Adding to the Irrigation System

The latest project here is another one that's been on the list for a loooonnnnggg time.  The more things I can put on a timer, the happier my weekends are! 


With the mission of automation in mind, I added a new irrigation run to water plants along the far side of the driveway.  This, of course, involved running a line UNDER the driveway.  

Planning the irrigation run

Irrigation is not the worst of improvement projects, but it is one of the messier (not quite as bad as furniture refinishing, but certainly right up there.)  Running irrigation under driveways and walkways is a muddy proposition since it involves water and dirt. 


If you are planning to try this yourself, you'll need a walkway tunneling kit, which is available at any big box improvement store for cheap.  The tunneling kit is really just a nozzle and cap by which you use your garden hose and a piece of irrigation PVC to  blast a tunnel under the concrete with water.  It requires some planning since your PVC pipe has to be long enough to reach completely under the concrete.  


Which also means that your trench in which to run the pipe has to be long enough to accommodate the length of the PVC pipe.  Since I only had about 28 inches to work with in terms of trench space there in the middle, it required 3 separate pieces of PVC that were joined together by couplers.  You can see the segments in the picture below. 

Getting this project done was a waiting game since you have to wait for the water to filter down into your soil after you've spray blasted your run under the concrete.  In heavy clay soil like mine, it can take an hour or more.  This project took about 23' of PVC and various couplers, elbows, a new battery operated timer, and plenty of patience over two days.  


Plus some muscle relaxers for an aching back, afterward :)

New Garage Side Door

Our latest project has been to replace the side door on the garage...at some point you'd think we would run out of parts of this house that are at the end of their lifespan and need replacing, but sadly no.  


The side door to the garage has spent 70 years getting splashed on during the winter since none of the previous owners ever put up a gutter so that rainwater wouldn't end up pouring off the side of the garage roof and right in front of this door.  It hasn't helped that the door is right next to the hose bib and we tend to like to do cleaning tasks in the area that also end up splashing the door.  

This is the old door, badly rotted.

And so, off came the old door and we picked up a new basic exterior slab door at the local big box home improvement store.  We ended up having to do some considerable cutting down since the old opening is several inches smaller than the width of the smallest door they had at the store.  The new door was also pre-primed (yay!) 

After some cutting and sanding, then hole drilling and painting, we have a new door on the side of the garage.  Not only did we add a threshold and door sweep to make sure we are catching any water issues right at the door, we also bought a Plexiglas panel to put on the lower part of the door. 

New door with Plexiglas panel.

This is our last garage project until later this year when we start on the second set of interior cabinets, which can't happen until after I get some electrical work done (currently scheduled to happen when I bring in electricians for the kitchen remodel.)

Re-setting the walkway

This lovely project was one that I've had on the list for two years (easily).  I originally installed the front walkways in 2006 using Pathmate stone molds and this one turned into a mess within year.  All the mortar between the stones cracked and crumbled.  What I eventually realized was that I hadn't done a very good job leveling out my stones during the initial install.  Since the stones hadn't been leveled, they started flexing when walked on, which lead to the mortar cracking. 

The initial install in 2006

It got to be entirely too easy to move re-setting the walkway stones down the list in favor of more pressing items, but since I'm on a "complete all outstanding projects" rampage the time has come.  


I found it easiest to work one row at time, this allowed me keep the original placement and shape without having to go back and guess.  As I pulled up each row, I removed all the old mortar and some of the bed materials under the stones.  Then I added new sand and look a lot of care in setting the stones back in LEVEL and solid. 

Resetting the stones, one row at a time

It took about 4 hours to complete this project, a new bag of mortar mix and a bag of sand.  I have hopes that this time I did a better job..ah, that learning curve! 

Finished reset of walkway stones