# Deke 2021 rat palace renovation



## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Bought house September 2020, spent end of September - December fully remodeling interior. 
October had a dozen trees dropped that were near house, new roof put on.

January started messing around outside a bit, mostly picking up garbage and driving tractor through blackberries getting them knocked down. Found two cars.

March. Finally ground had hardened up enough to get some heavier machinery in here. Spent the better part of three days clearing out a 8000 square foot area on north side of house. Blackberries, 30 ish trees, fencing, and garbage.

End of March spent a week clearing out brush, trees, fencing, garbage and stumps from the rest of the "yard".

April. Most big things are done, but property is still a mess. Spraying glypho on anything that is green, trying to get ahead of what I know is going to be a problem as the spring and summer get farther along. Front porch is nearly complete, back deck is just getting started , siding complete.

May. Moving aroun the house starting on the northwest corner box blading and raking out the dirt. Breaking the yard up into manageable chunks for watering and seeding. First area is 8,000 sq ft. More than twice the size of my entire yard at my last house. May 1st seed down. Mix of Scott's prg, sun and shade mix , and Pnw mix. All grass seed I had laying around from my last house for over seeding back yard and fixing spots dogs tore up. New grass seed will be a no mix from a farm supplier. Deal is to good to pass up, and I won't feel to bad about killing it in a few years when sprinkler system is installed and I can go back to kbg, or prg. 6/9. Seedlings are really starting to pop up, watering three times a day to keep soil wet, mostly sand so it is tough. But so far germination looks good.


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

More random pictures from the house.


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## amartin003 (Apr 30, 2021)

Found two cars? lol!


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

amartin003 said:


> Found two cars? lol!


Found 2 driving through blackberries. One we knew was there because we could see the chrome bumper. So three cars total. And a front clip of a chevelle. It's been interesting


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Finally picked up the riding mower yesterday. Gave the yard a quick mow before we had friends over. Broke the 1/3 rd rule. Don't think the yard had been mowed in several years. Mowed at two inches and severely scalped it. At least now I know what I am dealing with though. This morning took the mower and went around and mowed areas that are not going to be part of the yard, but it needed to be knocked down. Mowed the field as well. Fertilized the new grass. Quick release .25 per 1000


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Got the yard remowed again. Spread a mix of prg over the established mix, cutting at 1 inch from about 8 inch so I hope the shock gives the prg a chance to establish. Either way this year is just about establishing grass over a property that has been neglected for many years.


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Went and picked up 60 excelsea cedars on Saturday morning. Spent 8 hours clearing scotch broom, blackberries, and random vegetation. Planted 2 strips of cedars on front border of property. Trees are 20 ft apart, staggered rows. Trees are to block road noise and line of sight. Today I got back out and planted another row through the field. Ten trees total 12 ft apart. But just a single row. Now I need to figure out how to keep them watered.


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)




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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

New grass is coming along. Had a record heatwave over the last week, so I have been watering every night to try and keep it alive. I have another 10,000 sq ft area that is ready to plant but I am waiting on the weather to cool down a bit. After that I have 15,000 left to go until I am done for the year. Pics above show the new reno, and then a picture standing in the old lawn into the reno. Color is much darker than old grass. Not bad for a crazy mix of old garage grass.


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## BBLOCK (Jun 8, 2020)

Nice @Deke

Looks like you're not afraid of doing some work! 👌👍


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

BBLOCK said:


> Nice @Deke
> 
> Looks like you're not afraid of doing some work! 👌👍


Luckily I enjoy outside work. The house itself is what I do for a job, so it was easy, but a little boring. Hopefully I can finish it up in time to find the next project, although my wife wants to stay here for a while.


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Front of house when we bought vs now


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

More photos this is great! I wanna see the inside...


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

SeanBB said:


> More photos this is great! I wanna see the inside...


I will see what I can find. May have to get my wife to send me some. Like I said this is what I do for a living, so I kinda just breezed through the inside. It was as messed up as the outside though.


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)




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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Been a long summer so far. I have been steadily working the land around the house, kill everything green and then drag soil. Rinse and repeat. It has been unusually hot and dry here, and just keeping up with water on the cedar trees is costing me 8 hrs a week. Best solution I came up with was stretching 600 ft of hose out to the trees and hand watering. Did not think this heat and dry weather was going to last this long. I have the back and side yard ready for seed, so as soon as I see a good week to plant I will be throwing seed down. Front corner is coming in good, growing at about 1/2 inch a day right now. I am ready for fall to kick in here, which it seems to be finally getting around to. Got our solar panels installed this week, which should be the last "big" project for a while.


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)




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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Got some decent weather beginning of last week. Threw some seed down. 50 lbs of prg ( no name mix), big bag of Scott's pnw mix (30 lbs I think). Started seeing germination after 3 days. Went out today and threw down another bag of Scott's, along with my remaining Mazama and bewitched. I had about ten pounds of each of those sitting in my garage and figured why not toss them out there too. All in all I have approximately 100 pounds of seed out on a 15,000 square foot area. 20 ish pounds being kbg, 80ish being a mix of prg and fescue. Hopefully some of the kbg grows, I didn't even think of adding it until this morning. Like I said before, this year is all about establishing grass around the house before winter rains get to bad and the ground around the house turns into pure mud and my dogs drag it into the house. Next summer possibly I will get the irrigation going and the pond done. Then I will completely redo the yard.


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## Deke (Jun 10, 2019)

Well it's been a monthish since seed down on the back yard renovation. Some areas are coming in decent while others are struggling. Since the rain started here it has almost been constant. Welcome to life in the pnw I guess. I think a lot of the grass got drowned out. I went on vacation for 2 weeks and got back to see how bad we fared and it was not good. Some of the grass was 8 inches tall up near the house with really good germination. On the outer areas where water pools I got little to no germination. Took the riding mower out there yesterday to give it a quick cut. Ground was pretty wet still. Have a small dose of N , and plan on doing so every week for the next three weeks. Good news is the reno I started in the spring survived the summer and is looking awesome.


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