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Ask This Old House - Season 24 - Episode 10: Idaho Backyard Makeover
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00:05on ask this old house our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house
00:18today Jen travels to Idaho to meet a homeowner whose backyard has become a community gathering
00:24spot and is in need of some TLC you ready to shovel with that keep it moving like the rough
00:31side out
00:31on these boards I like the texture too and are your window wells in rough shape mark will show
00:38you how to replace them it's not as easy as it looks on ask this old house
00:58hey Adam hey Jen welcome to Idaho thanks I heard you're quite the man here in Coeur d'Alene one
01:04of
01:04many hosts of these dinners that we started here fantastic so Monday night dinners tell me all about
01:09this well I moved here about eight years ago I didn't know a single person so I grew up with
01:13a
01:13mom who's just my role model my inspiration and she raised us with the dinner called Monday night
01:18dinners that when we were all moving out of the house she said could we just come together every
01:22Monday and just have dinner with each other I'll cover the food just let's get together having a
01:27meal together that's what every family should do yeah yeah our friends yeah everybody has friends
01:33become your family hundred percent yeah and so I just decided to start walking around town and say
01:37hello to strangers invited them to have dinner at my home okay and I honestly didn't think a single
01:41person would show up and 11 people came to the first dinner and we just had our 94th Monday night
01:46dinner uh we have thousands of people that come to them that's incredible I mean sometimes you just
01:50need to say hi and it opens up the floor to everything people meet you in the middle yeah
01:54every time well let's go look at the space I want to see how you where do you put everyone
01:58how it's
01:59organized and what you need help with so this is the backyard here this is where we do it all
02:03very cool
02:04tell me about this space up here so every Monday night dinner we have a band this is a great
02:09little
02:09stage yes fantastic yeah this is our only shade for the yard right here so very special space huge yeah
02:15and then we have our communal seating here which I love you know you just put strangers
02:18together and people just start naturally talking to each other and sharing food with each other
02:22so every other country does this yeah cool yeah great it's a great conversation yeah and then sandpit
02:27for the kids and then climbing wall every Monday night dinner I climb to the top to be able to
02:32take
02:32a picture of everybody we get the whole group together that's incredible so this is the main flow
02:37of traffic main flow yeah front through here this is our biggest challenge and this is why I really wrote
02:41into
02:42you guys because right now it feels open because it's just you and me right here but imagine hundreds of
02:46people in the small backyard
02:48so this can get really bottlenecked and we're just trying to find a way you need to organize the space
02:52yes make it more accessible yes okay and over here is the food area yeah so this is really like
02:56the main epicenter of all the cooking so
02:59this deck was actually just donated last year we actually was just usually on dirt
03:04but so pretty much everyone comes in and we have one gentleman Kyle who's our grill master that cooks for
03:09hundreds of people at every single dinner okay on this one little grill right here this is actually just
03:13donated so we have a smaller grill hundreds of people every single dinner yeah so I see just first off
03:19like you don't have enough space and then the orientation of your cooking you're facing out here to the road
03:25when you want to be facing and watching all your friends have a great time I think you really need
03:30an outdoor
03:31kitchen you need countertop space then you can maybe even incorporate some of these pieces into it
03:36and then face out this way I spoke to one of the local designers here this woman adrian who's amazing
03:43and we discussed layout so outdoor kitchen being one your friends need to know a path a path to follow
03:51something they don't even have to think or ask and just it'll help with congestion and then really an
03:55overall cleanup for the whole yard I can't even tell you how much of a dream I mean we've never
03:59made a
04:00penny with these dinners so just thinking of an outdoor kitchen yeah is a dream just to have so
04:04well you're doing something good for the community so we're gonna pay it back but we just need to
04:08borrow a few friends for the uh for the installation piece we got a few thousand of them you let
04:12me
04:13know how much you need all right you got it thanks Jen all right Jen welcome to Monday night dinners
04:18this
04:19is our a team that we put together to help with this project this is savage he's going to be
04:22helping us
04:23nice to meet you outdoor kitchen yeah we're putting together a uh kitchen because they had a
04:27grill and a really small if you want to call it a kitchen yeah I saw that for the quantity
04:32of people
04:32that come to this event and so got together we're going to do a really nice kitchen for them make
04:37it
04:37really nice with a sink grill griddle so it's uh it's pretty fun it's gonna be nice sounds good to
04:42me yes and this is marina she's gonna be helping out landscaping and the pathway so you're gonna do the
04:47pathway and help people circulate yeah I want to bring in some fresh sod some fresh bark and and
04:52then maybe you can help me design a pathway for flow well I like the flow we need to tell
04:56people
04:57where to go without even thinking yeah so what I'm gonna do is gonna be jumping between the kitchen
05:02the pathway and all the projects and people around and we'll get this thing done awesome so yeah let's
05:07do it's gonna be great let's have some fun let's go
05:24Jen hey all right pathway check up what do you guys have here yeah so we're kind of planning just
05:29creating a pathway coming in leading the crowd doing a little circle around our fire pit this is what
05:35we're using it's an Idaho quartzite it's got a nice shine to it you mentioned it's a native stone
05:42too yeah okay fantastic yeah absolutely and I decided to bring in some backup we're doing so much with the
05:47sod and the bark I wanted some extra hands great I love the stone so wonderful you only have how
05:53many
05:53square feet to do yeah we're gonna get it done all right great thank you hey savage hey what's happening
06:01Jen outdoor kitchen layout yes looks like you got the plumbing electrical water all in place yeah
06:06we're um almost ready for the kitchen but I have to do a little more welding to it I got
06:11an idea yeah
06:12you want to try it can I yeah you know how to weld no and this is you know soldering
06:16for adults yeah
06:17but I got a machine over here and I can give you a little lesson sign me up let's go
06:21let's go all right
06:21to start it you pull the trigger okay you have the tip of this wire roughly an eighth of an
06:28inch off
06:28and then when you start you're either going to go a small zigzag okay and you're going to keep moving
06:32forward slowly or you're going to do a circle and you're just going to stop on the corner okay you
06:38have to have your helmet down make sure it's turned on this is an automatic helmet so where when you
06:42turn on you hear the click okay so now when the arc happens and there's that bright light
06:46it'll turn on and it'll protect your eyes okay ready yep
07:11okay guys so we're going to be putting sod over here it's going to run all the way across back
07:16behind you we're going to bring it in here hey nice to see you ready to start doing some digging
07:21like you giving instructions yeah we have a little more prep work to do we just hauled in a lot
07:26of
07:26sod you ready to shovel with us yeah keep it moving okay awesome
07:34let's go ahead and come just right up about to right here you guys
07:49one thing i love about doing it out of steel is that it's really light yes it's a lot lighter
07:54than
07:54cinder blocks yeah nice work buddy all right team walkway hey how's it going all right got another
08:02set of hands here yeah wonderful good we're bringing in some sand to level this out as soon
08:08as they get done with that one you can work on this one for us okay yeah so these this
08:13stone this is
08:14the native stone right idaho quartzite incredibly durable stone it'll be here for at least 20 generations
08:20awesome
08:46so
08:55one two three
09:03perfect
09:08hey adrian how's it going what's up bud how you doing good how are you you guys are doing a
09:14good
09:14job here you want to walk me through so it's everything is attached to this yes it is it's
09:19all attached to the osb we're actually just about to put another course up so your perfect timing is
09:24here austin's gonna lay the adhesive down on the back side of the boards perfect and this is all cedar
09:29this is all cedar yep and it's gonna look great with the counter it's gonna go so two natural
09:34elements together mm-hmm mm-hmm so it looks beautiful when it's new and it'll age to this
09:38gorgeous gray when it's all when it's all good to go so then if you want to grab that side
09:43okay and then
09:44we're gonna tip it up like this um we're gonna start at one end down here and we're just gonna
09:50i'm
09:50gonna grab the mallet and then i'll hand it your way chop it down now we're gonna set the level
09:59on top
10:01so we're a little down on this side we're just gonna kind of bring it up just to touch
10:07here electric electronic level that tells you precision right yep we're just gonna bring it up
10:15and then i'll get us that's where you want it to be okay set that down and then i will
10:22start over
10:23here get this one in i'll pass it your way okay and we'll go about every 12 inches or so
10:30just to
10:31make sure it's on nice and tight you like the nail gun i love it what do you like about
10:35this whole
10:35project like what what it looks like at the finish and how when you turn the lights on finish everything
10:43up how it looks at the end cool love it
10:45you like the rough side out on these boards i like the texture too okay you get your side lined
10:55up and then well yep yeah nice design by the way oh thank you it's pretty simple structure i
11:05like how lightweight it is especially on top of this deck right you don't use cinder block up here
11:12okay let's check our level before we go shooting nails in
11:20okay we're good it's pretty awesome once you get the first one level
11:23and the rest is the first one's always the hardest right
11:32jen marina savage i cannot thank you guys enough for what you guys have done for the home for the
11:37dinners and what you've allowed us to do to bring this community and the world closer together in
11:41our backyard here dude what you do for this community and the monday night dinners do just to
11:47put all of you together and it's completely apparent what it means to everybody i mean all
11:52of you guys put your skills and your love and brought all your friends and built this incredible
11:56place out back so i was super psyched to be part of it so i can't wait to see it
12:01in action you know
12:04it's a good day baby come on we got a monday dinner in one hour it's like a party yeah
12:07monday night
12:07all right you staying i have to let's go let's go
12:21uh who's here for the first time tonight unreal unreal you know we do about 16 dinners a year
12:28now um from may till october and this is our 95th monday night dinner here tonight
12:37everything's been you guys because when we give to our community we also give to the place that we
12:41live in we give to the people that we love we get to live in a better place because of
12:46the heart that
12:46we get back to the place that we live in and this is our backyard this is our community these
12:52dinners are
12:52ours everyone come up here please this is what it took this week to make this possible this is the
13:01army of people that was here selflessly doing everything they could to make these dinners possible
13:19yes everyone to meet one two three yes i love you guys thank you let's go eat
13:39allie mark so nice to see you my pleasure how you doing doing well thanks all right coming out
13:44so i love the house uh i think that's a perfect spot for your flowers thank you so much um
13:50but you
13:50wrote me about the window wells we did yes uh as you can see they're in pretty rough shape yes
13:55unsure
13:56what to do yep hoping for some advice okay excellent uh the few things that i do see obviously rust
14:03uh they're off balance so this this edge is a little closer to the window than this edge okay
14:08encased in asphalt which isn't going to be a problem but it's just going to be a little more work
14:13okay
14:13uh there was also a second window well there is yes just on the other side of the house all
14:17right
14:17let's check that out too that's good okay okay so i see similar problems from the one over there
14:26but this one will be easier to deal with only because it's in mulch and not asphalt okay question for
14:31you
14:31though i what are window wells actually for what's their purpose so one of the things they do is
14:35they're going to help mitigate the water they're going to keep pests out but they also let in light
14:40it protects the window i think that's most important to me okay let's get some tools and get on it
14:45let's
14:46do it all right all right ali so before we get going with the demo a couple things we should
14:55talk
14:55about yes so as you know we're gonna have to take out this asphalt just to get to the window
14:59well
14:59we could patch it back in with asphalt uh we could do a temporary walkway of some type i don't
15:05know
15:05what your thoughts are you know honestly i think we could do temporary we're going to redo this walkway
15:09and our driveway over time so i think temporary is the perfect fix okay great how are we going to
15:14take
15:14out the asphalt what are what tools do we use great question so what we have this is a typical
15:19saw that
15:19you'll see on any construction site the big differential is going to be this blade so this blade is specifically
15:25made to cut asphalt love that all right what about our vacuum so the vacuum is actually kind of a
15:31special unit as well it's what they call a hepa vac and what that does is separate the dust that
15:37we're
15:37going to kick up from some of the contaminants that may or may not be in this asphalt so that's
15:42why we're
15:42going to use that sounds great all right so the last thing i did want to talk to you about
15:46is symmetry
15:48we have a fixed piece right here this is the step so i measured 28 inches from that step all
15:56the way
15:56to this first jam yep so i'm just going to do 28 inches from that jam over there and that's
16:02going
16:02to be our cut line sounds great all right well let's get going all i'm going to ask you to
16:07do is take
16:08the end of that hose and just follow my saw suck up the dust and we'll do our job
16:37no power tools here i'm going to use the rake first i'm going to pull this mulch away okay you
16:42can
16:42follow me up with the shovel and any dirt goes right on to the top and how far down are
16:48we digging
16:49at this point we're going to end up going probably a total of 10 inches down because we're going to
16:54replace that soil with gravel okay one last one for good measure yes and if you want to stay right
17:05there
17:05and switch shovels yep with the tamper tamper now we're going to use that just to compact everything
17:14all right and that way we won't get any settlement is this okay pressure that is perfect
17:22and then we're ready for the crush down
17:27drainage is very important so that's what we're going to use the gravel for
17:32even layers
17:44so this is looking good right now why don't we go to the other side we'll prep it the same
17:48way
17:48let's do it all right ali so ready for crushed stone okay
17:56throw another one in there ali all right how's best to open it just you know what i do is
18:01i just go
18:03like that okay and then she's ready i'm gonna i'm gonna give it a shot on the next one okay
18:12i like that little twist you just did thank you thank you do you see that trying new things
18:16all right all right ali now we're ready for install and to do that we're going to use this which
18:22is a
18:22hammer drill okay okay so it's a little bit bigger than a regular drill but on the end of this
18:27hammer
18:27drill we have what we call a masonry bit that's what we're going to need to get into the concrete
18:32foundation okay all right and once we drill those holes this is what we're going to use to fix this
18:37to
18:38the foundation and this is what i call an expanding wedge bolt what i mean by that is you can
18:43see this
18:44nut right here yep once i tighten that nut up and i use this ratchet okay to do so this
18:50sleeve is
18:50going to expand so it's going to grab that hole and we're not going to be able to get it
18:55out okay so
18:55we're going to do that six times because we have six holes awesome yeah a question about the well
19:01itself what kind of material is this a standard height how do we think about something okay so i
19:07don't think there's any other standard material to use other than galvanized steel okay why because it
19:12puts up with the weather we get a lot of snow we get a lot of rain this galvanized material
19:16is not
19:16going to rust so to me that's what you have to use awesome as far as the height of these
19:21window wells go
19:22it's almost what do you need in our case we needed something that was 18 inches deep because that is
19:28uh where we're going to be left with some exposure on our light for the window okay so that's why
19:34we're
19:34using 18 but if you had a deeper well you would use a 24 inch or the other standard is
19:40going to be
19:40something a lot shorter which is a 12 inch oh awesome all right okay so the first thing i want
19:46to
19:46do is establish a center line in the window the next thing i want to do is go from flange
19:53to flange
19:54and that's 41 and a half so i want to go 20 and 3 quarters from my center line okay
20:01and again using a
20:02pencil yeah and i'm going to do the same thing 20 and 3 quarters from the sill i want to
20:13come down
20:13about a foot okay which will give me that mark right there
20:21and why am i doing this alley this is what's going to give me my reveal for the light
20:26and we look good yeah so we have a hole right there to drill okay okay just mark each of
20:33them i'm just
20:34going to mark each of them all right that guy is there so okay let's take that out
20:42i want to make sure i go straight into that hole or the bolt is going to be off okay
20:46okay so very
21:17important
21:22The purpose of that washer is to make sure that nut doesn't go through the hole.
21:32Great, wow, that was really easy.
21:51So build up, but still tamp down.
21:53You still have to pack it, right?
21:56The only thing we have to do now is this walkway.
21:59Okay.
21:59I brought some fresh bluestone, which is very decorative.
22:11All right, Allie, what do you think?
22:13I think they look awesome, Mark.
22:14All right, well, great.
22:15They do make a standard cover for that well.
22:17So if you have any interest, all you have to do is go down to the store and they'll have
22:20them.
22:21Awesome.
22:22All right.
22:22Thank you so much, Mark.
22:23This has been so much fun.
22:24And if you have questions about your house, we'd love to hear from you.
22:28So keep them coming.
22:29Until then, I'm Mark McCullough for Ask This Old House.
22:41Next time on Ask This Old House, Richard will show us how to make an old toilet fit properly on
22:46a new tile floor.
22:48Then, Lee offers some useful maintenance tips that will keep your gas-powered mower up and running.
22:54Is this something that an average homeowner can do?
22:55I think so.
22:56I really do.
22:57Awesome.
22:57And have you ever wanted to add a secret door to your space?
23:01Nathan will show you how.
23:03That's exactly what we wanted.
23:06All that on Ask This Old House.
23:09s
23:095
23:38s
23:39i
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