguing with me they finally got it all cleaned up and did this much work!

It took me about 1 hour to remove this first strip of grass. Lets just say that it required the use of a buddy's shovel. Mine wasn't up to par...

Now don't think I am lazy or slow. I also used part of that time to cut up the rest of the grass. Cut it into 1 ft. by 2 ft. pieces of grass. Made it easier to handle but still very heavy.

Day 5 Begins...

I spent another hour and a half on the next day and was able to get all of the grass up. This is the first sign of how big the patio is actually going to be.

After removing the grass I was reminded that I was going to have to move a couple of sprinklers. Something I have never done before, but it can't really take a rocket surgeon to do. (I have seen some of the landscape folks around here!) So I spent some time and dug a few trenches.

And now this is where the first sprinkler is going to go. Nothing like getting to dig a 7 foot trench.

And When I started to dig the other trench I found a little suprise. Apparently the landscaping technicians ran two pipes right next to each other. So I get to do a little more digging to give me some working/cutting room. Can't wait... :(

More to follow I am sure...

Tick