I built something too!

The pond today

I saw a post of a pond someone built and I didn't realize that imgur likes pond projects! Well I have almost finished mine but I wanted to share it with y'all! Here is the almost finished product! I just have to do touch ups here and there but it is amazing to sit out there and unwind after a day of work

In the beginning..

This was our backyard before I started. I went outside one day and decided I wanted to have a backyard I enjoyed sitting outside in and relaxing. So I drew some plans up!

The design

So with a couple of beers and my trusty laptop I sat outside and kind of drew up some plans. I had already planted one tree in the yard but everything on the right all had to be built

The tree

I'm from Colorado originally and I miss pine trees everywhere so I decided I needed a nice tree to give some shade over the pond

Work begins

I had never poured concrete before so I decided to get some estimates and see what it would cost. I decided that 1/3 of my budget was not worth someone doing the work for me so I went on the thought "it can't be that hard". Here I built a frame for the area that I wanted to concrete.

The worst tractor ever

The ground in my backyard is not so great... Lots of rocks as I found out when I planted the trees. So I went to a local home improvement store and rented a tractor with a backhoe for four hours. I worked on a ranch when I was younger so I was familiar with operating a tractor and I figured in four hours it would be no problem to knock this project out. Well being the middle of summer in Texas the heat was horrible, mind you this is my first summer in Texas. As my fiancée will mention anytime I talk about how hot this project was, she will tell you how she told me I should have waited until it was cooler to start, but I'm basically a big kid and I wanted a pond now! So I began. What should have been an easy dig turned into a nightmare because the hydraulic lines were leaking. I would have to hold the stick all the way back to keep the bucket off the ground even with a little dirt in the bucket. When I returned the equipment after finished and explaining what had happened they said oh yeah it's been having some problems... Thanks for renting it to me then!

Finally done

Still I managed to break up most of the ground with the back hoe and shovel it out by hand. I was happy with how it looked and I had some fill for the patio extension

All ready to pour

With a tamper and a couple more pieces of wood I was able to make the full area for the concrete about four inches all around- so 4 inch footers and 4 inch slab. I forgot to take a picture after I finished putting all the rebar in. Another note: I decided to drill into the existing concrete and put 10 ft rebar poles into the concrete to try and keep the new section from shifting

Pouring!

A yard and an half of concrete doesn't sound like much until you have to push it up into the pad on a wheel barrel; each load one after another, but with a little sweat I was able to get all the concrete poured. I snapped I picture while I was waiting for the wheel barrel to fill with concrete. Overall it was a very good experience (and really cheap compared to paying some one to do it) working with the local concrete mixing company

Edging

My dad and mom came down for the weekend and helped me out with the pour I couldn't have done it without them. My fiancée was in Mississippi at the time so they helped out tremendously. I just had to pay my dad with a few good beers!

Finished pouring!

All done and it has the approval from Callie our 3 year old Akita lab mix. A ten by ten foot pad extension worked out really well and looks great!

That's the end of this part. This is part one in a series let me know if you enjoyed them and I add more. I have a ton of pictures and stories about each step in the process!

Part II: http://imgur.com/gallery/sXvSd
Part III: http://imgur.com/gallery/QZ5js
Part IV: http://imgur.com/gallery/Fwe1A

Bonus Puppy Swimming: http://imgur.com/gallery/rOJh6j2