Ryan's 1st Birthday Present

Our friends Theresa and Martin had a 1st birthday party for their son Ryan today so Tyler made him this little wooden elephant toy.

Rebuilding Front Steps

Our front steps had seen some better days, the weather was starting to take its toll. There were some boards that were starting to rot in places. So we took the opportunity to refresh things this weekend and replace the boards. We also made the steps a little narrower in the process so that they lined up with the walkway going up to the house. As originally built they did not line up with anything. Here is a picture of the steps before (with the first couple treads removed).

After all of the old treads were removed we snapped a line and cut to the new edge.

And here they are once they all had been cut.

The stringer that was on the far end was cleaned up to be reused.

Once the stringer was cleaned up it was put back into place on the new end of the steps.

 

Kristen was able to get some paint on the treads before they were cut.

Once they were cut to length and width they were painted again.

And here is the finished product with the little helper at the top of the stairs. They look almost the same as the originals except for two things. The new stairs are a little narrower and the treads have a 3/4 inch reveal around the front and sides.

Grass is growing

 The warm weather has paid off and all of the grass has started to come up. You can see in this picture a light dusting of green.

Here is a closeup of the grass. It is only about one inch tall at this point.

Finishing up the pavers

Most of the pavers were done but we still had some to wrap around the back side of the house. This is an area where we are thinking that our grill will go. In the first picture you can see that the sand has been leveled out onto the gravel base and I have started to lay the first couple courses.

 

A little bit further along. You can see the pieces that have been left our because they need to be cut to fit. You can also see in this view the pressure treated wood that was placed between the fence posts on the left and you can barely see the paver edger strip on the far end.

And a view from the other direction. The pavers that are standing on end are my way of keeping track of how many pavers I need to use to fill in. I did not want to get to the end and have holes to fill and no pavers to cut!

And after all of the blocks have been cut and filled in.

And lastly once the sand has been swept into the cracks. We will have to do this a couple more times when this stuff settles.

Other than some cleanup and some small other projects this really does it for the back yard area. Now that it is starting to cool off I will have to move back inside with the next projects.