CW's Back Yard Water Garden Begins!

[addy1]

You think so, huh? Just yesterday we were discussing our next project - master bath remodel. We have a project budget, but suddenly we were moving a window which meant replacing siding on two sides of the house, which means replacing all the siding which means we just added 30K to the price of the bathroom. We clearly agreed "no moving the plumbing" but now the toilet HAS to be on the other wall, because window...

Such is my life!

lmao we started with a leaking garage wall, ie the edge of the roof, 62k later we have a nice room on top of the garage 1/2 of it, with a full bath, a free floating deck, new deck below (it was old and rotting) new siding, new rails, new flooring in the basement, new drop ceiling , new storm doors, (love them! pull down screens) all garage walls drywalled, insulated, etc etc etc................... The price of wood, which is coming down, killed us. But we sold a rental and used the funds to get almost everything bugging me fixed in our house.

I kept giving the contractor a updated list of wishes, 4.5 weeks later almost all done!

 

[GBBUDD]

That's how my pond started . I got tired of rocking in a chair on my patio because the previous boob who pored the concrete patio did such a poor job. so a quick layer of sand over it to level it out and some pavers and she became a real patio. then the wife said how about we add a water feature kinda like my parents have " well that's the woman holing the small urn as it pour water into a bird bath.......... not my cup of tea. so i started researching and talk about a project growing , you all know the rest of that story. Though my planning and acquisitions were winter to spring, and once spring sprung and I sprung into action

 

[combatwombat]

Kind of almost finished with the in-pond retaining wall:

Managed to get it done with no cuts (so far) and plumbed one 2” jet into the wall.

Will decide later whether to tie boulders into the end of the wall (probably) or make some cuts and finish it off with blocks (probably not).

Got back to work figuring out the negative edge and do out a new footprint to fit my milk crates:

Need to dig it down another 6-12” to get the storage capacity I want, and that’s on the schedule for next week.

Also came up with what I think will be a really cool way to landscape over the top of the cistern, but that will have to be an update for another time.

 

[GBBUDD]

going to be 5 to 6 feet deep are you , and no more equipment. no wonder its taking some time in this heat.

 

[combatwombat]

Yes, hand digging for now. Digging is pretty easy around here, but the cistern is right over a patch of clay. Had to bust out the maddock to get through some of it.

 

[GBBUDD]

in New England there's hardly anything called easy digging. 45 years of building and very few areas i would ever clasify as easy digging. even the sandy areas are hardly easy as they collapse

 

[combatwombat]

A little more movement this week. A few hours here. A few hours there. Negative edge cistern digout is complete. Will use about 250 milk crates (7x12x3) for a total of about 2,000 gallons of storage:

Still to do before liner goes in:

• Level bottom of pit so that stacked crates lock together sturdily.
• Finalize pump vault materials (probably 15" culvert).
• Choose pump vault locations and make sure configuration still works without more digging.

I have an idea for adding a stream that runs through the cistern before falling into it that might require me to dig a couple rows down 1/2 the depth of one crate. Still thinking that one through.

6,000 lb excavator is finally showing up on Sunday (I'll believe it when I see it). This is a friends and family special, so I get it for however long I need without racking up daily fees.

Only downside is that I'm not sure I'll be able to reach the far side of the pond with that size machine, so still not sure how I'll set boulders over there. Maybe rent a really big machine for just a day to do that side.

 

[brokensword]

A little more movement this week. A few hours here. A few hours there. Negative edge cistern digout is complete. Will use about 250 milk crates (7x12x3) for a total of about 2,000 gallons of storage:

View attachment 141514

Still to do before liner goes in:

• Level bottom of pit so that stacked crates lock together sturdily.
• Finalize pump vault materials (probably 15" culvert).
• Choose pump vault locations and make sure configuration still works without more digging.

I have an idea for adding a stream that runs through the cistern before falling into it that might require me to dig a couple rows down 1/2 the depth of one crate. Still thinking that one through.

6,000 lb excavator is finally showing up on Sunday (I'll believe it when I see it). This is a friends and family special, so I get it for however long I need without racking up daily fees.

Only downside is that I'm not sure I'll be able to reach the far side of the pond with that size machine, so still not sure how I'll set boulders over there. Maybe rent a really big machine for just a day to do that side.

CW, can you make some sort of sturdy (enough) ramp and just roll them into place (from the embankment down to it's position)?

I saw your milkcrate pic and noted, it's almost as big as my pond was before the expansion; you sure don't do things half-a**ed, that's for sure. @Jhn ain't gonna be happy if you turn out to NOT be a LAPer, you know!!!

 

[combatwombat]

Here's a very quick video of the overall site right now. Still an absolute mess, but it's coming along.

@brokensword: I may try to find some sort of ramp solution. I have lots of scrap lumber laying around to play with. Almost got rid of it all last year, then covid hit and lumber prices skyrocketed and I couldn't bring myself to part with it. haha

All this work right now is in pursuit of becoming a LAPer. There's no free lunch, right? You either do all the work now at once or you do it forever a little bit at a time.

 

[brokensword]

Here's a very quick video of the overall site right now. Still an absolute mess, but it's coming along.

@brokensword: I may try to find some sort of ramp solution. I have lots of scrap lumber laying around to play with. Almost got rid of it all last year, then covid hit and lumber prices skyrocketed and I couldn't bring myself to part with it. haha

All this work right now is in pursuit of becoming a LAPer. There's no free lunch, right? You either do all the work now at once or you do it forever a little bit at a time.

just make sure your extra wood is sturdy enough to support the weight of your rocks. I'm assuming it's more than a couple guys can handle. I'd imagine a couple of 4x4s with 2x on top, minimally.

Okay, I'll clear it with @Jhn as he's the prez of that part of GPF (don't tell @addy1 !)

 

[Jhn]

All this work right now is in pursuit of becoming a LAPer. There's no free lunch, right? You either do all the work now at once or you do it forever a little bit at a time.

Thumbs up from me because you are going to be using my mantra of operating heavy equipment is fun, which is ok in striving to be a LAPer. Cause in my mind using heavy equipment is much faster and LAPer like than having slings and a bunch of guys dragging boulders around.

@Jhn ain't gonna be happy if you turn out to NOT be a LAPer, you know!!!

Of course, my disappointment would be immense, because who doesn’t want to be a LAPer, now if I could get my labby’s to pull plants from the bog my quest for the perfect LAP would be complete.

 

[GBBUDD]

Great looking videos but theres an odd smell in the air anyone else smell it?

 

[GBBUDD]

I know i know . Masshole

 

[GBBUDD]

@combatwombat From what i can see i'd cut away the soil so the machine can drive down onto the self at the start of the viedo so you can access the other side. but you'll need to place your rock in the pond for the other side and pick them up once you get to the other side . the pond doesn't look all that wide but a 6000lb excavator i believe only has an 8 foot reach @Jhn would you agree

 

[Jhn]

@combatwombat From what i can see i'd cut away the soil so the machine can drive down onto the self at the start of the viedo so you can access the other side. but you'll need to place your rock in the pond for the other side and pick them up once you get to the other side . the pond doesn't look all that wide but a 6000lb excavator i believe only has an 8 foot reach @Jhn would you agree

Yep it is something like that ….not very far