I Built My DREAM Backyard Oasis in JUST 2 DAYS! (Full Transformation)

I transformed my backyard and saved $10,000 in just two days. We built this DIY water feature start to finish with a Koi pond and waterfall in one weekend. This backyard transformation first began with a smokeless fire pit, a stamped concrete patio, an outdoor kitchen, a flagstone path, and a secret outdoor theater were built. We built this pond using a pond kit we purchased from @TEAMAquascape. Now, we have a tranquil water feature we can enjoy from inside and outside.

💧The kit I bought 👉 Aquascape DIY Pond Kit – https://amzn.to/4jMZpi0

👉 Sheds Are Expensive. Do This Instead! https://youtu.be/5e492omzadw

😡 Burglars Hate Me For Showing You This https://youtu.be/4IZOu15fE1M

😬 My Neighbors Hate My Backyard https://youtu.be/qeFp9EetBdc

🌴 The ULTIMATE Backyard Transformation! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCK5XUSikQGopJcdI33dZRGLjNwMLUdyd

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I hope to inspire you to create your own projects at home. If I can do it so can you! I want you to know that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Learn how to become self-reliant and have fun doing it!

i completely transformed my backyard in just two days and saved over $10,000 by doing it myself I’ll show you exactly how I did it including all of the mistakes I made along the way Well I think we celebrated too early cuz uh this is a mess This is something that I just Landscape pros are going to hate me for showing you this I want my mommy Welcome to Hacksman y’all In the past year alone we built a smokeless fire pit with a stamped concrete patio constructed a timber frame pavilion with an outdoor kitchen laid down a gorgeous flagstone pathway and even built a secret outdoor theater But there’s a big problem What is it what is it boy it still feels like something is missing A certain janiqua something we can enjoy from the patio the screened porch or even from inside the house So we’re digging a massive pond and building an epic waterfall in our backyard Hey are you nuts we have alligators and water moccasins Okay so maybe we dial it back maybe a notch or 12 A little smaller more budget friendly No maneing reptiles Perfect We’re digging a small pond and building a waterfall feature We chose this spot for the pond because it’s perfect We can see it from inside We can see it from the screened in porch And we can see it from the fire pit area But let’s be honest okay the reason we really chose this spot is because we don’t know what to do with it This flower bed just stays a mess This is going to solve that problem First things first though we’ve got to dig up nearly every plant that currently calls this space home and relocate it to a new [Music] location My gosh And really what we want this to be is like a kidney shape Really No Yeah No Sort of No kidney That’s not Kidney shape it is Well kidneyish Okay maybe kidney bean I laid out my garden hose and went around it with the brightest spray paint I had And then I pulled the hose up So waterfall right there Basin With the waterfall location decided I can go ahead and start assembling that waterfall feature I don’t want to go to the point where I’m tightening it and then all of a sudden I start loosening it You get at that point you’re like tighter tighter tighter Oh too tight too tight We’ve We’re now loosening I actually ordered this entire pond kit that includes everything you need except for rocks off of Amazon and I’ll put a link in the description I marked the basin location in the ground and then got to digging Let’s check for level Oh low That’s pretty good Got to go up a little bit All right Cam You want to tamp this careful Hold on Look at the little guy He says “Don’t crush me.” So sweet Right on the money All right we’re good With everything level we back filled around the basin and tamped it down tight Oh hey you’re uh you’re probably wondering “How am I going to save $10,000 on this project?” Well it’s very simple It’s called sweat equity Let’s ask Skynet I mean uh chat GPT how much a professional would charge to build a pond like this in my backyard Oops sorry Let me just get that off there real quick I’m pretty sure our future overlords know the answer to everything So let’s find out How much would this cost me so according to the all knowing AI at a minimum you’re looking at $7,350 on up to possibly even $18,000 And of course that’s going to vary depending on your region This pond however is going to be a fraction of that Now one thing to remember before you do a project like this is have proper tools Kim’s got a spade shovel I do not because I can’t find my other one So I’m using the wrong type of shovel It’s going to make a little bit harder for me Sorry Watch out There’s a hole right there Kim I think we should do this I’ve been watching those primitive building channels on YouTube Those guys just use a stick I don’t think so Yeah Oh it’s No it’s 100% 100% fact 100% fact They come in with shovels or excavators It’s It’s the internet They don’t lie on the internet Kim tagged out so Tyler her backup shovel operator could come in and help me finish digging this hole Oh and look who’s back because it was taking us too long to dig this Now that I’ve dug down like the depth of one shovel one shovel Now that I’ve dug down about the depth of one shovel completely by myself I might add I think what I’m going to do is go ahead and check for a level because this side is obviously higher than there’s a slope down from the house and we’re actually adding to that So I’m going to have to dig deeper on this side than this side to get it level The water’s going to sit level So the shelves inside need to be level It’s actually pretty good I mean shoot Look at that That’s not bad Not bad at all Next we dug another hole within the first hole about 10 in deep and about 10 in from the outside edge This shelf that goes around the whole thing it’s kind of leaning in a little bit So once I put rocks on here eventually they’re going to want to roll down in here So I’m just going to take the shovel and I’m going to uh make sure that that’s nice and flat So if anything it’ll want to the rocks will want to roll or move or slide whatever to the edge but not towards the middle Now that we finished digging out this pond completely by hand just like our ancestors would have done I’ve got to set this uh skimmer basin down in place So let me go ahead and dig out this hole as well This is going to be the low point of the pond This is the lowest point of the outside And we want the water to be I don’t know I think like 3 in below that And main shoot I think we got a problem here actually Oh no Right there I’ve gone so low That’s uh we got a problem If I put that at that level the water level’s going to be right here And look where that comes Right to there That ain’t no good This the top of this has to be the top of this basin right here Are you zoomed in i’m zoomed in Top of this basin right here It needs to be like 1 inch above water level So we’re one inch high over there So we take that one inch lower Then we’re going to go down 3 in for the water That’s 4 in Then one inch below the top So 5 in So I want 5 in below this 2×4 to fall like right there Golly So basically what we did was we chose the worst spot to put this pond Okay The most difficult spot Is that my thought yeah this is where you told me you wanted it We did eventually figure out the proper height for the skimmer And then it was time to install the pond liner And before you install the actual liner itself there’s this I don’t know what you’d call it a pre-lininer Anyway this acts as a cushioning to go under the actual main pond liner Oh you want to go grab the liner go grab Go Oh you got it I knew you’d I should have known what that you’d be determined to get it Oh yeah This is a little bit like putting sheets on a bed trying to figure out which way it goes Here we go No no no That’s This is being longer so we need to go that way with that long piece Jump Kind of get it out as flat as we can Now we’re almost at the fun part I mean as if as if this wasn’t already a bunch of fun The fun part Yeah is coming up I love digging holes We’re almost ready to rock out but before we can do that I have to go ahead and attach this pond liner to the skimmer box 3 days earlier Now you might be able to complete this pond and waterfall project in one weekend However that’s not to say it doesn’t require a little pre-planning to figure everything out beforehand Oh that’s a big boulder drop out All right dang it I think this would be big enough Yeah those be good Good rock right there That’s like a good waterfall rock Yeah I like that one I love all the colors in this one Look at all that Yeah these these are actually probably too big These these are actually probably too big Too big But like it has all the colors and stuff It’s got a little bit of white right there too Yeah I like that white Yeah that’s pretty But I like the variation of colors Like these are just tan and boring These are kind of cool looking There’s some kind of sharp ones in here though Slightly sharp This one it’s like blue and green Yeah I don’t know what these are called but they’re neat looking Yeah these are pretty much This is exactly like what we have out front This one has some good size stuff in it But what I’m trying to figure out with this is if we get this like how are we going to move i don’t even know how We’ve got the rocks picked out but there’s a problem Tim the owner is explaining to me how his delivery truck is currently broken down [Music] So if his truck’s down what are you going to do i might have a plan Three days later I really need a deck over tilt trailer or a deck over a dump trailer But until I find one I found these guys who were able to deliver this load of rocks for me Now if you’re a manufacturer of said trailer call [Music] me Normally when you order something like these pallets of rock from a company they’ll be able to deliver them and offload them for you This just happened to be an unusual case and fortunately for me I happen to have a skid steer Now having said that the tipping load for this skid steer is right around 7,000 lb And my forks are rated for 4,500 lb And as you’ll see in a minute this pallet of rock is going to push this skid steer to the limit I can feel the skid steer starting to tip so I had to drop that pallet quickly Oh crap Man when you went on that concrete that was sketch really sketchy and scary cuz it went woo Yeah just a little bit tip thingy That’s creepy What’s it like out there for you peasants without air conditioning oh wow It’s time to install the rocks But we’ve got a small problem A bit of a medical emergency sort of Tyler’s transformed into a crab before our eyes today He’s already He’s already put that on Put that on a little too late Oh there you go You can switch off Thank you He ain’t got them leather arms yet You’re like a lobster Oh crap Woo There’s a there’s a definite line of delineation there sir Yeah You feel this feel this Does it feel Do you want to get that huge boulder first so we can put that right Oh you want that that big boulder i want the big boulder That’s a nice boulder It is a nice boulder That’s a nice boulder Um I don’t know how I’m going to move that boulder Kim Well put the boulder right here and we can just we can uh shimmy it and roll it over there Oh okay We’ll just shimmy it Yeah there’s three of us We can do this The uh the thousand lb boulder Tyler We’re going to shimmy it Oh yeah It’s very heavy I guess we’ll start Where all right This is going to have rocks up here So you want the rocks that are right here to poke up so they can stop these rocks Oh this is a good one This is a good one Tyler Tyler Pick it up Pick it up Tyler pick it up Tyler you can do it You can do it Do it Do it Do it now Do it now Lift it Do it now Don’t watch your Watch your toes Watch your toes Tyler Don’t do it Don’t throw your back out Put your Put it down Oh crap Put it down Do it Do it Put it over there Do not fall Hold on Hold on Wait Wait I’ll get in the pile You passed it to me Oh my god You’re so heavy Here’s your glove back Oh my gosh Put that one on the outside That’s such a What what it’s such a pretty round one Leave it for the outside Oh my gosh It is I would have liked to known that before I put it in the plant [Music] Try again [Music] This rock right here if it fell on your leg your leg that does this That’s right I want my mommy Darn it I’m using these pebbles to create a base that I can set the larger rocks on so that when I set those larger rocks down they’ll kind of lock in place and won’t roll around Now I ordered a whole pallet of these and I can tell you right now really all you’re going to need is several bags of this I ordered way too much so I’ll use what I didn’t use on another project in the future You can do it You got this Way to go babe Come on big boy Look at you Oh my gosh Oh my gosh Good lord Adam get down there with him Careful guys All righty then Definitely the bottom This is definitely the bottom [Laughter] Oh Lord Adam [Music] Okay Wait wait wait wait Okay All right Pull that Pull that out from there [Applause] [Music] For some of these bigger rocks I actually used extra pieces of the pond liner or pond liner cushion for extra cushioning for those rocks Oh Oh I was like “Oh look Perfect Okay never mind It’s starting out so good.” Do you need help now no I’d rather suffer for areas like this of the pond where I just couldn’t make the rocks fit to the shape that was already dug out or if I wanted to reshape it a little bit We just shoved more dirt back behind the pond liner Now it’s time to try to move some of these bigger rocks in place Now I know what you’re saying if you’re watching this You’re probably thinking “Well fine for you I don’t have a tractor or a skid steer However you can rent a tractor a mini skid steer or a regular size skid steer And they’ll cost you anywhere from $100 to $300 a day And you really should only need one for a day if you need one at all You know like that’s if you’re using these big rocks like I am So my tractor’s not strong enough to pick up this giant rock but the skid steer wheel So here’s the thing I can get it back there but how are we going to place this by the tractor I could drive up over the rocks I don’t know about this Roll it I don’t Oh you know what h I mean I could risk driving over the the things So I can definitely get these giant rocks back to the pond in the backyard using the skid steer but there’s a big risk I could end up destroying our flag stone pathway we worked so hard laying down last year And Kim loves that flag stone pathway so much [Music] [Music] Oh so I mean we can do it We can lay it in like this and put rocks right there I was thinking this would be faced in but I mean it is a job so this would be fine don’t you think well I mean if we’re going to do it might as well get it right Oh look at you Let’s turn it the other way I hear snaps though Yeah we go No no no Wow That’s not good Oh no At least not busted yet Hopefully it [Music] doesn’t [Music] Yikes Okay [Music] There That’s not what I wanted to happen [Music] So bad I didn’t crack though Okay Yeah We’ll uh we’ll fix that later One thing the pebbles do besides just you know filling in and looking nice is they almost act as mortar in between the bigger rocks to help everything lock down tighter and they also cover the pond liner to protect it from like UV light and plus just not seeing that black liner in there It looks just looks more natural So I’m going to pour these over these cracks right here So I kind of shove them up in there and put them in these holes But I don’t want to cover all my rocks all my bigger rocks with those I just want them in between or else it’ll just like look like a giant uh thing of pebbles here Yeah Yeah It won’t look won’t look as natural So according to the directions apparently the next step I should do is before I finish is go ahead and rinse off all of these rocks because other Look how pretty that is because I got distracted because otherwise all of this dirt is going to have to run through the main pump um once we get done and that could take forever So I’ll show you what we’re going to do That is really pretty They’re lovely See how dirty it is yeah Pure mud Yeah So we want to try to get all that out Let me get out all the dirt first I’m pretty sure Kim or Tyler threw in here I know I know It couldn’t have been me There’s already a wolf spider in here Are you serious yeah cuz you know how they love dirt No way Yeah No there’s not Yeah there is He is He’s down there Wait what see him right there no You messing with me no he’s right there Tip of my finger You’re going to have to take it I can’t see it Oh my gosh Are you serious haven we’re going to go take this out So to get this water out of here I’m going to use a little sump pump that I have here Now apparently you can just use the regular pump It’s just going to take longer But I’m going to use this sump pump cuz that way uh it’ll clear all this out and we’ll use this hose to run this water somewhere where we don’t care about where it goes Seems weird that you’d be able to stick something electrical down in water and it not hurt you But we’ll see Not even funny Holy crap Adam Well I was just seeing if it were working And hey we got a fountain Woo that’s cold That’s cold That’s [Music] cold Love it Now following the instructions that came with the pond kit I’m just going to go ahead and attach the pond liner to the waterfall basin Down Okay keep them coming This kit came with this pond and waterfall foam So what I’m going to do is I’m going to fill in all these little cracks so that when the water comes out of the waterfall it doesn’t just pour down into these little crevices and we lose it all So I’m actually going to kind of use this again as some mortar and fill in those cracks Then I’m going to go over those cracks with the little pebbles So we filled it up and actually I’m pretty happy with how how high it came up What do you think Kim i think it looks good Okay Well here’s the moment of truth Let’s try the waterfall We can’t really tweak this until we actually see what it does I hear sounds Look at that Oh man I was afraid it wouldn’t make any sound Oh wow That’s so neat That is amazing I like it I love it That’s pretty freaking amazing Yeah I love it I like it a lot Give me some skin Everything’s working That’s great news But there’s two big problems Number one is this cover for the skimmer is kind of an eyesore We don’t want to see this this just this black plastic cover sitting here all the time Not particularly natural looking And also the waterfall again a big plastic tub Like we went through all this effort to hide the black liner that’s plasticky looking I don’t want to like have these plastic bits sitting out here looking like doodoo So here I got a plan for [Music] that I happen to have some of this rapid set mortar mix no affiliation with them but this stuff is freaking amazing I have this left over from whenever I made the fake rocks out back I’ve got this orange cement color And Kim loves the color orange on rocks No No Oh that’s it All right Come on That’s enough Holy smoke That’s too much Kim Whatever While I’m mixing this up go grab me some dirt This mortar mix will start to harden in about 15 to 20 minutes so you got to work pretty quickly with it Just pour it on like kind of sprinkle it on Oh yeah Tell you what look at that variation That looks like a freaking rock to me Does that not look like a rock yeah it does Like a rock I think it’s starting about to start raining Yeah All right The rain is coming All right I think this is probably set up enough but we got to go get the rest of this stuff up out back Oh crap What started out as a drizzle turned into a hard rain which turned into an insane downpour of like 5 in of rain It was insane overnight Well I think we celebrated too early cuz uh this is a mess I mean one rainstorm and our pond is now a mud pit But you were supposed to check the weather right that was your job right never heard of that job I never I I never remember to check the weather forecast See what had happened was whenever we dug this pond out we threw all the dirt over here onto the side by the house But since we don’t have any gutters and since we got 5 ines of rain overnight it turned all of that dirt into a mudslide overnight No problem though Kim and Riley got it cleaned up and moved to a different location We should have done that to begin with before this rain makes this overflow anymore Man this is something that I just never even gave a thought to I ended up having to drain and refill drain and refill drain and refill numerous times before I could get this clean I’m going to add some bigger rocks and just some more rocks to the back of this so that I can kind of create a burm to prevent anything from coming down in here into the pond in the future And then I’ll also back fill all of that with that pond foam Now since Tyler wasn’t here to help today I ended up moving these rocks using the good oldfashioned caveman method I think we’re pretty much settled on where all the rocks go I think it looks pretty good but the girls do not think it looks good They think it needs one more giant rock Okay that’s good I thought it’d be a really good idea to put straps around this rock That way we could position it more easily and I could just drive straight across the walkway without damaging it But I was wrong That hurt my soul Well it’s okay That couldn’t have gone any worse That’s okay We’ll put that in We’ll put dirt over that It’s okay I’m about ready to see if I roll this You cannot roll that Hold on Oh Adam It’s going to go on the filter Oh my gosh Oh my gosh Okay You look out Got this We got this I don’t think he can You want to go down shimmy Shimmy What are you doing shim Shimmy Shimmy [Music] Shimmy Think we need to It is facing the wrong way Adam is facing the wrong way Holy crap Are you serious 30 minutes later Let me see Let me see Let me see Yeah that’s nice I’ve I’ve torn up and cut up all of the pond liner and the cushioning or whatever you want to call it So I’m going to go around this whole thing and I’m going to put some of this pond foam all the way And then I’ll come back and uh and cover that with dirt or grass or whatever And especially on that back side because that’s higher I want to put a good bit of it back there And we’re going to cover it You won’t see it And it’ll keep all the stuff from hopefully keep this from happening again The pond is complete but we still need to add some finishing touches to dress everything up I was going to say it might be hot All right my dear I do believe our work is complete I love it Yeah I love it too Yeah it’s wonderful Give me some tac All right Thank you for all your hard work Love you I love you Building this pond and waterfall was a ton of work and we made some pretty big mistakes that I hope you’ll be able to learn from But in the end it was totally worth it to have this beautiful waterfall feature in our backyard that we can enjoy from both the outside and the inside alike This pond turned out way better than I even hoped it would turn out All in I spent about $3,200 That’s with the the pond kit That’s with the rocks the sod the mulch everything And where you live the rocks might be a lot less expensive For us rocks are expensive because they have to be trucked in to our location Also if you had to rent something like a skid steer or a mini skid steer tack another 300 So let’s say tops you’re at $3,500 and you’re still at a fraction of what a professional would charge to build a pond like this You’ve seen the amazing results but click here to see how this entire backyard transformation began including how to make faux boulders using that mortar mix I showed you earlier That’ll save you a ton of money and save your back as well