Not so rainwise

Backyard, Exterior, Garden

After we had demolished the garage and concrete slab underneath it, I happened to come across an article in the Seattle Times that mentioned that the city of Seattle participates in the federally-funded Rainwise program. If your house is in a location that qualifies, you can be eligible for the program to pay up to 100% of the cost of installing a rain garden and/or cistern up to ~$4,500.

Well, my address is eligible, and I was already going to be putting in a garden area, so I thought this could be perfect! Well… not so fast… As with any government-funded program, there are a lot of restrictions and hoops to jump through.

The first is that you have to offset a minimum of 400 sq ft of roof area. I looked at my roof and thought “perfect!” since the area for the most easily accessible downspout to the backyard is 500+ sq ft

AND, this project is actually removing 350+ sq ft of roof by taking out the garage

But… unfortunately the program measures this from a birds-eye perspective and ONLY includes the roof of the house, not any roof structure that may be removed as part of the project. That area is <400 sq ft 😦

It seems a little counter-intuitive to me, and pretty unfortunate since this would be a perfect area!

The other qualification is that the soil has to “perk” to determine what level of rebate / subsidy you will be eligible for. Basically this means that water has to be absorbed into the ground at a certain rate. In order to check for this, you have to dig a hole 2ft deep and 10″ wide and then fill it with water and watch it drain several times over a period of ~7 hours. We dug the hole but haven’t done the test yet since its not looking likely that we would even qualify based on the roof calculations.

I have been talking with a very knowledgeable rainwise contractor, NW Bloom, about this and am hoping that there may be a little room for flexibility on the roofline qualification. I’m not holding my breath though, and I’ll certainly keep you posted!

Update: Unfortunately I won’t qualify for the rainwise program – there is no wiggle room in the square footage calculations (no surprise there). I also started the perk test by filling the hole with 12″ of water for the first fill/drain cycle. Its supposed to drain and then less than 2 hours later you fill it again and start to time how long it takes to drain. Well… I filled it on a Friday and then 1 WEEK later, it had only drained about 4″ of water!

-H

It gets worse before it gets better

Backyard, Exterior

Once we had everything cleared out, it was time to move onto the next phase – the final push before we actually start building anything. This meant breaking out the concrete where the deck used to be and removing the old deck boards.

I hired someone off of Craigslist to come out for the day Friday to break up the concrete slab, dig fence post holes and drill holes for fence post bases where there was existing concrete.

such a cute little breaker

They came out and spent the whole day working out there and at the end of the day it looked like this:

who knew concrete could be so fluffy

We were also supposed to get a delivery from Home Depot that day, but they called to say it was going to be delayed and then it just never showed up! I called them suuuper early on a Saturday and they sent a separate small truck over with the immediate things we would need to start our project.

forklift down the alley

Then my dad, Alex and I placed the fence posts, ripped up the existing deck boards and reinforced the old deck framing. Since this is planned to be a “5-year” project, we decided to use what was already there and just replace the top and side surface.

Of course its never that easy – we had to shim up the old joists since the new decking is not as wide as the old boards were. Some of the joists were not in great shape and had to be replaced or reinforced (called “sister-ing”) a whole bunch of other little things. In addition, we had to build new deck stairs and a railing to prevent people from falling in to the basement staircase.

The fence posts were a lot of hard work as well – poor Alex was out there with a 30lb digging bar making sure those posts won’t go anywhere! The fence post bases that we bought and had the guys drill didn’t quite work out as planned, and, unfortunately, caused more harm than good I think. We still haven’t figured out what to do with 2 of them.

At the end of the weekend, it looked like this:

look at those fence posts – so straight!

thats one sturdy deck!

I’m

I was a little discouraged because I thought we would have made more visible progress, but then Alex reminded me that just 2 short weeks ago the place looked like this:

before

in-progress

So, all-in-all, not too shabby! My dad has been coming by this week to help finish out the more complicated areas of the deck build since he’s going to be busy for the next couple of weeks. We’ve also got Alex’s friend Jaymie coming back this Saturday to help us clear out all of the broken concrete, build a retaining wall and work on the deck. Hopefully we will have an empty garden area and a deck surface to walk on after the end of this weekend!

-H

A clean slate

Backyard, Planning

Well we basically have everything cleared out now, and it is SO. MUCH. SPACE! It’s amazing how much room we have back there now that the deck, hot tub and garage are all gone.

can you believe there was a deck and garage hiding all this space?!

Having everything out has made me realize how much additional living space we could have if we added on to the house! I think that’s the long-term priority, but given how much these bids for the outside were, I think it will be many years before something like that would be in reach. So…that means that we want a nice outdoor space, but don’t want to invest a lot of money on something that will (hopefully) get ripped up in a few years.

The new plan is a scaled-back version of the original and swaps the side where we park.

So from here, we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us:

Re-build deck and add new stairs and railing
Build new fence and gate
Break out concrete, add drainage (just in case), build retaining wall, fill with dirt and plant garden and raised beds
Add irrigation and lighting
Repair and stain concrete patio

We’ve actually got someone coming today to break out the concrete and dig us fence post holes. The deck and fence supplies are also being delivered today so we’ll have our work cut out for us this weekend!
P.S. Does this look like a raised planter on its side to anyone else? 🙂 Maybe we’ll get a free-cycled planter out of this old deck!

The opposite of freedom on Independence Day

Backyard, Demolition, Exterior

Happy 4th of July! Our way of celebrating was to start this whole demo process by building a temporary fence so that the dogs can still use their dog door but be contained once we tear down the garage.

The side yard area is where the dog door is, so we wanted to close the area off so they can still go outside even after we start demo. The fence ends at the garage, so once that comes down the yard won’t be fully enclosed anymore. The plan is to put up a fence, but during the demo and construction phases, we needed to make sure the dogs can’t get out.

the “before”

We started by cutting out a section of the trellis so that we could utilize the 4×4 posts and lattice for the fence. It was surprisingly easy! Alex actually could tear some of it out by hand because the deck was so rotten. It made me feel a lot better about the fact that the deck really does need to go.

there used to be trellis here!

rotten posts

We dug post holes and put the posts in place so that they lined up with an existing post on our fence. We used a piece of the skirting from the deck to run across the bottom after cutting it to size. Then we attached lattice panels to the posts and ran a 2×4 that we also recycled from the trellis. It wasn’t quite long enough so we used my new kreg jig to attach 2 pieces together to make it longer.

Aaanndd…ta-da! Our new temporary (totally free) fence!

Don’t mind all the chairs – we had to find a place to store all of the exterior furniture 🙂 Now we’re all ready to start the big demo!! We’ve got a dumpster arranged to come on Friday so hopefully will have good progress to share next week.

-h

To DIY or not to DIY?

Backyard, Demolition, Exterior

Whelp…so far it’s not looking so good for hiring out much of this backyard work. I’ve gotten 2 quotes back and both are similar in that they’re way out of my price range:

~~Doug~~ – never got back to me, even after I followed up with him! So he’s out.
Daniel (Blue Land Construction) – got me a quote last night…basically: $10k for demo & hauling, $2k for landscaping (I believe this includes re-grading) and $11k for the new deck for a total of $22k – EXCLUDING trees / shrubs and the temporary fence
Matt (Terrrain Build) – supposed to hear from him towards the end of this week, but since he seemed like he’d be more expensive than the others, I’m not holding my breath
Victor – hasn’t gotten back to us yet.
Carol (Perennial Planning) – this is a new addition based on next door reviews. She’s done a lot of work in this area and really seems to know her business well. She came in at: $10k for demo & hauling, $1,700 for re-grading,$4k for plants, topsoil & sod, she also included irrigation & lighting for $4,200 + a $2k (10%) total project contingency for a total of $22k – EXCLUDING the deck and temporary fence!

So…I’ve moved on to calling just demolition contractors and junk haulers who do demolition.

David (Accurate & Affordable Demolition and Asbestos Abatement, Inc) – came out this week. He is a pro demolition contractor and sounds like he tries to sort / recycle as much of the materials as possible. He gave me a bid for $8,700 for all demo and hauling. Not great, but heading in the right direction at least. I asked for a breakdown and he said $1,400 for the deck, $2,100 for the asphalt and $4,800 for the garage (that only adds up to $8,300, but oh well)
Northwest Labor Industries – should be coming by in the next day or so to give me an estimate
Low Rate Hauling – I’ve used them before and they are affordable and fast. I have no idea how a demo project would go with them though. They don’t really seem to do actual quotes – just come in and offer to do it for less than some other guys bid. He seemed a little intimidated by the garage. Since I didn’t give him numbers, he offered to do the deck for $1,500-$2,00 but would do it the next day.

I was (somewhat unrealistically) hoping I get a bid for less than $4-5k for the demo & hauling. I think that might be my limit since it sounds like if we DIY-ed this, dump fees alone would be somewhere in the ballpark of $1k (including dumpster) + $500 for tool rental +/- $500 for other misc. and I can’t really stomach the idea of paying more than 2x the amount it would cost us to do it ourselves. So I guess it’s looking like we’re going to do this ourselves! Anyone want to come help demo next weekend?? 👍

I did get a couple of good tidbits of information from these visits:

Irrigation systems are based on “zones.” A typical lot in the Seattle area (or at least around where we live) will need 3-4 zones. Each zone costs ~$1,200.
Planting grass (I think sod but not sure) is ~$0.69/sq.ft.
Asbestos removal costs ~$4/sq.ft. Per layer – so if, for example there is asbestos in both the floor tile AND the glue used to adhere the floor tile, that counts as 2 layers so the price would really be $8/sq.ft. There is a place in Aurora Ave that will do the test for you if you bring in a sample. You can also DIY asbestos abatement, at least in floor tiles, as long as you follow the correct procedures and have the proper equipment.

The good news in all of this is that at least one of the contractors reassured me that there is plenty of space back there and that we would end up with a really lovely space. She also provided example pictures of a yard with smaller dimensions than what we have to help me visualize:

this was just a small lawn

during construction

after!

Hopefully we end up with something at least half this nice!

-h

Hurry up and wait

Backyard, Exterior, Planning

Well we’re in a bit of a holding pattern while we wait for bids to come back. I’ve now talked to 4 contractors about the project this week and waiting to get bids back from them. For a refresher – you can see the plan for the backyard here.

To understand the various moving pieces, I’ve been imagining the work in the backyard in 4 “quadrants” – 1 & 2) current deck over level concrete pad, 3) current asphalt paving and 4) current garage (below grade)

I talked to each of the contractors for different reasons and asked each about slightly different variations on the project scope:

Doug – I found him by calling around to a concrete recycler who recommended I talk to him. I haven’t yet asked for any customer recommendations but seemed no-nonsense but like he may be the most affordable. I talked to him about demo-ing quadrants 3 & 4 and using the asphalt bits & other fill to re-grade. I didn’t mention the deck area at all him.
Daniel – he built the deck for my old landlord and she recommended him. I talked to him about the work in all 4 quadrants, but not about planting grass, building any temporary fencing or doing any irrigation.
Matt – I found him through recommendations on NextDoor.com. I talked with him about the same scope as Daniel, but also about a temporary fence, adding grass and irrigation. He seemed the busiest and likely the most expensive.
We also briefly chatted with Victor, a painter who will be doing a bit of touch-up work on the exterior, about the project. He may also give us a bid for demo for the garage and deck and maybe the asphalt, but I’m not sure what he’ll come back with.

I realize as I’m writing this that I didn’t talk with any of them about any electrical things like deck lights, etc…whoops! 😁

I’m hoping to hear back mid-next week on all of this so we can figure out if / when we will be doing any of this work ourselves!

-H

The sort-of grand plan

Backyard, Exterior, Planning

Well I figured It’s time to visualize the backyard plan! The existing backyard (which you’ve seen pictures of here) is laid out like this:

Unfortunately, visuals can have limits. The concrete area actually goes underneath the existing deck and is pretty level and in decent shape. The asphalt area slopes toward the garage(!) though, which has a sump pump that flushes everything into the alley.

The goal is to make it more usable with some deck and patio areas as well as a bit more room for plants and maybe some grass. We’re thinking something like this😀:

Since I haven’t made my mind up about the plans for the future garage, we’re going to create a gravel area for parking off of the alley so that we have some off-street parking. The rest of the yard is fenced in, but because the garage is coming down, we’ll need to put up a temporary fence around the gravel area to keep the dogs in. We also haven’t yet gotten rid of the exterior basement stairs (and yes – they’re actually that narrow), so we’ll have to temporarily fence that off as well so we don’t have any people or dogs accidentally falling 8 ft down!

The main thing we’re actually planning to construct is a replacement deck. Here’s a 3D version of the deck plan to help visualize it:

I would also love to have a bluestone patio instead of using the existing concrete slab – but I haven’t really considered it because I think just what I’ve outlined here may break the bank!

Because we’re mostly just taking things out and not adding a lot, you’d think this could be relatively inexpensive – but I’m doubting it more and more as we talk to contractors and subs this week. We’ll see though! I’m hoping to start to get bids back in the next couple of days!

-H

Plan for demo

Backyard, Demolition

Sometimes everything seems more complicated than it should be…take demomolishing the deck and garage. You’d think it should be as easy as going out there with a sledgehammer and getting started – but it requires more forethought than that.

hopefully soon!

The plan for demo prep is to:

Get a demo permit & find out about recycling requirements (Monday)
Figure out timing for how this all should coordinate (the hardest part!)
Clean out the basement to make room for everything from the garage (ugh)
Clear out the garage
Build temporary fence to keep dogs safely contained in the side yard (maybe using the lattice parts of the deck)

Then actually do the demo:

Rent a dumpster? Maybe from here? Or just use haulers at the end
Actually demo the deck and garage
Recycle what’s needed and put remainder in dumpster
Cut the concrete into 1′ squares & post to craigslist – or maybe this should be step #1 so any remaining concrete can go in the dumpster?

Then we’ll have to figure out how we can ensure we don’t open the sliding door and fall out! Maybe board it off? Or build temporary stairs? Or build the the landing portion of the deck?

I’m hoping we can get some (or all?) of this done in our “staycation” next week. Obviously this is a lot and I know we’d both like to actually rest & relax so we’ll see how much we can tackle!

-H

And so it begins…

Backyard, Exterior, Planning

Well, the big plan for this summer is to try to get the backyard in some sort of shape! As we’ve lived and used the backyard, we found that it’s actually quite pleasant out there. It’s just not…living up to its potential.

The deck is a monstrosity! It’s old and splintery, the lattice panels are falling out and the nailheads are popping up – meaning you catch your feet on them every time you walk out there. There’s also a hot tub in the middle of half of the deck, which according to the neighbors has not been used in 10+ years, so that whole half is not really that usable.

There is a garage, but it’s oriented the wrong way.

To park your car in it you have to get out of your car open the gate, then drive in, then get back out of the car to close the gate and open the garage door, then drive in to the garage.

That is just not very efficient or appealing to do all that in the pouring rain all while looking out to make sure you don’t run over a small black dog. Not only is it inconvenient, but the garage is 18 also inches below grade, so all the rainwater funnels in there. Over time the bottom portion of the wood in the garage has started rotting away.

The remaining yard that’s not covered by unusable deck or worn out garage, is concrete! Which means it’s super low maintenance, but not very visually appealing.

But all that sounds like I’m complaining and I don’t mean to. It’s lovely to have a little space in the back where you can BBQ, or just hang out and read a book.

I’ve been going back-and-forth a lot on what to do back here. The options have ranged from rebuilding the garage (with or without a second story on the garage for a mother-in-law apartment) to adding on to the main house and forgoing a garage entirely.

So…In the interest of getting something done and improving the livability of the space, we decided to go with the relatively minimal option of tearing down the deck and garage. re-grading the backyard and re-building a version of a deck.

So that’s the plan for the summer! All of this meanwhile, Alex is going to be starting a new job, and I’m going to need to re-rent my rental house for the first time in four years. It’s gonna be a busy couple of months! Hopefully we can tackle this with level heads and have a great place to hang out by the end of the summer.

So here all the things that were going to need to do to make this happen: