giving our SAD backyard a massive DIY makeover on a budget! | DIY Backyard Makeover

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This is our sad backyard, and it’s been beat down by the Texas sun, some flash flooding, and even some snowstorms. But lately, we’ve been on a mission to turn this backyard into an oasis before the summer hits. And instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars, like we were initially quoted, we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands and do the vast majority of the work ourselves on a shoestring budget. Are you just trying to make the cutest playhouse of all time, or what are we doing here? But the question remains, what kind of makeover can we give this backyard just using a bunch of hard work, DIY skills, and creativity? Oh, seriously? This is like a short, quick project that’s not being short or quick. Well, you’ll just have to find out in the adventures of my DIY wife and her non-handy husband. Oh, gross. to turn this backyard upside down or maybe right side up. We had a lot of projects to get done. Andrea has been wanting to build a really cute roof for the playhouse. Then there’s a ton of landscaping to be done. And honestly, we’re going to have to hire out some help because this job is just too big for Andre and I. Beyond that, we have our biggest project, and that’s tackling this old sad garden area. Andrea is going to build brand new garden boxes and I’m going to do the dirty work. And then of course we will put all of the finishing beautiful touches on this space and do a grand reveal. But if we’re going to get started on this project, it’s time for a a Lowe’s well actually it’s a Lowe’s delivery. It’s not technically a Lowe’s trip, but I guess if it came from Lowe’s to our driveway, then technically it’s a a trip. A triple day. It’s a Lowe’s trip. But unfortunately, right as the delivery guy finished unloading, it started to rain like cats and dogs. All right, we’re going to start working on the roof. It’s finally not raining and I haven’t painted my boards for my roof. So, I think what I want to do is cut them all to length, lay them out, and I’ll paint them real quick cuz they’ll dry really quick in the sun and then I’ll install them. I’m cutting like a 15° angle off the ends of my boards just since the roof is on a slant. That way, the ends of my boards are like this. I’m going to paint these over on the [Music] grass. Painting these boards was a little more awkward than I had expected cuz I had to reach pretty far to get the ones in the middle. [Music] [Applause] [Music] All right, I’m going to let this dry and then we’ll flip it over and paint the other side. Really quick, we want to say thanks to Figure for sponsoring today’s video. Figure is the number one non-bank we have our clear roof panels that are kind of blue. But while I wait for the paint to dry on Matt’s side, I’m going to go ahead and cut these. I just need them a little bit less than 8 ft. I think they’re 8 ft. It’s a good thing I had Riley helping today because she noticed something that I had completely missed. Did you measure to the end? I think so. Why? No, I’m pretty sure I have an extra panel. Oh my gosh, how did I do that? Um, I’m only like 3 in short. Whoopsies. Okay, so we’re going to do this again. After I finished cutting all of my roof panels, the paint was dry and so I was ready to flip all of my boards over and paint the other side. Just going to start installing our what are these called? I don’t know. Raptor holders. I’m going to do the far side over there. And then we’ll have to figure out how to space the middle ones. All right. So, these are just kind of set in place. I need to like actually measure and get them all the same. I can’t like do stuff and talk at the same time apparently. Now I’ll just add some screws on the other side and then we can put our other boards up. We’re so close. Daddy. Riley, you’re getting rescued. You I didn’t realize that our daughter’s been filming for like the last hour or two. Doing so good. But is there paint on my face? I feel like I can see through the next four. How many more you got? Just I think there’s four of these, but they’ll go across this way. And as soon as I stepped on the scene, it seemed like Andrea was starting to lose her marbles. Oh no. Okay, I did it right. Oh my gosh. I just I almost I thought I did the panels wrong. I was about to cry. Okay, they’re fine. Everything’s fine. You scared me. Jeez. Gosh, that scared me. I thought I just cut all those panels wrong. I cut the first one wrong and Riley was like, “Did you measure to the end?” I was like, “You think so?” And I literally had measured it wrong and I cut it like three inches too short. Well, glad to have a daughter who’s got a brain for [Music] real. I need like a table up here. Once I had my roof support securely attached, I was ready to start installing the panels. All right. Looking pretty good, darling. Now I just got to put my panels up there. You screw those in. Your panels. My panels. Put your panels. Hey, look at this, baby. Look at this. All the solar powered lights. But how cute is that? It was like small enough for a playhouse. I mean, I don’t say this very often, but that’s super cute. They look kind of blue, huh? Yeah. [Music] The roof is done. Are you satisfied with your work? Yeah, it looks good. Are you standing up in there? Yes, I’m on the shortest part of it. Wow, I’m tall. Might might bump it on that short side. After finishing the playhouse roof, it was time to move on to some serious landscaping jobs. We had over 10 cubic yards of rocks get delivered to our driveway. Lot of rock, folks. Lot of rock. The plan for landscaping was twofold. Number one, we wanted to clear out this area by the trampoline where the grass never really grows, and we wanted to just go ahead and make it a mulch bed. Second, we wanted to make the area under the playhouse a seating and gathering area. And so, the plan was to fill everything in with two different kinds of rocks. And next, it was time for our biggest project of the entire week, the garden. All right, I’m going to get this opened and use this to build my little a little garden box. It’s so cute. And save about a m a saw. So now I just need to cut all of these to 4 [Music] in. All right. So, these are my little they’re going to be the inside of my corners that I screw these to. We’re getting real fancy here. This is like the easiest build ever. Now, I’ve got some little exterior um deck screws [Music] here. All right. So, I’m going to build two of these. And then once I have those two sides built, I’ll just attach my other boards to the sides of those. And then I’ll have a box. [Music] Okay. So, I want like a little top part on these. That’s going to make it look a little bit [Music] fancier. There. Look how much better that looks, though. Look how cute that is. I just need to put it together. All right. I’m going to put pocket holes in the back of my two short boards just so that I can attach them to these really quick and then then I can put it together. It’s all I need my workbench for. And I have my little Craig jig attached to it so I don’t want to pull it out for this. Our garage is actually not as messy as it looks. We have some furniture that we’re giving away that is accumulating stuff on it right there. So, I feel like I need to defend my mess in here. [Music] [Music] Woo! All right. Box complete. It almost makes me wish I was building all of them from scratch so they all looked that pretty. [Music] [Music] The plan was to build one new box and then add matching trim to the two other existing boxes. But an unfortunate mistake meant I had a bigger project on my hands than I had originally anticipated. Oh, seriously? What? No bueno. What? Why is it a different size? Who built these? I just measured that one. I thought they were all the same. Well, this is like a short quick project that’s not being short or quick. A woman on a mission. Like maybe I’ll just build new ones from scratch and then all new ones. Stain them by hand. These won’t be that hard to stain. H. It is a good looking box. Dean went to pick up the kids. And I decided that I’m just going to rebuild the two extra garden boxes back there since they’re different sizes and I didn’t realize that. I just want them all to be the [Music] same. I built my other two boxes. You’re so industrious. [Music] I’m going to go ahead and do the first coat on my little boxes here. Good idea. [Music] This is our ugly little garden. And as you can see, it has a lot of weird stuff in it, like this absolute beauty of an air conditioning unit that hasn’t been used in about 20 years. Completely overgrown garden beds, this old smash can, Robin Hood’s lost arrow, this old sheet of plywood, a bunch of random rocks. I have no idea where they came from. And most mysterious of all, this weird thing. Can someone actually tell me what this is? How How do we get this? Who Who made this? I don’t know. So, we’re gonna give this thing a bold new transformation. So, step number one is basically just clearing out all the junk. The heck? Ever wonder where that extra fence stain went? Andrea just put it right over here. Oh, gross. Hey, I know this is a little second grade, but it literally looked like it just diarrhea. To get this board, I will have to step in the D. I tricked you. I’m actually going this way. Ow. Knew I’d get a splinter. Go, you big beefy boy. You ever get plants from a store and then you plant them and then you just stack up all the buckets? It’s time for the final boss. But seriously though, can someone tell me like what this is and why why would you make that? Comment below what was happening here. Okay, weight test this thing. Probably about 80 pounds, I would say. Not even sure why. All right. Well, if I’m 100% honest, I have no idea where these bricks came from or why they were placed here. All right. Well, let’s put all the big boys into the barrel. Huh. Oh my gosh, dude. This boy needs to lay off the Taco Bell. And then these weigh like 2 lbs. And this looks like a hobbit’s hat or something. Okay. I don’t know what this is. It kind of looks like a Yeah. I don’t think that’s its original intended purpose, but sure is shaped like a drum. Whoa, buddy. Well, guys, got some bad news. I stepped in something. And when it sticks on the shoe like that, you know it can only be one of two options. Gum or poop. So, next in the clean out, I need to use my blue guy to clear out all these random rocks that who knows where they came from. Maybe the flood. I don’t [Music] know. [Music] Yes. What is happening? What is this? No piece of pizza. What the heck? I’m thinking maybe this is like a T-Rex skull probably. And what are these? This place is a mystery box, man. This is like where the old owners just dumped all their old stuff or something. I don’t know. Something here. Careful. Careful. No way. Somebody was having them a good time back here. Folks didn’t want Ma to catch them. I’m going to set this one aside so it doesn’t get smashed. Okay. Piece of wood. Awesome. Yep. A Lego brick. Perfect. Yeah, that makes sense. old can carefully. What do you guys think? Maybe like a minute made lemon lime. What are we talking here? Anybody? You know, when I put this with this, it’s it’s all starting to come together. Robin Hood, you’re a legend. But please pick up your arrows. Thank you. All right, big boy. Well, folks, what a transformation has already taken place in this little garden. Can you believe it? Not really, but it’s about to start getting crazy, so it’s time to put the gloves on, brother. Okay, I will be attempting to remove these garden boxes, but holy smokes. I don’t really even know how to do it. Let’s start by seeing if I can just pry these bad boys up. Maybe just give the old shake. All right. Fascinating. Look at that. All right, let’s try for round two, shall we? Just give it the old shimmy. Should come right off. Oh, yeah. Oh, that’s perfect. Yeah. So, the next step is to basically level out this entire space. And I’m honestly not sure how difficult this is going to be because who knows what I’ll find buried under the ground. And yes, I can speak to you from anywhere because I’m using a microphone. You know, I bet you’re probably thinking to yourself right now, what has my life come to? I’m watching Dean Garden. That’s a great question. I can’t answer that for you, but I’m glad you’re here. Hopefully this is adding some real spice to your life. Gosh, I love me a good square shovel. Come here, baby. Oh gosh, I’m tired. Number two. Oh, I know that was a bit of a weird stretch, but Oh, so satisfying. You know what? Why don’t we try the rake this time? Huh? Going to need a harder rig. [Music] Oh wow, what a transformation. I feel like it could use one good raking raking raking out to kind of even everything out. [Music] Get out of here. Okay, quitting time. I’m going to need some water. All right, done. It looks so much better, but there’s just a little bit that’s not quite flat. But you’re doing so good. Oh, great. [Music] All right. Done. Right. It’s It is done. It just needs to be rad on the edges. It’s kind of like this. But again, it looks so good. I’m like, man, I really like not doing this. [Music] You’re the man. You’re the man. If you don’t say done, it’s done. I’m done. You are done. Good job. Well, I mean, you’re not done. You’re done leveling. Way to go. Amazing. Let’s get this tarp on. That snake. Okay. Okay. You came on. I was going to say primitive tools. Get it. That’s it. Get it. [Music] Come on, man. Ow. [Music] Perfect. Just going to give it a little snipola. What? Frogs out here. Snip. Snip. Snip. Ola. I love snipping fabric. It’s so fun. Roll number two. My number two. Oh, this is looking good. Look at the precision. Oh. Oh. Why did I not discover that method before? All right. Well, we need one more line of tarp. Okay. So, I’m going to have to cut around this stump. Do a custom fabrication on my fabric. Yes. This is taking a painful amount of time. Ah, for the love of Pete. Come on, scissors. [Music] I tell you one thing, you wouldn’t want me being your barber cuz you’d be there all day long sitting in that chair listening to me tell bad jokes and getting a bad [Music] haircut. Ow. Okay. Can no one just wrap me out to Andrea? Tell her that I did an amazing job if you wouldn’t mind. I mean, can I just get a little credit here? Look at the little plant feature that I left in. I didn’t take it out. It’s going to look amazing under the gravel. This is honestly the job I’ve been dreading. Let’s make it happen. I got to move this pile all the way to the backyard. One wheelbarrow load at a time. All right, let’s make a run. It’s kind of a long walk over there. Do DIY, they say. You’re going to love it, they say. Well, you know what? Did I say that’s a load of All right. Kind of like a maze getting out of here. Oh, moving the mound of dirt from my front yard all the way back to my backyard. Wish we could have told the dump truck driver just drop it in the back so I don’t move. Have to move. But to do so, he would have to break some power lines and smash part of our garage. So, we figured it would be better just to dump it in the driveway pad. A gosh. So, you could say that a big dump truck took a big old dump in my yard. Now, I’m cleaning up his All right, two down. Here’s the real question. How many loads does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? I mean, how many ways does it take to fill up this garden bed? Let’s count together now, shall we? Three, four, five, 6 7 8 9 10 11 diaper yeti 6804 95. All right, I’m done counting. That’s all the crushed granite poured. I guess the only thing to do now is break rake break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra rake ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra rake break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break rake ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break rake break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra rake break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break ra break rake break break break break break ra break break ra break break ra break break ra break break break break break All right, that is how you spread a lot of gravel and get really sweaty and stinky. Next [Music] task. That shoe nearly died. All right, while the girls are finishing up finishing details on the playhouse, my next mission is to take this Minecraft block and uh res-saw part of the yard. Right, Jude? Yeah, we’re going to mine it and replace it in the yard. Okay. But before I lay the saw in this area, we got this little valley going on right here. I want to actually, how do you say that? Um, level it. Move. Ow, that’s a rock. That guy out of here. My lower back is getting like the workout of the year. Let’s get the rate. There’s a reason why they call it yard work. You know what I [Music] mean? All right. And that’s when you say good enough. Hopefully it doesn’t rain. It’s looking a little cloudy up there. All right. Let’s get our first load of grass. Where shall we begin? All right. Thinking maybe over here. Move this way. Yeah. All right. All right, kids. Let’s count together. 1 2 9 113. Lasagna Mario Tubity 5D19. Sparkling water 10. And that’s how you count to 10, kids. Not really. Kids, don’t listen to Mr. Dean. That’s not the way to count. You kids want to see some [Music] magic. See, kids, magic. Editing magic. That’s the best kind of magic. See, kids, with the magic of editing, you too can make a 2-hour job look like it only took 10 seconds. It’s super fun and kind of depressing. Probably wondering why it’s getting so dark out. Well, there’s a storm brewing, but I’m almost done. I got to finish this job, man. All right. I know I didn’t finish absolutely everything, but the rain’s really starting to come down. And you know what? I will take it. That’s progress. I guess that’s my sign to stop, huh? The next day, the sun was back out and the girls were ready to put the finishing touches on the playhouse. We’re going to install some hammock chairs. I just ordered these little hooks on Amazon that had a really big weight limit. I don’t remember what it is. So, they should be plenty strong, but they came with the right kind of bolts and everything. All right, this looks like a good height. I should probably test this out, huh? Now, we can hang your chair up. And there could be one for me and one for you. These will be the girls chairs. All right, hammock chair number two. We might need more of these. Woohoo! We’ve got two hammock chairs. What do you think, Riley? Um, I think this is the best project y’all have done besides my room. That is pretty awesome. This is insane. I got these solar powered lights at Costco. I’m so excited about these. Feel like there’s so many cool solar powered options now. And then we don’t have to have an extension [Music] cord. All right, I’m going to go ahead and attach this. Uh we’ve got clouds right now, but we were looking at this yesterday and this side of the playhouse gets some good sun. So, I think this is probably a good spot to attach our little solar panel things. Yay! We have lights. They look so cute, too. What do you think? They look great. I think this is Well, this hard to say this is my favorite. I was going to say I think this might be my favorite little area, but that’s a little bit hard to say cuz the top is so cute. Look how cute these are. But these are solar powered solar powered little cute outdoor lights. And they’re so cute. But we’re going to attach them inside the little house in there. And then we’ll put the little solar panel out the window. Look at this little guy. The kids picked him out. Wait, what? And the plant is his hair. Isn’t he cute? That is super cute. It feels like you should go in a kid’s playhouse. He looks like a Fred or something. Fred? Yeah. Yeah, something like that. Are you just trying to make the cutest playhouse of all time or what are we doing here? [Music] This is the cutest little playhouse I’ve ever [Music] seen. After weeks and weeks of hard work, we are finally finished with this backyard. And our whole family is loving how it turned out. Full stop. Can’t believe I live in your thoughts. I think about you all the time. Morning, evening, and midnight. Such a wonderful delight for go. Give up everything that I own. Yeah, I’d give it all up now just to be with you somehow. Unexpected love was found. You’re the rose in a [Music] garden. And it shows if I’m [Music] hest. You’re the leaves in mid August. And I’ve come out here to say that I love you. Ooh, man. How incredible does this backyard look? Our kids are completely stoked on it and we’re completely stoked on it because our backyard has undergone a huge transformation over the last few weeks and it’s become like this focal point for our entire family. We spend so much time out there and we just love it. Yeah. Yeah. I’m pretty sure every single day since we finished it, we have eaten a meal outside whether it’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, sometimes like multiple meals. But it is so nice and the weather’s been good. So that really helps. But even like without our encouraging it, the kids will go and like eat their breakfast or their lunch out in the playhouse or in the hammocks underneath or they’ll grab a book and go sit in the hammock chairs or the hammock and like it was so great. Yeah, we did a boys night out there the other night. Just all four of us boys hanging out talking under the the girls were gone in an event under the lights and it was just so fun. It I love being outside with our family whether that’s Yeah. hanging out doing meals. It just feels like such rich time together, especially when the weather is nice right now. It’s such a win. But let’s kind of rehash what it took to get this backyard with into shape. First, we started with the pool deck, which we had to completely spray off and then repaint. Then we pressure washed and painted the whole playhouse, which was quite a bit larger than That was a lot of work. Then after that, we went to the fence. Guess what? More pressure washing. Yay. My back and arms are so strong. Then two coats of stain on there. And then we got smart and we hired out a landscaping crew to come and landscape because that was how many yards of just the big rock was it like seven or seven and then three yards of pea gravel and then I don’t even know how many bags of mulch but they had like eight strong guys that were working so hard for a whole day and a half. I’m like that would have taken us dude with just the two of us. It would have taken like 2 weeks. two weeks for like a little blip of footage. We decided to save our backs and our sanity and to be able to post more videos. That was like the best Saturday ever was sitting here drinking my coffee and watching all that work get done. But yeah, we forgot to mention they fixed our fence so that we could then stain the fence. Then of course you have the little side garden with the gravel that’s been such a mess for so long and now it looks good. And then you cap that bad boy off with the finished playhouse. We got the roof. We got the little sconce. We got all the furniture going in there. All the solar powered lights out there. Just amazing. So, from before to after, this backyard’s looking way different. Great job on all the hard work. So, we’re going to live it up. We’re going to soak up spring. You guys do the same. And we’ll catch you in another video very [Music] soon. Look at this bird. He’s checking it out. He’s loving it. Like what? This bird. He’s like, “Love what you guys have done to the place.” Hey. Hey. Where is he? Look at him. Where? He is excited about the work that’s being done here. Grant’s going to think I’m an idiot. Our neighbors are going to think you’re so weird. Dude, if our neighbors are watching, they’re probably listening. They probably hear you. Just Not even kidding right now. Someone’s on the other side of this fence using this swimming like a They’re cleaning their pool. I can see the I’m so embarrassed. It’s super embarrassing. We need a backlight real bad. It’s fine, babe. A hair a hair light. It like just makes like, you know, outline. It’s fine. It’s fine. Okay. I got to stop yawning. Just comment below if you feel like you’re in need of like a hair light. You know what I mean? This blister on my hand. If you feel my pain. What? The blister is so big. I had grease splatter up on my thumb and burned me really bad. Now it’s a big blister. It looks like a wart. It does. That’s what I said yesterday. You’ve been handling frogs. Did frogs give you warts? Really? No. I thought that’s what they used to tell us as kids. Oh, you probably got that from a frog. I remember hearing I think that was a bunch of I think that’s probably not true. A bunch of baloney. All right. You ready? Are you ready? I’m ready. Then what are you looking down for? Are you looking to people to our friends at home watching? I’m looking at my giant wart blaster. Can you see my thumb? It’s burned. Okay. It hurts so bad. Doesn’t hurt now. Okay. The camera’s been rolling for 2 minutes and 12 seconds and we’ve literally said nothing. So much of nonsense. Hey, we could have some of the leftover fried shrimp that burned my finger. It’s true. For lunch. You want to do it? No. I kind of want to go out to eat. Oh, okay. It’s so pretty. I want to go eat out. We could eat it outside in our backyard. Okay. Okay. Let’s start talking.