I Built My Dream Yard Diy

My wife and I are attempting to make the side yard look much better because it currently looks like crap. We only have a $3,500 budget and since everything is so expensive, we're gonna have to get creative to make this side yard look nice. We rented a tiller so we can break up the dirt to make it easier to move around. The rental ended up costing us 70 bucks for 24 hours, leaving us with $3,430 left to finish this build. Once we finished with the tiller, I used this hand tamper to compress the dirt so we can build a wall. We're going to build a wall! For the base, we're using these paver bases that we picked up from Lowe's and just cutting them down to size with a utility knife. I applied some sand at the base and leveled it out the best that I could, then put the paver base directly on top of it and started building my wall. These paver bases are 13 bucks a piece and we needed 45 of them for this build, which ended up costing us $585, which is kind of expensive, but it ends up saving you a ton of time because you don't have to buy as much leveling sand, so it ends up washing out at the end. Once the first row of blocks was installed, we picked up some of this construction adhesive to glue on the second row. This will help keep the wall together so it doesn't separate over time. We made sure the wall was level, then repeated the same process over and over until the entire wall was completely built out. The wire that I'm building the wall on top of is not an electrical wire for all you electricians, it's just a Comcast wire for my internet. The wall was installed and it was officially time to move on to the next step of the project. We tilled the entire pathway one more time before returning it, then rented an automatic tamper to compress the dirt down really well. This tamper ended up costing us $85 to rent, bringing the total to $2,760 to complete the rest of the build. After we finished tamping, I used this 2x4 to screed off some of the high spots. We had to install some of this weed barrier before bringing in the leveling sand, because it helps hold the leveling sand in so it doesn't wash away over time. To make sure the sand is nice and flat for the paver bases, we're using these pieces of PVC so we can screed a 2x4 on top of them. I made sure to pitch the pieces of PVC downhill so the water flows away from the house, because we plan on installing a drain and we want the water to go directly into it. I carefully laid the paver bases on top of the sand, then it was officially time to install the pavers. These pavers ended up costing us $6 a piece and we needed 88 of them, costing us a total of $528, leaving us with $2,232 to complete the rest of this build. Before we continue laying pavers, we need to build another wall. This wall is going to help hold the sand in so when we lay our pavers, it doesn't wash away. I dug down along the entire string to keep a nice straight line, then my wife came up with the fantastic idea of transplanting some grass, because our grass sucks. It's probably because of the dogs, but don't tell her that. I used the metal rake to prep the surface where the wall is going to go, then used the hand tamper to compress the dirt really well. To move some of the sand to the backyard, I picked up this really cool cobalt wagon. I went to buy a regular wheelbarrow and found out they're close to $200 so I ended up just buying one of these because it can hold up to 1500 pounds and it's a lot easier to move around. I'm not going to include this in the building budget, but I did end up paying $200 for it, which in my opinion is totally worth it because it'll last me a long time. I'm going to go ahead and link it in the description below just in case you guys want to get one. Now for the price of the blocks to be able to build the walls, we ended up spending $700 in total plus a $20 delivery fee from Lowe's, bringing the total to $1510 to be able to complete the rest of this build. After we finished the first layer of the second wall, we went ahead and continued to install pavers. We now have to install a friend's drain right here, but unfortunately this flower bed is in the way so we're going to remove it. We planted watermelons, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and nothing grew, but we did get a lot of banana peppers. The thing is, we don't eat banana peppers. We have a lot of dirt, so we're going to relocate this dirt and move it over there because that's going to be a flower garden anyways, but first we have a problem. We need to line the fence over here with cinder blocks so the dirt is not pressing up against the fence. All because of this French drain, we need to move the flower bed garden. The flower bed garden has too much dirt in it, but we need to put the dirt over here, but we can't put the dirt over here until the cinder blocks get there, so it's a spiral. We spent the next few hours emptying this raised flower bed so we can put the dirt into the other flower bed. We dumped wagon after wagon and it seemed like the dirt would never end, but it ended up working out great because we plan on putting plants into the new flower bed and this dirt still has fertilizer in it, plus it saved me a couple hundred bucks and a trip to the hardware store. Now that that terrible process was done, it was time to finish up installing the pavers. We wanted to connect the pathway to the patio that we built in a previous video, so we had to turn it. Since the yard slopes a lot right here, we had to add a step where the two pathways would connect. We made sure to slope the pathway downhill to make sure for proper drainage, but then we basically just repeated the same process over and over until the entire pathway was completely installed. The last two pavers were way too big and we also had to cut a couple other blocks in half to cap off our walls, so one of my amazing neighbors came by and cut them for me. I glued on the last two pieces to make sure that they would stay in place properly, then glued on the end caps to my wall. I then swept the dirt off of the other wall and finished that up as well. We ended up using 12 bottles of this construction adhesive to glue all these blocks together, which ended up costing us $108, plus we spent $62 on this weed barrier, leaving us with $1340 to finish up the rest of this build. After we finished installing all the pavers and blocks, we had to install a drain, but we didn't have anywhere for the water to go, so I just decided to dig this massive hole. The water from the drain will go down this pathway right here and into the hole, hopefully making sure that we have some proper drainage. I used some of this PVC glue to glue on this two-inch PVC to the French drain, then set it into the hole and filled in the bottom part with dirt to make sure that it doesn't move. We then filled the hole with rocks so that the PVC pipe can drain into it. This hole took 2,000 pounds of rock to fill and ended up costing us $60, plus another $110 for the French drain and the PVC, leaving us with $1,170 to complete this build. Once the hole was filled with rocks, we covered it up with dirt until it looked like nothing had happened. Once the French drain was installed, we had to build a concrete border around the pavers and the French drain. We picked up some 2x4s and made sure that they were nice and level and made a form. I then mixed together some of this quickcrete, which is what we're going to use to fill the forms. This will hold in the pavers to make sure the sand doesn't get washed out and it'll also lock in the drain. Once the forms were filled, I started to work it with my trowel and every few minutes I kept coming back to it to work it into place as it hardened up. We ended up using three 80-pound bags of concrete, which ended up costing us $25, leaving us with $1,145 to complete the rest of this build. We let it sit overnight, then took the forms off and we were super happy at the way that this thing's turning out. We picked up these tracks that we're going to mount onto the wall so it can have underglow LEDs. We spread a bead of construction adhesive, then put the track on top of it. I then spread some more adhesive so I can install the toppers, which will lay on top of the LED track, holding it into place. The toppers overhang off the wall a little bit so the track fits perfectly under it, so once we install our LEDs, it'll have a nice underglow. These tracks ended up costing us $132, the LEDs were $70, and all the toppers were $397, leaving us with $546 to complete the rest of this build. And I'm going to be linking all the materials that we used in this project in the description below. We spray painted a few pieces of rebar because half of them are going to go into the ground, and since they're made out of bare metal, we don't want them to rust out super fast. I hammered some rebar into the wall that we made earlier, then filled it with concrete to help strengthen it so it doesn't move over time. While the concrete dried, Hope and I took a ride over to Lowes to pick up some plants. We picked up six of these massive bushes that we can plant into this flowerbed, which will give us a little privacy and really tie everything in together. And by the way, shout out to Lowes for sponsoring this video. If you guys need any home improvement products, visit the nearest home improvement Lowes store near you. These bushes ended up costing us $360, we also spent $80 on some other plants, leaving us with $106 to complete the rest of this build. Once we had all the bushes installed, we swept the pavers really well so we can install the polymeric sand. This stuff goes in between the pavers and once it gets wet, it activates the adhesive inside of it, making sure that the pavers get locked into place. I taped off the french drain to make sure none of the polymeric sand gets inside of it. Once all the cracks were filled, I used my hand tamper to make sure all the polymeric sand would fill in the cracks properly. We then used the leaf blower on the lowest setting to get rid of any of the excess sand. The next step was to carefully wet the pavers and set the garden hose on the mist setting, then wait about 5 minutes, rinse it off one more time, and that's it. We really didn't like the way the cinder block wall was looking behind the plants, so we picked up some more toppers to give it a more finished look. We just glued each one into place and it really made everything flow together a lot better. We decided to add some black mulch to really sharpen up the look of this flower bed. My son then left his fortnite warzone to come help us out. This took us about an hour to do and 5 bags of mulch. It was now time to install these LEDs into the LED tracks that we installed earlier. These are pretty straightforward to install, the LEDs come with an adhesive strip and you just glue it onto the inside of the track. Once they were installed, we had to connect the wires. I slid some shrink wrap onto the wire, then crimped down the longer wire that'll lead to the power supply. These are 24 volt lights that come with a power converter, so you can plug them into 110. Once the wires were connected, I used my heat gun to install the shrink wrap, which will help waterproof the wire connection. I then snaked the wire to the nearest power supply and that was it. To cap off the LEDs, the tracks came with these see-through pieces of plastic that you just clip on. Now that the LEDs are installed, I used my metal rake to grade the ground a little bit so I can install some sod. We poured some fresh topsoil on top of it so the grass will have something to root to. We then spread it out and started laying all of our pieces of sod. Our original budget for this build was $3500, but we ended up going slightly over at $3729, which in my opinion isn't the worst price seeing that we did add a few extra things that we didn't have in the original plan like the sod, the plants, and the LEDs. My wife and I are super happy at the way that this came out, but let me know what you guys think in the comments, and thank you so much for watching!