Repurposing cement

When I moved into my house I had 2 immediate priorities: repaint the guest room from the blinding canary yellow to a soft, calming color and get rid of the eye sore in the backyard. There was a dog kennel complete with an 8x10' cement pad and 6' high chain link fence. It had to go!  The guys at work told me to buy a bolt cutter, so I did and cut the chain link out of the cement and somehow managed to drag it to the curb.  The cement pad remained and functioned as my wood pile floor for about 4years. It was better without the chain link, but still not what I envisioned for my backyard oasis. Enter a sledge hammer and a few rough months at the office. I highly recommend taking out work frustrations on cement. It builds muscles, releases aggression, and you just might create a lovely faux stone patio out of it!

See blue tarp/wood pile/cement pad, to the left ladies!

 After a few days of sledge hammering and scaring the neighbors to death!

 The excavated site for the new patio.

"Stones" placed and nearly level.

Almost finished with spring flowers, but missing something...

Complete with brick border, more landscaping to come.

I borrowed a few tools for this project, but simply used the excavated sand (thanks, SC Lowcountry) to fill in around the "stones".  The brick I used for the border has been found around my house and yard over the years. I have no idea how random bricks get strewn about, but I am glad I kept these.

HVAC Autumn Maintenance

 

Have some of these in your yard?

Have a gas one these in your yard too?

Then you have one of these. If you have a gas HVAC unit you have a vent. Make sure the vent isn't full of leaves or debris. Clean it out when the unit is not running to avoid it over-heating and switching off.( It will be super hot and burn you if it's blowing too. I repeat, do not clean it out while unit is running!) If it switches off, a call to your repairman will be in order. The power to the motherboard will need to be pulled and reinstalled to reset the unit. Avoid this call by removing the leaves, unless your repairman is cute and single.