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What tools do we need/ things we should know for a backyard DIY project?
Hi all! First time posting here so apologies if I’m not in the right place or if I’m asking for too much. My husband and I bought our first house two years ago and absolutely love it! However, we haven’t been able to do any real cosmetic changes yet as we invested money in getting the guts in working order (foundation, HVAC, electrical box, etc.). We are now desperate to finally tackle our disaster of a backyard now that the things we needed to fix are set. I’m honestly not sure how much yard we have as there is a separately fenced off backyard area that is just a whole other level of disaster and basically has leaves and fallen trees five feet in depth. If I had to guess on the max size we’re considering working on, it’s probably .25 - .30 acres. And pretty much perfectly rectangular. The problems with our backyard are vast and want to DIY/O but we don’t know what tools we’ll need to buy/ rent and if there is anything we need to know before storming ahead that I wouldn’t have thought of. Issues we’re facing: Our backyard was sold with wood chips down since there is no grass. With about a million trees and leaves, raking and leaf blowing was a disaster. It’s now wood chip less (thankfully) but is now just dirt… which then turns into mud. We get a lot of rain where we are in the southeast USA and all I want is to just not have a swampy backyard which attracts more mosquitos than we already would have. It’s miserable being back there. It’s also slightly sloped. Maybe 20 degrees max New weeds and things pop out seemingly every day. And we have a puppy so we’re out there a dozen times a day. No sprinkler system… Things that aren’t a problem: We have good irrigation and very little puddling if any or issues with drainage when it does rain. We have a very nice new fence. We have a nice deck and fire pit We have a ton of large beautiful (but old) trees— ask me in the fall if I still consider it a positive. The plan: We want to section the backyard into two areas. One side where the walkout basement leads to simple pavers/ hardscaping to the preexisting stone fire-pit (surrounded by muddy pebbles). Having a small retaining wall (maybe 2 feet tall max) and one step up to the other section of just grass. We plan of getting a ton of dirt delivered so we can level the yard and either get grass seed/ sod. We will definitely want the perimeter of the yard to have low maintenance and pet friendly plants too so we’ll want to have a boarder of some sort. We don’t plan of installing sprinklers since other houses in our neighborhood have grass and no sprinklers with the same tree coverage as us so I don’t see it as a problem especially with how much rain we get. We also have grass in the front yard. Based on our challenges and our simple plan for our DIY backyard reno, what tools and equipment would we absolutely need (brand recommendations are welcome) and where is a good place to start in regards to YouTube tutorials, when the order of steps matters most (like how we should weed before leveling and putting dirt/seed down), and any other advice or personal experiences are super welcomed. We’ve never done a big project like this but I’m very type A and do a lot of research prior to starting anything and we both learn very quickly and aren’t afraid of hard work. Not sure if budget matters but I’m hoping to keep it around $10-15k but please let me know if I’m dreaming with this price point. If anyone wants photos of the disaster if they think it’ll help please let me know and I’ll try to post one. Thanks in advance!!! submitted by /u/CS0607 [link] [comments]
Hi all! First time posting here so apologies if I’m not in the right place or if I’m asking for too much.
My husband and I bought our first house two years ago and absolutely love it! However, we haven’t been able to do any real cosmetic changes yet as we invested money in getting the guts in working order (foundation, HVAC, electrical box, etc.). We are now desperate to finally tackle our disaster of a backyard now that the things we needed to fix are set.
I’m honestly not sure how much yard we have as there is a separately fenced off backyard area that is just a whole other level of disaster and basically has leaves and fallen trees five feet in depth.
If I had to guess on the max size we’re considering working on, it’s probably .25 - .30 acres. And pretty much perfectly rectangular.
The problems with our backyard are vast and want to DIY/O but we don’t know what tools we’ll need to buy/ rent and if there is anything we need to know before storming ahead that I wouldn’t have thought of.
Issues we’re facing: Our backyard was sold with wood chips down since there is no grass. With about a million trees and leaves, raking and leaf blowing was a disaster. It’s now wood chip less (thankfully) but is now just dirt… which then turns into mud. We get a lot of rain where we are in the southeast USA and all I want is to just not have a swampy backyard which attracts more mosquitos than we already would have. It’s miserable being back there.
It’s also slightly sloped. Maybe 20 degrees max
New weeds and things pop out seemingly every day. And we have a puppy so we’re out there a dozen times a day.
No sprinkler system…
Things that aren’t a problem: We have good irrigation and very little puddling if any or issues with drainage when it does rain.
We have a very nice new fence.
We have a nice deck and fire pit
We have a ton of large beautiful (but old) trees— ask me in the fall if I still consider it a positive.
The plan: We want to section the backyard into two areas. One side where the walkout basement leads to simple pavers/ hardscaping to the preexisting stone fire-pit (surrounded by muddy pebbles).
Having a small retaining wall (maybe 2 feet tall max) and one step up to the other section of just grass. We plan of getting a ton of dirt delivered so we can level the yard and either get grass seed/ sod.
We will definitely want the perimeter of the yard to have low maintenance and pet friendly plants too so we’ll want to have a boarder of some sort.
We don’t plan of installing sprinklers since other houses in our neighborhood have grass and no sprinklers with the same tree coverage as us so I don’t see it as a problem especially with how much rain we get. We also have grass in the front yard.
Based on our challenges and our simple plan for our DIY backyard reno, what tools and equipment would we absolutely need (brand recommendations are welcome) and where is a good place to start in regards to YouTube tutorials, when the order of steps matters most (like how we should weed before leveling and putting dirt/seed down), and any other advice or personal experiences are super welcomed.
We’ve never done a big project like this but I’m very type A and do a lot of research prior to starting anything and we both learn very quickly and aren’t afraid of hard work. Not sure if budget matters but I’m hoping to keep it around $10-15k but please let me know if I’m dreaming with this price point.
If anyone wants photos of the disaster if they think it’ll help please let me know and I’ll try to post one. Thanks in advance!!!
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