It’s been a busy summer and a lot of things still left to do, but mostly just enjoy the space we created in the back yard.

So that’s the end of the home improvement blog for now. It’s finally starting to cool off a little. I’m hoping that means more time relaxing and less time working on projects around the house. I love cooking and grilling and I have a feeling that may be where I lead this blog over the late summer and fall.

So after two full day’s sweating profuslly and scrapes and scratches. We have a patio and sidewalk. We let our dog Willie out there and when we tried to call him back in the house we wasn’t interested in coming inside.

So we have a little bit more to finish up tonight so we can take back the equipment we rented and finish up the clean up…

So this is the weekend, My fiancee and I are going to put in the paver patio. It’s going to be hot as hell but we’ve commited to doing it. A lot of sweat coming soon, I can’t wait to get it done!

I will say that this heat has really slowed down progress in the back yard. I am optimistic that we’ll be able to get everything done we need to this weekend. Everything is pretty much ready to go just a couple more things. We had an estimate on concrete and as much as we would like to just have someone else finish the work, the amount it is going to cost is a bit out of our price range so it’s back to the pavers. Considering the fact we’ve done 90% of the work already it seems the most logical choice to continue on. So we’ll be sweating profusely because the forecast is calling for the low 90’s I think we can be good to go if we spend most of our time working in the morning and in the evening. Stay tuned, pictures coming soon!!!

You gotta check this out!

I had a week off before the 4th and we took a road trip north and west to Mt. Rushmore and also to Yellowstone. I’d never been to either place my fiancee has but she hadn’t been to Mount Rushmore since she was a little kid. It was nice to get out of town and it was nice to get to some cooler weather. We actually camped a night in Yellowstone, and it got down to 40 degrees we were actually cold.

Now that we’ve been back I feel like I need to be getting back to work on my household projects. Still working on the back patio and side walk and thinking seriously about doing concrete instead of brick pavers. After some calculating I think it might be the cheapest route to go. I wanted to do pavers, but thinking a little further ahead about up keep and maintenance it might be easier to do concrete. I’m also thinking about winter and scraping off the side walks. I haven’t made up my mind but I’m leaning that way. I’ll be getting busy again soon and will have more to report. It’s great to be back from vacation and to be recharged. (WP)

Over the last week, my dad and I have made some decent progress on the back yard and patio. We have the patio and side walk framed and prepped for base sand and then pavers to go in. It’s been quite a couple of days. A lot of sweat and hard work. Here are some pictures of the progress. As you see the grass is pretty tore up. once everything is in place I will go back and relevel the dirt and get grass replanted. Looking forward to smoking a cigar and having a frosty cold beverage on the back patio. I can’t wait!

I’m one step closer to having things done in the back yard. I’m posting the pictures of the progress of getting the back steps done. You’ll notice the concrete piers under the corners of the platform. If you’re interested in a quick way to put in a deck with minimal excavation you should check these out. Plus if you ever need to change something about your deck you can pick it up and move it without having to do a lot of work. After all the trouble with the last set of back steps having something that could be easily adjusted sounded like just the ticket for me. :0)

Here are the pics.

Next is getting the paver patio in place and that work starts this weekend, hoping for some dry weather for a week or two while I get this in. I’ll post pictures during the process. (WP)

So if you’ve been reading my blog for the last month or so you know that I’ve been working on some projects around the house. I’ve been trying to get the back yard fixed up a little bit. I hit a snag a few weeks back because I couldn’t get the back patio busted out with the small jack hammer I rented for the job. Well I had some help over the weekend. My fiancee’s dad Charlie brought over his skidloader and I rented the breaker attachment to go on it… It cut through the concrete like butter! Check it out!

Thanks to Charlie and the skid loader we’re one step closer to getting the back yard done so we can maybe spend part of this summer not working on stuff…

Next on the list is re building the back steps so we don’t have to climb in and out of the house. I’ve already begun building those and will have more pictures up in the next couple of days… (WP)

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Sky Show Friday at the Royals game! Had a great time and despite the sauna like conditions of the hot dog costume! I really had a lot of fun, and if you cheered on Mustard I say, Thank You! 

 Hope you have a great week. I got a bunch of work done in the back yard over the weekend! pictures coming very soon!