Why I Oughta...

Over the years, I've been quietly (and not so quietly ) pining for the day when I can build a wood-fired oven in our backyard.  Between the lifestyle we have (with young kids) and this being a pretty hands-on, weekend-time-sucking project, it seemed like it wasn't ever quite time.  But now?  I'm still not sure it is the right time for tackling something like this - what with the digging of the foundation/footings, building the frame, then cutting and creating the dome from firebricks. But, I also want to - and need to - get going on the full planning for the #newoldbackyard including some fall tree/shrub plantings and hardscape upgrades, future water feature placement , the eventual placement of a vegetable garden and greenhouse, irrigation system, a sports court and more. At our old house in Elmhurst, we built out a backyard pavilion that we used to shelter us from the sun that housed our patio and I'm keen to replicate some parts of that with a new pavilion

Via RealCedar.com I came across this pavilion on the RealCedar.com site and I'm posting it here so I can later reference it when the time comes to think about such a structure in our #newoldbackyard.  Those of you who have been following along for years might recall that we had a pavilion at our old place.  All the way back in April of 2010, I posted the original inspiration photo here on the blog .  That one was anchored off a structure (garage in our case) and came to life over a series of posts .    The one you see above has some modern touches - like the horizontal slats, lights and some of the flat cuts - and is unanchored to another structure.  The slats remind me a lot of the raised bed planters that I posted about over the weekend.  The simple, single-plane roof is interesting to me in that it requires less framing work.   The #newoldbackyard is much bigger than our old one, so we have space to do a few things.  Pizza oven.  Greenhouse.  Sports court.  Veg

It was just a bit more than a year ago that we put up the pavilion in our backyard and I've enjoyed a lot of summer days and nights back there ever since.  It is made up of (entirely) of treated lumber, so I wanted to wait a while to let some of the green leech out of the boards before applying a color.  I picked a toner versus a pure semi-transparent stain and I'm happy with how it turned out.  The grain came through and although it now means there's *another* color in our backyard, it turned out great. 

I've been poking around the Mosquito Magnet site for the past few weeks trying to figure out if the investment is worth the expense.  It seems that I am going to wait for the end of the season and see if I can snatch one up on a deal because with July already moving along, it might be too late in the season for them.  Because, I (like most people I'm assuming) thought that the Mosquito Magnet would just "work" immediately, I was hot to trot after one of them.  Our backyard is where I want to spend A LOT of time n the evenings, but the bugs are crazy.  Turns out, the Magnet is more of a 'life-cycle disruptor'.  Over the course of three or four months, it will drive down the population in the area by getting the young and aging bugs.  It will NOT pull or attract every mosquito in instantly.  Rather it is more of a long-term solution that appears to NEED to start right in the Spring. Because of the time-frame, we opted for a much lower-tech solution:  A ser

I finally bit the bullet and bought a 5 gallon drum of concrete paver sealer.  Menards (of course!) ran a sale on the stuff and with the 20% off discount, it was priced well.  I've been slowly watching our backyard patio slowly fade from a beautiful multiple-color paver patio into a mostly blah tan-looking average patio.  This stuff - Ultra Gloss Sealer - not only claims to brighten/bring back the true colors of the pavers, but it also seals them down (plus the sand joints) and gives them a "wet look" permanently.  Well...permanently in this case is a few years until we have to re-apply.  I have to hit the pavers with a powerwasher to clean them up, replace the lost sand in the joints and then leave it to dry.  The next morning, I break out the roller and cover the surface with this stuff.  24 hours later, the patio should look almost brand new.  As soon as I get to this project (hopefully) in the next week or so, I'll report back.  This 'to-do' list is g

Arriving back from Michigan after a few days yesterday, Nat put the Babe to bed while I gave the lawn a much-needed haircut.  Once the tasks were done, we settled in for a nice night under the pavilion reading/drinking/relaxing. Like everyone else in Chicagoland , we have a bit of a mosquito problem.   But...fortunately for us, I picked up the most romantic of romantic birthday presents for Nat:  the Off Clip-on.   Along with a candle and the mother-of-all cintronella candles - our fireplace - we settled in for a long night outside.  The temperature was perfect - the light is nice - and we have a nice loveseat out there to snuggle in to together. We were in bliss for 40 minutes. Then....scurrying like only they scurry, a small skunk came moseying right along our patio - no more than 5 feet from where we were sitting.  I freaked out.  I'm thinking the skunk freaked out, too!  I knocked over Nat's glass of wine on the table - breaking one of her favorite glasses.  I grabbed

Last night, Nat and I enjoyed the fireplace for the first time.  The temps were low enough outside to make it worthwhile.  Now that it is done, I'm thrilled with how it turned out. My nieces and nephews have already brought over a bag of s'mores fixings, so I'm certain we'll put it through it's paces this summer.

I've been at it all day long.  Put down 10 yards of mulch, planted a Ginko tree, set up the low-voltage lights, and most of the patio/pavilion got done. As I type this, I have 18 pounds of Boston Butt in the smoker. The Yankee Smoker - which looks like a dorm refrigerator.  14 hours at 185 degrees, and we'll have lots of pulled pork for our party tomorrow.

I've all but written off the grass.  I was thinking it would come back in time for this party we're having Saturday, but that's clearly NOT going to happen. But....the rest of the stuff?  I assumed it was a slam dunk - everything would be done by today at the latest. Guess what?  MOST everything isn't done yet.  The contractor hasn't been around for 6 days.  In fact, he called me back last night after I left him messages for the past five days.  He's apparently taken another job.  I begged him to come today after he's done and get the electric done.  He thinks he can get it done this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon.  If he doesn't, I'm sure I'll write a post about him specifically.... I've also had to quickly find another contractor to install the stone on the fireplace.  It showed up over the weekend.  This was on the original contractor's contract, but with so little time, I needed to turn elsewhere. That's the box of corners

We're half-way home to having the pavers finished.  The weather has been throwing us some curveballs, but the crew is saying they're going to get it finished up in the next few days - if they can get 8-10 hours of work in.  I'm really like the way the patio has turned out, but I was very concerned when it started. They have the patio and the walk-way done all the way to our deck.  Next is getting it to the front driveway.  I'm also desperately trying to resurrect our grass.  As you can see in the photo above, because of all the work and lumber laying on it for too long, the grass is in some sad shape.  We bought some fast-germinating seed, which says it takes 3 days, but so far....nothing!  Party is in 5 days.

This is what we had in mind when we decided to build the pavilion: This is where we are today.  Not too far off! Still have to wrap the bottom of the posts in cedar shingles to ground this thing, but we're getting pretty close to finishing.

The pavilion construction keeps churning along in the backyard.  We're in crunch-time.  A party is planned for 12 days from today.  EVERYTHING needs to be done.  The guys were at our house early to start roofing the structure.  We picked the same shingles as were selected for our garage. The pavilion extension blends right in with the garage.  I'm very pleased with that! And...a very special guest arrived today:  the firebox. It will have an eight foot chimney stacked on top of this when it is complete, but it should be installed enough for us to run a fire or two.  This is a wood-burning firebox with 2-channel chimney.  It burns normal wood, but doesn't have a masonry surround.  We're going to build one with stone veneer. The instructions require us to burn a few small fires - gradually growing the temperature inside the box up as we go.  Maybe this week - if the patio goes in - we'll have a smallish fire or two.

One of the next projects in our backyard - now that the garage is done - is to put in a patio and walkway (from garage to house to front parking pad).  We pulled the trigger and bought pavers over the weekend. They're getting delivered next week.  We wanted something a bit different - and this is a photo from the advertisement they were in. We brought a few home, so I'll take some photos of them in the sun to show off.   The patio should start in the next few weeks.  

The plans for the garage are moving forward fast.  The topographic surveys are done, the blueprints are in with the city, and the permits are applied for.  Hopefully, we'll hear from the city this week with the go-ahead.  We've come this/close to settling on a garage builder - and hope to sign a contract within the week.  Once the permits are approved, we'll break ground! In addition to the fence (from earlier this week), we're also going to put in some pavers for a patio, a new driveway, and a bunch of landscaping.  There's also this "pavilion" that I want built above the patio.  Pavilion you say?  Yep.  You got that right.  See the picture below for what we're looking for.   Nat HATES the idea, but I want shade.  We're facing straight west (in our backyard) and the sun makes the yard **almost** unusable on a hot day.  With this free-standing structure up against the garage, I think we'll have a really comfortable area to have a nice aftern