DIY Life

With the high price of gasoline, we're all looking for ways to stay home, rather than loading up the car with the kids and heading off to have some summer fun elsewhere. One solution kills two birds with one stone: building a deck will give you a place to hang out and entertain, and add equity to your home.

Of course it's no secret that DIY deck building takes some careful planning, some tools that you probably already have, and lots of elbow grease. What you might not know is the construction details and tricks that the pros use. Read on and you'll be an expert!

With skyrocketing gas prices, and the subsequently rising costs of food and what seems like everything else, most people just don't have quite as much room in their budget for vacations as they used to.

It's no surprise that staycation seems to be a major buzzword this year. This summer, my son and I are sticking quite close to home. If you ask my son, his favorite "vacations" of this summer may be the camping trips we've had in our own backyard.

I know it sounds silly, but there's something about setting up the tent and bringing out all the gear that's just thrilling for a kid. Even if the scenery is the same thing you see every day, somehow it looks new through the mesh window of a tent.

With a little creativity, you can make this no-cost activity actually feel like a vacation. Just think of the things you would do if you were camping away from home, then recreate the experience as much as possible. I'll share some ideas after the break.

When I was a kid, many of my friends had slides going right into their pools. Cool. Not quite as cool as a water park, but it did the trick. Can you replicate the water park experience at home?

Homemade water slides are great fun... big fun... huge fun... if they're done right. I should probably write a Don't-it-yourself post on the contraption I have rigged in my backyard right now: a Little Tikes climber with the slide going right into my son's kiddie pool. Yes, it is wobbly and completely unsafe. Don't try this one at home, folks.

Instead, try making this water slide (reminds me of the old Slip 'N Slide from my childhood) from a piece of 4-ply plastic and a sprinkler. Stake it down every 4-5 feet so the plastic is stable, and send the kids whooshing. Rather than just hitting a patch of lawn at the bottom, you could always set up a trap to make a small "watering hole."

Summer vacation keeps rolling along. How long until your kids go back to school? Are they spending too much time lounging on the couch? Here are a bunch of summer projects to trick your kids away from their air-conditioned sanctuary and out into the great outdoors of, er, your backyard.

Okay, okay. So the backyard is not the great outdoors. True. But the main thing is to get the kiddos out in the fresh air, learning about nature, and learning about the noble pursuit of maintaining a garden.

Getting their hands dirty
1. Ask them to help with the weeding. Pay them a small amount of pocket money for their time.

We are finally at the end of our five part project: the transformation of a backyard into a very nice landscape.

This part covers the construction of a very cool little water feature. The initial design did not envision a pond, but there was a highly suitable area just off the deck patio, and it really called for something that wasn't a plant or a brick. Voila!... a water feature, with the splash of a waterfall that is amazingly efficient in helping to mask the background sounds of the neighborhood.

If you've kept up with the project thus far, here, here, here, and here, you know the story of the construction. This part wrapped up our efforts, and we could begin to enjoy the finished work.

The gallery will give you the inside story on the construction of the water feature; after the jump, we'll go over the details.

This is Part IV of the five part series (getting close to the end!) of a backyard transformation at the home belonging to my son and his wife. You may see the first three parts, here, here, and here. They covered the initial stages of design layout, prep, and paver installation.

Because the paver work was the biggest part of the project, we want to back up just a bit and look at the detail involved in the installation. It'll be helpful, especially if this is your first experience in laying pavers. Check out the gallery for some good information and we'll get started.

This is Part I of a five part series detailing the rehabilitation of a "plain Jane" back yard into a really nice landscape. My son and his wife live in a cool little town adjacent to West Palm Beach, Florida. Their home is somewhat akin to a "shotgun" style, with a similarly shaped back yard.

Over the course of a week, I helped my son with the latter stages of the plan that he and his wife had begun to implement shortly after they moved into their home. The back yard is now a very welcoming part of their home, complete with paver patios and walkways, a water feature, new sod and plantings, and provisions for the future expansion of irrigation and landscape lighting.

For all things neat about your yard, don't miss Diane Rixon's Avant Yard, here on DIY Life. Additionally, if you want to consider something other than pavers, take a minute and look at my feature on some of the options.

Check out the gallery for the process involved in the initial stages of the construction and, after the jump, we'll get into the fun stuff.

Ahh, it's getting to be that time of year again. Time to put away the sweaters and air out the t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. Well, I guess that depends on where you live. But if the spring flowers haven't caught up to you yet, never fear, they soon will.

With that nice weather comes the opportunity for hanging outside with friends and family. Barbecue, swimming pool, entertaining, gossiping about that weird couple down the street; the possibilities are endless. To get ready for all this carefree frivolity, it's time to protect your investment by refinishing your deck.

Your deck, like you, will age

Since the deck lives outdoors, it's going to age and change appearance (graying) because of the sun's ultraviolet rays (UV). The general effect here is the breakdown of the wooden surface fibers and lignin.

• For the curious – Lignin: A complex polymer, the chief noncarbohydrate constituent of wood, that binds to cellulose fibers and hardens and strengthens the cell walls of plants. OK!

If you're a homeowner with a backyard, you most likely have a fence of some kind. Those fences serve to divide properly lines, keep dogs and kids in check and provide privacy for those backyard parties and barbecues. That is, unless yours is on the verge of collapse.

Ever thought of erecting a new fence to replace an old, decrepit one -- or just installing a fence where none exists? For wooden, stockade-type fences, the pre-built sections can be had pretty cheap from many hardware superstores and fence companies. To install the vertical fence posts and get everything put up right, though, takes some elbow grease and careful measurement and planning.

Its summer and kids get bored. They want new things to play with and new things to do. Hey! How about playing in the sand. If you live in a landlocked state as I do, sand may be hard to find. So, why not make a sandbox?

Little woolgatherings has an awesome photo tutorial on how to make a sandbox in two hours or less. That means that in two hours your kids will have a new place to play and can quit saying "I'm bored!" for maybe two hours after that.

This look amazingly easy and fast especially if you are the DIY construction type. All you need are a few boards, tarps and sand. Check it out and make your kids an awesome new sandbox to keep them busy for a few extra hours this summer.

My childhood was quite an unusual and interesting one (read: fun). Some might even say amazing. I spent much of it learning unconventional things from a true-to-life DIY'er, my dad. He has challenges like anyone else, but despite the looming roadblocks, he always finds creative and innovative ways around problems, to this day. If you're wondering, yes that is me in the photo, at around age ten I think.

One memory in particular that stands out in my mind was the time when we moved into a split-level home in a decent neighborhood amidst the temperamental spring-time weather. Oddly enough, the previous owner of our home had never taken care of the backyard very well, which contained an ornate Japanese-style garden complete with a large 12 foot square (approx.) pagoda we called "the shed."

Next to the shed was a rock about three feet in diameter if I remember right, which we affectionately dubbed "the meteorite." Even stranger, was an irregularly shaped concrete Japanese fish pond with severely chipped paint set down into the yard about two feet deep or so, right next to "the meteorite." Beyond the pond, there was yard of overgrown grass all the way to the other side of the yard, which featured a dying pear tree and grape vines that actually had seeded grapes in summertime.

The problem with this ill-kept former Japanese shrine of a backyard was that my father (being the handy DIY'er that he is) wanted a garage to further his evil plot of DIY world domination or something, as any self-respecting DIY'er in America would. The shed, the meteorite, and the pond were all squarely in the way of building a garage at the end of our driveway on the right side of the house.