At one of my rental properties, I had some really ugly grass on the on both sides of the property and a jungle of weeds in the back. The space was wasted because not could or wanted to use it.
The previous owners (investors) didn’t want to / know how to maintain the property so I was able to buy it from them at a discount.
I decided to replace most of the grass (weeds) with concrete indicated in neon green below. I wanted the grass at the remaining areas indicated in dark green to be removed at a depth of 3 inches to place 3/4″ Ginger rock / Sonoma Gold rock. I also wanted to plant ten 15 gallon Italian Cypress trees along the eastern fence.
Here’s how the project went from start to finish.
Day 1: Hauling and Dumping Garbage
Loading debris into trailer using a wheelbarrowCutting old fence with a chainsawPreparing to cover the trailer before going to the dumpOn the way to the dumpAt the Lovelace dump in Manteca
Day 2: Removing Grass and Dirt
Before removing grass and dirt Removing grass and dirt Removing grass and dirt Moving grass and dirt to trailer After removing grass and dirt Loading dirt in the back of the house into a power wheelbarrow Moving dirt from the back to the front Moving dirt from the back to the front Loading dirt into trailer Loading dirt into trailer Loading dirt into trailer
Day 3: Removing Grass, Dirt, and Old Concrete Slabs
Removing old concrete walkway Loading trailer with pieces of old concrete
Day 6: Compacting Gravel and Installing Rebar and Weed Fabric
Compacting the gravel The wood form in which the concrete will be poured Laying down rebar (not done yet) Added weed fabric under wood borders so that weeds won’t grow along perimeter of concrete slab
Day 7: Finishing Rebar Installation & Watering Yard
Installing rebar in the front yardInstalling rebar in the side yardWatering the yard
Let’s face it. Garages have been storage spaces rather than places to park your car. Here’s one approach to organizing your garage so that you can still fit your car in it.
1. Build a shelf
You can buy shelving, including heavy duty restaurant-grade ones with wheels which are expensive, or you can just follow the instructions at this YouTube video on how to make a simple set of shelves out of 2x4s.
2. Buy transparent plastic containers
These clear boxes from IKEA are great. They’re also cheap. You don’t need to buy the lid.
3. Buy zip loc slider bags
Slider bags are better because they are more secure. I use a few different sizes.
2.5 gallon1 gallon1 quart12″ x 12″ bag – 6 mil thickness
Twist ties are very useful for tying up cables. Available on Amazon.
5. Place related items together
For example, the picture below is of a bin labeled “Fasteners” which includes nails, screws, bolts, etc. Loose items are placed in appropriately-sized bags. Others are just placed directly in the bin unless their box or plastic container is mostly empty in which case I’d transfer the contents to a bag to not waste space.
In the photo below, the bin is label “Plumbing”. Not everything needs to be in a bag, like the PVC glue. Loose items or small parts that go together with larger parts are bagged so they don’t get lost.
6. Label bins
You can label bins using a label maker. I wanted larger labels so I printed category names on white paper, laminated it, and bolted it to the bins.
By now, your garage should feel a lot bigger and you won’t keep buying things you already have and you won’t spend forever looking for things.
UPDATE: July 29, 2021
Instead of laminating printed sheets of paper, I found a simpler, more flexible solution. Just buy clear sheet protectors for 3 ring binders. $5.00 on Amazon for thin ones. $20 on Amazon for thick, 5.5 mil vinyl ones (preferred). Just drill two holes in the plastic bins where the 2 outer sleeve holes are and fasten using a small bolt with a washer. Then, print your labels and insert them from the side.
I’m bad with plants, and you probably are too. Whatever I plant just seems to die. And even with Home Depot’s 1 year return return policy, who’s gonna wanna dig up and return a plant with its roots and all and dirty up their car to take it to the Home Depot for $50.
There is one plant (or tree, actually) that anyone (in California) can plant without worry of it dying. This set-it-and-forget-it tree is the Italian Cypress. There are so many great things about this tree, it’s no wonder it adds value to your property.
Fast Growing Tall trees are expensive. You can buy this tree short and the regular Italian Cypress tree will grow up to 3 feet per year.
Very Hardy The Italian Cypress tree is hardy (will survive) down to 10° F. Obviously not a problem in California where it seems to just get hotter and hotter every year.
Drought Tolerant With increasing temperatures and less rain in California by the year, water is becoming less available and more expensive. Some locations may even prohibit watering your lawn or garden during certain periods. This is not a problem with the Italian Cypress tree. I stopped watering mine and they still look alive and green.
Evergreen, Non-deciduous The Italian Cypress tree is an evergreen tree meaning that it’s green forever (all year long). It is non-deciduous meaning that it doesn’t lose its leaves for part of the year. This is great because it’s low maintenance. My neighbor’s trees are deciduous and every winter, their leaves dirty up my front yard and I have to clean it up. With the Italian Cypress tree, there’s nothing to clean up and it looks alive all year long – no temporary death!
Fertilizer The Italian Cypress tree doesn’t even need fertilizer. Just dig a hole, put the tree ball in, back fill, give it some water, and you’re done.
Readily Available The Italian Cypress tree is readily available at the Home Depot all year long. It’s also available at Costco for about half the price but Costco only has it in early Spring 🙁
Most places sell the regular Italian Cypress tree but there’s also a dwarf version. Here are the specs for each.
Dwarf Italian Cypress
Italian Cypress
Botanical Name
Cupressus sempervirens Compacta
Cupressus sempervirens
Deer Resistant
Yes
Yes
Drought Tolerant
Yes
Yes
Mature Height
7-9 ft. in 10 years 25-30 ft. at maturity
35-40 ft. in 10 years or Trim to Desired Height
Mature Width
2 ft.
5 ft.
Sunlight
Full Sun
Full Sun
Growth Rate:
Slow
Fast
Grows Well In Zones:
7-10 outdoors
7-11 outdoors
Hardy
Down to 10° F
Down to 10° F
Planting and Care for Dwarf Italian Cypress Trees
1. Planting: First, select a location with well-drained soil and full sun – any area with 6 to 8 hours of sunlight is ideal.
When you’re ready to plant, dig a hole that’s about one and a half to two times the size of your plant’s root ball, place the Dwarf Italian Cypress in the hole, back fill the soil and water to settle the roots.
2. Watering: Once established, your Dwarf Italian Cypress is moderately drought tolerant, but it’s important to have a regular watering schedule for the first couple of growing seasons. Water about once weekly or check the surrounding soil near your Cypress – if the surrounding soil is dry about 2 or 3 inches down, it’s time to water.
3. Fertilizing: Apply a well-balanced, general purpose fertilizer to your Dwarf Italian Cypress in early spring, before new growth begins.
Planting and Care for Regular Italian Cypress Trees
1. Planting: Italian Cypress Trees are drought tolerant and like to be on the dry side, so choose a location with full to partial sun (4 to 8 hours of sunlight daily) in well-drained soil.
Then, dig a hole that is just as deep but twice as wide as the root ball of the plant. Place the plant in the hole to check the depth. If the soil of the root ball is below the level of the soil of the surrounding ground, pick up the tree and add more soil to the hole. Fill in the hole with the same native soil you removed then water the tree by counting to 20 or by giving it five full watering cans full of water.
2. Watering: Irrigate your newly-planted tree twice a week for the first month, once a week for the next two months and every two weeks after the first three months. Water your Italian Cypress if you have warm, dry, and windy weather during the winter in your area.
3. Fertilizing: This tree isn’t fussy about soil. It grows equally well in clay, loam, or sandy soils. It also does not need routine fertilizing.
Let’s say you want to do some home improvement somewhere besides your, e.g. at one of your rental properties. You may be tempted to just bring a few tools related to the job you’re going to work on. What often happens, though, is you end up realizing you need another tool that you didn’t expect to need. Once you do that a few times, you then realize you need a way to just bring ALL your tools so you don’t waste time going back and forth. But how can you bring all your tools? Below is how I bring most tools to a remote worksite. I find this setup works very well.
Heavy Duty Stackable Tool Boxes with Wheels
There are many toolboxes on the market but some are overpriced. I went with the Ridgid ones below.
In the photo above, I have stacked four boxes. The problem, though, is the handle is below the top-most box and it tends to hit your hand which is painful. So, I just stack 3 boxes and the small parts box is lightweight enough to carry by hand.
Following is a description of each box.
Small Parts Box
Unlike other small parts boxes, this one has a robust locking mechanism so when you carry it around, the latch doesn’t accidentally open and spill all your parts everywhere.
and for items specific to a particular task, e.g. if I’m building a new fence, I put string, plumb level tool, knee pads, etc.
In the toolbox below, I put various small tools grouped by category in 12″ x 12″ 6 Mil Zip Lock clear bags. These are relatively thick plastic bags so they don’t puncture easily. In the tray, I put things that don’t fit into the other categories, e.g. because they are too long. The categories of items are
Many homes come with one or, if you’re lucky, two exterior outlets. Depending on the shape and layout of your house, this may not be enough. You can pay someone to add exterior outlets but that could be pricey. Instead, here’s a simple way to add exterior outlets using components rated for outdoors.
Note that this plastic electrical box only has an opening on one side unlike others that have a open on the top and bottom. Since we don’t water to get in, we use this single hole box and install it such that the hole is at the bottom.
strip about 3 inches of the green outer jacket to expose the 3 wires (green, white, black) inside,
strip 1/2″ of the 3 wires and screw them into the appropriate terminals on the outlet.
screw the outlet into the electrical box
screw on the outlet cover
if you have an existing exterior outlet, you can simply plug the other end (male end) into that outlet. Otherwise, you can cut off the male end, drill a hole through the exterior wall where an interior outlet is and connect the wires to the interior outlet. WARNING: Turn off power to the interior outlet before doing this to avoid electrocution and a short circuit.
Secure the extension cord to the exterior of the building using the cable clamps. Or, bury the extension cord under dirt or rocks. Or, put the cord into a gray outdoor-rated PVC pipe and clamp the pipe using the gray plastic clamps.
Two exterior outlets in series
In this case, one of the electrical boxes will have two extension cords coming into it as shown in the picture below.
In this case, strip the wires again and connect them as usual. The outlet I’m using supports two wires for each black and white terminal so that was straightforward. The green (ground) terminal, however, only support one wire so I made a jumper wire, connected it to the green terminal, then connected the 3 open green wire ends to a 3-terminal Wago connector as shown below.
If you need to dig a hole to, say, plant a tree, there are a few different tools available to get the job done. Depending on the size and number of holes you need to make, here are some tools to consider.
SDS Plus Hammer
An SDS Plus rotary hammer uses an SDS Plus bit. It has 3 functions
drill
hammer drill
hammer
You can use the hammer function with an SDS spade bit to break up hard soil. I have the Bosch Bulldog xTreme which is a popular SDS Plus rotary hammer.
Next up would be a full on 1-1/8″ Hex Shank Jackhammer. This is normally used for breaking concrete. This is only a hammer. It cannot drill. For example
It comes with a 6 in. diameter x 31 in. long auger bit and offers 45 ft. lbs. of torque and fast drilling speeds up to 320 RPM.
There are different bit sizes as well as an bit extension available.
If you use an auger, or any digging method for that matter, it’s important to soak the ground with water first. You can create a small hole first and then fill it with water so the water will seep down to soften the ground you want to remove.
When using an auger, drill to your desired depth and then leave the auger in the ground until you remove the dirt that it brings to the surface. If you remove the auger right away, the dirt will fall into the hole you just made.
Also, for large holes, you’ll need to make multiple small holes. In the photo below, I made 4 holes in each corner and after making one hole, I’ll cover the hole with wood to prevent dirt from falling into them while drilling a new hole.
Once you’ve drilled 4 holes, you can use the auger or a jack hammer to break the remaining dirt and scoop it out using a shovel.
You can also rent this towable auger for $118 per day but I found it very heavy and difficult to use.
You can also rent a mini skid steer with auger attachment. They cost $300 per day from the Home Depot.
Excavator
You can also rent a mini excavator from the Home Depot for $300 per day.
Sometimes you might find a need to label your garbage cart, e.g. if you own a multi-family rental property and your tenants can’t remember which cart belongs to them. They may try to use their creative skills to label their carts themselves but the carts might come out like below which is illegible and makes the cart itself look like garbage.
You can try using a stencil and spray painting or hand painting the numbers on the cart but stencils are expensive and the results are usually not good either. Notice the blotchy edges below.
Use Google Docs to create a document with large address numbers on it. Print it on the vinyl decal sheets, ideally using a laser printer. Then, to reduce the possibility of the ink evaporating from the sun and increase waterproofness, spray a few coats of clear, glossy paint. Don’t spray thick coats at once since otherwise the clear paint will cause the ink to run. Just do multiple thin coats.
You can the just peel and stick the number on your garbage carts. In the picture below, my ink toner was low so the print results weren’t good. That went away after replacing the toner.
Drill a hole in one end of the 2×4 using a spade bit.
Insert the bolt into 2×4 and through the top hole on the farm jack and secure using a nut
Drill a hole near the bottom of the fence post using a 7/8″ spade bit and insert the threaded rod through the hole
How to Use
Tilt the farm jack and the 2×4 such that the post is in the middle. This is necessary as the post will try to pull the farm jack towards it. The 2×4 acts to prop the farm jack in place.
Put a piece of plywood under the farm jack to make a solid base so the farm jack doesn’t get pushed into the dirt
Insert one end of the chain through the hole near the bottom of the farm jack
Loop the other end of the chain around the fence post and around the threaded rod. Weaving the chain around the rod helps lock the chain in one place along the vertical length of the post.
Tie a knot using both ends of the chain
Crank the jack up until it lifts the fence post and concrete footing above the ground
Crank the lever up and down to raise the chain until the post come up out of the ground
Don’t secure the chain to the farm jack using a carabiner or other tool because those tools will just break.
Removing a wood fence post
Removing a steel fence post
Update 2024
You don’t need the 2×4. Instead, place a 4×4 piece of wood between the farm jack and the post you want to remove. Doing so will keep the jack straight and parallel to the post and prevent it from hitting the post. When placing the 4×4 wood, you may need to place it at an angle such that the end against the jack is lower than the end against the post. That way, when you crack the jack up, the wood will rotate and be pushed against the post.
Also, if the ground is soft like dirt or grass, screw the base of the jack into a 12″ x 12″ piece of wood that is 2″ or 3″ thick to prevent the jack from being pushed into the ground.
Global warming seems to be making California hotter and hotter every year and I’m in Silicon Valley where temperatures are usually moderate. Last year there was a hot streak which pushed me to the brink of buying an A/C unit but the simple, portable ones were sold out or overpriced. It’s a good thing I didn’t get one because it turns out the window units are way more efficient. So, I ended up getting this Danby 8000 BTU Window Air Conditioner (Model DAC080EB7WDB) from Costco (sale price: $159). It’s Energy Star® compliant and cools areas up to 350 sq. ft. The problem is I’m worried it’ll fall out my 2nd story window. After searching everywhere for a non-permanent A/C window support mounting bracket, I ended up going with this 2 arm, drill-less, heavy duty bracket by Alpine Hardware. The thing is, after assembling and installing it, I felt that it wasn’t as strong as I’d like it to be. It’s supposed to grab on to the window frame or wall by the left and right adjustable arms but when fully extended, the metal would bend a bit.
So, I just bought some heavy duty L brackets and screwed them into the studs and window sill and screwed in a 2×3 piece of wood for increased strength.
I then removed the left and right adjustable arms and installed the A/C mount like this.
Here’s how it looks from the outside.
Now this is super strong. Although I have permanent screwed-in L brackets and a 2×3 piece of wood (which I’ll paint to match the color of the window sill), I’m okay with that and I can still completely close the window.
Here’s a list of the minimum tools I think a DIYer would need. To keep costs low, I chose tools that had good reviews but were not necessarily brand name.
Power Tools
Since it’s cheaper to buy a bundle, I picked this bundle of 12 tools. Not all are essential like the brad nailer but since you can save $259 with this bundle, it doesn’t matter. Also, Ryobi has the most battery-powered tools which is a big plus.
The Husky organizer above is good but the latches can easily open on their own possibly causing everything to fall out. A better but much more expensive option would be to buy one or two of the Milwaukee organizers below.
