Rehabbing a Completely Overgrown Pond

[Dirty Dawg]

Thanks for all the compliments everybody. I give a lot of credit to this forum, it's been a big help to me with info and ideas.

I hope you got a discount on rocks!!!! And what is the story on that massive boulder up top?

Good GF for saving lots a $$$ on plants they look very nice especially the variegated ones.

Your retaining walls and landscape are sharp looking. At least you didn't have to make the bricks yourself!

Thanks!

Yea, she's awesome with picking plants, thank god, I've got no clue, I'm good at digging holes and building stuff, lol.

The two big boulders and a couple of rosebushes are the only things of value the previous owner left. Too big or too thorny to move, lol. Every other plant and tree small enough to pluck was gone. I estimate he removed over 4,000 Holland pavers as well. I need about 1,300 to finish up the areas I want in pavers.

The smaller 1 - 2-1/2" stone in the plant beds I had to buy, 30 yards around the house now. Anything bigger as far as rocks is from the yard, I spent my first summer picking up the mess and putting it in piles. After the first couple days with a tow cart behind the Deere rider I had already owned, I bought that Kubota. It's paid for itself by now!

 

[addy1]

I bought that Kubota. It's paid for itself by now!

I LOVE my kubota, honey bought if for me for our first anniversary present! Best pressie ever. I use it all the time, mulch hauling, plant cutting hauling, digging scrapping etc etc. It built the ponds and stream.

 

[Dirty Dawg]

I LOVE my kubota, honey bought if for me for our first anniversary present! Best pressie ever. I use it all the time, mulch hauling, plant cutting hauling, digging scrapping etc etc. It built the ponds and stream.

A woman that loves a tractor bought for her, you're a keeper! lol. Yea, they're pretty awesome, love mine too. You have a BX, or something bigger?

There was also a smaller pond out in the front of the house that I removed, and used the rocks for out back. Come to think of it, the filter for it got left, it's in my shed somewhere, I should get it to somebody that needs it.

This is how it looked when i bought the place:

 

[Lisaebetten]

Good golly they even took the pavers? Must have been a foreclose and they took every penny with them that they could? Aw I like that little pond! I want one by the front door but have to wait for some bushes to die off. Just a small simple pond, red minnows and a few plants no extravagant filter system, just small bog.

 

[Dirty Dawg]

Good golly they even took the pavers? Must have been a foreclose and they took every penny with them that they could? Aw I like that little pond! I want one by the front door but have to wait for some bushes to die off. Just a small simple pond, red minnows and a few plants no extravagant filter system, just small bog.

Yep, gutted foreclosure. Looks like that previous picture I had already started cleaning it up a little.

Here's one I know is right as I bought, still hase the signs in the window. One of 'em is "Cash Only" as the place was un-financeable.

 

[Lisaebetten]

Looks like a nice place, and putting ponds in isn't work for the lazy or poorer side of humanity either! What happened, my hubby would have snagged it up for cash also!! flooded, mold, structural issues?

 

[Dirty Dawg]

Looks like a nice place, and putting ponds in isn't work for the lazy or poorer side of humanity either! What happened, my hubby would have snagged it up for cash also!! flooded, mold, structural issues?

If I had to guess, it was the absense of running water or no lighting, because there was no nasty issues like mold etc.. like you mentioned. Deals where the buyers were getting loans fell-through twice before I got it.

The rumor on the street was that the owner filled the drains with concrete, so I actually "broke into" the place, sweated some copper fittings and valves in the plumbing so I could run the well and put water into all the drains with a garden hose before I made an offer, lol.

 

[tbendl]

I can't believe people do that, put concrete in the plumbing. One if the houses I looked at was a foreclosure and they did exactly that. Such a shame.

 

[addy1]

A woman that loves a tractor bought for her, you're a keeper! lol. Yea, they're pretty awesome, love mine too. You have a BX,

Yep bx with the bucket and backhoe. Love it. Perfect size, it has to work to break up big boulders, a nibble job, but it gets it done