The Glorious DIY Backyard Patio Project.

Before and After
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

So the last while I've been toiling on my backyard patio project.

After the successes of our front yard project last year, the boss ordered a repeat! We went through countless revisions of the layout and finally arrived at a designed that we can both live with.

In place of shoddy lawn, we now have a new interlock patio that is about 300 sq-ft in size!

As usual, the entire project was photo-blogged on Flickr. Enjoy.

Manual aeration of the lawn

Manual aeration of the lawn
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We've had the lawn for, what, almost 4 years now. It is due for an aeration.

Aerating the lawn involves removing plugs of soil (4" deep or so, size bigger than a dime) from various places of the lawn to promote air and water to go to the roots of the remaining grassroots.

Usually lawn-care companies drive by / call / spam about services. They can probably aerate your lawn in no time, but they charge tens, if not hundreds of dollars and use a power aerator.

Instead, Mr. Self-Torture decides to use a manual coring aerator to do the job. Every foot or so, I push the tool into the soil and every push I remove 2 plugs. Repeat ad nauseum, until entire lawn is covered.

Took me an hour to cover all 4 pieces of my lawn in the front, and another half-hour to pick up all the plugs. (normally the plugs would dissolve after heavy rainfall, but they interfere with my reel mower, so I remove them.)

DIY Recessed Light Installation

The IC-rated pot light installed inside vapour barrier tub
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

The dear wife nagged me about wanting pot lights for our living room, which our builder never installed a ceiling fixture.

We asked around, and the cheapest is $80-110 a pop, but they require that we install at least 6 lights.

That's too expensive for us. So, I did it myself.

The process was documented on flickr, as usual!

Baby Fence Mod

Baby Fence Mod
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

So now that Horten's crawling and standing, we need to fence out the stairs so he does do the Humpty Dumpty.

Tyatt found these clear baby fence from Zellers and I'm happy to attach them.. However, our fence posts presents a number of problems.. one, the height of the pressure pads on the opposite side of the hinge matches with the middle round part of the post, so it doesn't pressure mount properly.. and the safety catch thingy cannot be properly attached.. and two, the wife insists that I do not drill into the post.

So, with a few pieces of leftover dimensional lumber, I quickly constructed a piece that wraps around the post and a sacrificial piece for the screws of the safety catch to mount on. The side flaps are there to prevent the main 2x4 from moving towards the stairs (sliding), and the cable ties prevents the piece from falling off the post. Since the gate should be closed most of the time the 2 cable ties should be sufficient.

This jig preserves the post, I think. I think I'll attache foam around the edges of the lumber to prevent Horten from a royal bump in the head.

One of the millions of crane flies in our garden..

One of the millions of crane flies in our garden..
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

A picture of *my* crane flies!

Tiling the outside of our shower

Tiling the outside of our shower
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Finally getting around to find the tile to tile the outside of our shower. What you see here is inexpensive mosaic ceramic tiles from Lowes.. like $5 per sq foot.. awesome.

More...

Crane flies have invaded!

Lately, we noticed large mosquito-like flying insects showing up in large numbers in our lawn and garden. Whenever I walk in the front lawn a large number of them will take flight. The wife is scared to open the windows..

Yesterday we had a nice lade from York Region come over to evaluate our garden for water-efficiency (i.e. plants and lawn that require less water, and best-practices to reduce water use) and I took the opportunity to ask her about the pests.

Anyways we think they are crane flies.


Picture from sustainableliving.blogs.com

Interestingly, the adults don't really feed.. they hatch, and mate, and they die. However, the larvae (called leatherjackets because of their tough skin) are said to be susceptible to nematodes.. so I think we'll give it a try.

Some more links:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profiles0206/leatherjackets.asp
http://www.mushroomfactory.ca/2008/04/leatherjackets-cranefly.html
http://www.pfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/diseases/nursery/pests/european_e.html
http://www.plcao.on.ca/customerTips_insects.html
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/leatherj.htm
http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/Questions/Pest%20Photos%20101%20to%20200.htm (see #180)