My backyard overhaul journal

[Dez]

Originally Posted by daveycoopa

I'm sorry if I have missed it but how much do you think it costs to do this kinda thing and what do you expect to pay in utility costs running this thing? Thanks.

Priceless . Well, my wife and I have decided to keep the total cost to ourselves. It's mostly my own labour and the material costs. The only labour we're paying out is for the pond people, but it's worth it. The pond will probably cost about $100/month just cause of the size of the waterfalls. There is 3" pipe feeding the large falls and 2" pipe feeding the small falls. 1HP pump and 1/2 HP pump. It's worth it to us as we typically don't vacation in the summer but we'll go away in the winter.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by doch

Holy smokes Dez!! Looks AMAZING!!! My yard next pal! lol I'll be putting in a huge diy led set up though... with a full snorkel pool! I wish.

Johnny, we are lighting the pond with LED lights . I think we are also going to have 4 panels of glass for a see through bridge that you can walk on.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Dez

There is 3" pipe feeding the large falls and 2" pipe feeding the small falls. 1HP pump and 1/2 HP pump. It's worth it to us as we typically don't vacation in the summer but we'll go away in the winter.

That's going to be some nice waterfalls!!

[Dez]

Originally Posted by Myka

Looking AWESOME! Your yard looks bigger with the framing put in...gives better size perception. That pond is going to be rad.

Thanks Mindy. Having the deck framed out definitely gives us a better perspective. There is a lot mor seating now. Those rocks beside the deck were designed to be sat on. We also have 400 sq ft of patio attached to the house that we built when we moved in 6 yrs ago. That's where the outdoor dining set is eventually gonna go. From the yard looking into the house is a direct view of my aquarium.

[doch]

Originally Posted by Dez

Johnny, we are lighting the pond with LED lights . I think we are also going to have 4 panels of glass for a see through bridge that you can walk on.

Dez... you just became my hero!! Your yard is freakin' (with a pretend scottish accent) amazing!! I'm so jealous!

How thick will the glass have to be to walk on? Or am I misinterpreting?

[Dez]

Originally Posted by doch

Dez... you just became my hero!! Your yard is freakin' (with a pretend scottish accent) amazing!! I'm so jealous!

How thick will the glass have to be to walk on? Or am I misinterpreting?

We are going with 1/2" tempered. 4 panels of 11" x 36". And yep, we'll be able to walk on it. We'll get a suction cup from princess auto for an easy "lift and clean". Should be interesting. I just thought of it while walking over the bridge last night and ran it by Caley and she thinks it's awesome. Then we called our glass friend and believe it or not, for the square footage, the glass is almost the same price as the composite decking.

[Myka]

Hey Dez, consider adding a 3M coating to the glass that you replace once a year to keep the scratches on the 3M instead of the actual glass. I missed that part...that's a pretty awesome idea.

[Murminator]

Wowsers Dez looks awesome.....that must have taken a lot of fragging

[reefermadness]

Amazing Dez...you really raise the bar with what ever you are doing!

[Dez]

Well, the pond is done now. I am going to wait until the spring to put the pond plants and all of the shrubs/ground cover/perennials around the pond. I will wait until after all the planting to put the bark mulch covering everything else. So this will be how she sits until next year. I finished the deck and tomorrow I'll order the glass to fit into the 4 spaces on the bridge. Here are a couple of pics.



This picture shows a couple of stepping stones above the water level. The kids came home from school today and they were soooo happy. They jumped around and immediately took there shoes off and went knee deep in.