Make It Practical
Recently is a special time for everyone, keep yourself away from crowd is the best way. Stay in the home but still can do lots of things.
First, I want to use wood to make chess pieces, then we discussed that using insulation foam to make it would be more easy and quick. We order online from Home Depot and pick up at the store. Actually, cardboard is good to use also.
Designed the size first and then cut the base first, then drawing the top and cut it. All materials prepared and painted them half white and half black. After all dried we used BBQ skewers to hold top and base together.
Our backyard already have this stepped pattern design from my backyard renovation project, I was inspired by the existing landscape Design and used pieces for sustainable design.
Make It Practical !
Above: This is a picture of my backyard taken from the master bedroom. This house’s backyard plants were growing like a jungle when we moved in. I think old tenant never used the backyard. If you wanted to sit outside and enjoy one cup coffee,I think you would die by mosquito bites. First we trimmed all extra plants, built a new patio space and moved some healthy plants to landscaping areas.
Above: The backyard bricks we bought from Home Depot for $0.58 each. The brick price was the same as Lowe’s but the brick size was slightly different. Our first improvement was to build a patio in this area. This space was much bigger than the kitchen courtyard, so I can’t remember how long it took us to finish. Every time we saved some extra budget we expanded the brick area.
Above: Some of the outdoor furniture we built and some we bought from consignment store or Habitat for Humanity, I learned lot of new experience since we are here………. If you are interested in our hand made furniture or redesigned furniture you can search our website: (handmade furnitures) without my husband’s help I couldn’t finish any project.
I like go to my backyard to check all my plants every morning, sometime see new flowers blooming which makes me feel in a very good mood all day.
I call my this area is farm style.
Patio Renovation
Above:From the upper picture you can see my side yard from the living room is original patio area and between my house and my neighbour‘s yard used to be all that kind plants and made this area look small and narrow.
We trimmed all the big shrubs but kept the planting area. Then we added a new path to the backyard. The second year when summer came, it brought more rain, then trouble came with the rain. The whole backyard had a drainage issue if we had two days of heavy rain. When this happened, the backyard was flooded, because the flooded area would kill the planted grass. So we focused on fixing the drainage problem by buying more soil to lift ground. First we chosen fast grow grass will have beautiful green view quickly but not survive very long. Now we are use Bermuda seed from Homedepot ( Vigoro grass seed ). More and more I am changing all the small planting area and extending my real patio space.
Above:I started this in September. Around drain area which always flooded so that no grass would grow, I decided to change to an all concrete step stone path. Because I still had lot of white rocks from the kitchen courtyard then I bought ( TXI Portland cement ) 4 bags of cement and 5 bags of (Quikrete play sand) from Home Depot and started to make my own concrete slabs. I made the slabs size 12” x 12” x 1”, to match the slabs I bought before from Home Depot.
CONCRETE STEPPING STONE
Step one: Used extra wood to make a 12×12 inch wood frame, later I found that post office’s delivery boxes were also 12×12 inch. They were more easy to use.
Step two: Put aluminum foil in the frame
Step three: Using spay oil, spay some oil on the foil
Step four: Pour mixed cement in the frame. In this step I just wanted a thick block so I poured more mixed cement
Step five: Wait a few minutes for the cement to become a little firm, then choose some flat rocks and press into the top of cement
After all this, wait until the cement sets so you can move block out of frame and use it in your yard. I used regular cement so I needed to wait one day for the cement to completely set. The spay oil made it easy to remove the block from the frame or box. P.S. :Actually the first two blocks were not a success and were broken because I didn’t use spay oil. I didn’t throw them away. I put them back into the frame and poured more cement to patch the broken parts. Once the cement set, they still could be used.
Above:I always liked this pattern for interior design, but because our house is rental I don’t want make my landlord mad changing the style inside, so I thought I would use this pattern for an exterior design. Especially as we lived in southeast Asia for few years and I like that outdoor style very much . I don’t think this is Indonesia style or Singapore style. I call my style free style …….
This year is our third year living in this house. A little bit of a change here, a little bit of a change there, and just recently we are really can sit outside because now it is November. The temperature has cooled down and there are less mosquitos. The patio is mostly finished. In the future I may change to another style but for now we are really enjoying this moment.
I call my working style like a turtle – from time by time you can see progress and you will have success on an affordable budget…..
HOLIDAY LIGHT ON
NIGHTLIGHT
DAYLIGHT
