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I know.
NARRATOR: Matt Blashaw needs a yard to crash.
[ Both laugh ]
Wrong answer.
Whoever takes him home will get a backyard Zen sanctuary
with a custom concrete sunken living room,
an outdoor kitchen, steel yin-yang planters,
and a waterfall fire feature.
Where's Sprayway window cleaner?
Why would I know?
Do I look like a...
You look like a guy that washes windows.
-- Captions by VITAC --
You want to take me home?
Professional contractor Matt Blashaw stakes out
I'm giving away gold.
looking for do-it-yourselfers
who need an extra hand from a pro.
I don't know.
What they don't know is
he's gonna transform their simple project
into a total backyard makeover.
WOMAN: It's amazing!
It's like winning the landscape lottery.
Yes!
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
Good. How are you?
How about taking me home?
Mm-hmm.
I do "Yard Crashers."
WOMAN: Yes.
I am.
I'm proposing to you.
That's a heck of a shirt, dude.
What the -- what happened?
[ Laughs ]
That's what happened.
What are you working on -- like, bullets?
Well, that what happens.
[ Laughs ]
Get that shower you need?
Do I have a shower I need?
Yeah, you got everything you need?
Sure?
Cool.
I might have to ask what's going on, though.
[ Chuckles ]
Oh, uh, I'm just looking for people to take me home.
Okay, explain yourself, please.
I'm a contractor.
I do.
Yes.
My wife.
Yes.
Nice, nice. What kind of shape is it in?
Medium.
Bad backyard, yeah.
Yeah.
So, you need someone to come work in it?
Probably, yeah.
We're looking at getting
some concrete work done, actually,
hopefully next week.
Yeah.
How about getting some work done now?
I-I don't know. What's now?
Like, me going home with you right now.
Oh. [ Laughs ]
Skepticism in me is the hard part here.
Yes.
Why is that?
Well, obviously, you got a camera sitting here.
Right, legit.
We got people standing around me.
It's semi-legit.
They look like they're not criminals, right?
Uh, mm...
[ Laughter ]
Mm-hmm.
There can't be any skepticism.
Okay.
Like, you have to take me home right now.
Right.
And how about the monetary thing here?
How about free?
I think we could maybe --
We could do something like this.
DAN: He's a good guy.
I might as well let him come to my house.
Worse-case scenario,
he's gonna see my house and run away scared
and realize I don't have
anything really nice there anyway.
[ Laughs ]
Oh! I see another car.
I think the wife's back.
Hello!
Hello.
It's so great to meet you.
I'm so excited.
So, when he called you, what did you say?
I didn't believe him.
I was in total disbelief. I was like, "You're kidding."
Let's get to it.
Okay, skepticism is over.
Let's go to the back.
Concrete jungle!
It is a concrete jungle, yes.
Yeah, and then over here,
we have a nice little half-moon of concrete.
That's definitely -- I know.
What happened?
The neighbor's dog busts through it on pretty much --
Yeah.
How big is that dog?
Oddly enough, not that big.
Seriously?
Wow!
Okay, guys, so, give me the problems.
What's not working here for you?
In general, we're not the best at doing the maintenance.
I mow the lawn when I remember if my lawn mower didn't break.
[ Laughs ]
Mowing dirt. You're mowing dirt now, dude.
Pretty much.
You know, we love to entertain,
and this is just not the space for it as it is.
NARRATOR: Dan, an administrator, and his banker wife, Alexis,
are aching to turn their bland, neglected yard
into a space that reflects their artistic personalities.
She's very into, like, the kind of modern-style stuff.
Contemporary, yeah.
I'm very into Japanese.
I do martial arts.
I like to come out, do a little --
do some stuff on the lawn, be able to have some space to,
you know, do cutting with a sword,
stuff like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sword cutting, yeah.
You know you're bringing that out when I bring my crew.
That's fine. I can.
I got lots of swords in there.
Yeah.
[ Laughs ]
All right, hey, call your contractor.
Cancel it.
"Yard Crashers" is here.
Absolutely. "Yard Crashers."
See you guys soon.
That's what this show is all about,
and now it's time for me to work my Zen magic.
[ Truck horn honks ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Uh-huh! Beautiful day!
Oh, it's a beautiful day.
Beautiful day to build.
All right, we'll get right to it.
Let me introduce who I brought along with me.
Right next to me, this is Connie Cummings
from Cummings Masonry & Landscape.
Then I got the cowboy of contracting right here,
Jonus Larsen.
Right next to him,
that is Donna Dowson from Dowson Design.
And then we have Mike Todd from Mike Todd Sons & Daughters.
You guys ready?!
[ All cheering ]
Let's go to the back.
Let's see the design. Come on.
You ready for this?
[ All cheering ]
DAN: That is so beaut--
I mean, just right now, it's beautiful.
NARRATOR: Matt's design starts with three new patios
leading into a custom concrete sunken living room.
MATT: And then off to the side of it, you're gonna have
a water/fire-feature combo.
Water is gonna be coming off the top into bubbling fire.
All this concrete you have -- out.
It's ugly!
And look at this -- the yin, the yang.
We're gonna do a ying-and-yang planting area.
This is a raised planter bed,
and we're gonna wrap it in steel.
It is gonna look awesome.
All right, then over here -- new barbecue area.
[ All cheering ]
About the patio cover --
We're keeping it, but we're gonna spruce it up.
It's not gonna look like this.
Oh, no. I love it.
We got a lot of work to do.
Let's go!
We got to tear all this concrete out!
Demolition time!
Agh!
[ Laughing ] Ow!
There we go. Just like that.
Samurai swords!
Connie, I got a new tool for you.
NARRATOR: Coming up...
Barbecue time.
Awesome.
Alexis muscles the metal.
Hi-yah!
That's the power I'm looking for.
And Matt channels Dan's inner ninja.
Do you do that thing where you can do
the karate chop through, like, brick?
You can't?
That's what you get weapons for.
That's why you carry a sword.
Got that shower you need?
Yeah.
NARRATOR: When Matt met Dan Paulsen at the home-improvement store,
he was one tough customer.
Well, we'll see.
I am.
But he took a chance and took Matt home.
Now Dan and his wife, Alexis,
are in the middle of a massive yard crash.
Demo's done, but the crew is still racing
to remove the more than 20 tons of old concrete.
And it's going to take hours to excavate
more than 10 yards of dirt for the sunken living room.
So, while they dig,
the crew stakes forms for the new steps...
...level...
and fill it with the old, ripped-out concrete.
Nearby, Dan attaches new boards to his old fence.
And out front...
Awesome.
You build it.
Dan enjoys it.
They measure four 6-foot lengths for the frame...
...and cut.
So, all you got to do -- Let it run.
And then just nice and easy right down through.
Whee!
Sparks are cool, right?
Okay, great.
Next, they clip out holes to align the supports.
Just give me a little snip down the top.
One.
Two.
Hi-yah!
That's the power I'm looking for.
Then attach with panhead screws.
See how sharp that is?
There we go. Nice.
Perfect.
Awesome.
Whoo!
Whoo-hoo!
They dry-fit the access panel...
and finish out the frame.
Is this a big enough barbecue for you?
Look at the size of it.
Midday through Day 1,
the sunken living room is finally dug.
With the excavation done, the irrigation goes in.
The crew lays a 4-inch base.
And forming begins for the concrete furniture.
Out front...
I want to do a privacy screen on wheels.
DAN: Oh, awesome.
The whole theme, the Asian theme here -- bamboo.
Love me some bamboo.
Two thumbs up.
To build our frames,
we're gonna use pressure-treated wood.
Pressure-treated, yep.
Okay, so, pressure-treated's great for the outdoors.
All right.
This is definitely what you want to use.
They measure the pressure-treated frames
and cut.
Do you do that thing where you can do
the karate chop through, like, brick?
You can't?
That's what you get weapons for.
That's why you carry a sword --
so you don't have to try
to break somebody with your hand.
That's why ninjas are awesome.
[ Laughing ] That's right.
They split the 2x4s in half with a table saw...
[ Saw buzzing ]
...and make two identical frames.
So, this is the bamboo fence...
that we got.
You can get this
at any home-improvement store, really.
What we're gonna do [Grunts] we're gonna pop it right in
between our frame.
And we're marrying the two up together,
sandwiching that bamboo right in between.
[ Drill whirring ]
All right.
Perfect. See that? Nice and taut.
I got these online.
So, this is just straight, real bamboo I cut in half,
and that's just gonna fit right over the top.
Just like that.
We'll put some castors underneath.
Excellent.
And then we'll hinge -- We're doing three of these.
We'll hinge them all together.
I love it.
All right, we got privacy. We got bamboo.
Out back, Jonus rips out more concrete
to use as a base for the sunken living room.
Alexis, Dan!
Bring it in, bring it in! Come on, let's go!
...plants arrive.
Plants are done!
ALEXIS: Nice!
NARRATOR: By late afternoon, the fence is done,
and the stain goes on.
And Connie has the yard almost ready to plant.
Working with the dirt! How's my gopher?
So, we got all the irrigation in?
Yeah, I've got two irrigation lines in over here.
We have one more to do
as soon as they get the concrete out.
All right, keep hopping.
But as the sun starts to set,
Mike and his crew have spent hours framing
the sunken living room,
and concrete is more than three hours late.
End of Day 1! Huddle up, huddle up, huddle up!
We did a ton of work today.
We took out more concrete
than I've ever taken out of any backyard.
We got all the irrigation going, which is good.
Look at how gorgeous this is gonna be.
So, Mike, we're done with the forming?
We are done with the forming.
Mud is on the way. It'll be here any minute.
Seriously, though, guys, we are so far behind.
Really, really behind.
We need to stay late.
We are gonna pour some concrete and a lot of mud.
[ All shout ]
It is overtime! Let's go!
Bring on the mud!
NARRATOR: Up next...
Will a late-night pour save this yard crash?
Did anyone else dream of concrete?
[ Laughter ]
NARRATOR: An easy way to make the perfect weld every time.
You can just kind of slide along,
and it's gonna keep that same distance.
Plus, the crew gets down and dirty
stuccoing the chimney.
Oh!
NARRATOR: Take a crash course, see the crash of the week,
and tell us why your town should be crashed.
It's all in the crashers section of diynetwork.com/crashers.
Good morning!
DAN: Good morning, Matt man!
Day 2 crew, bring it in!
NARRATOR: It's the final day of this Zen retreat yard crash,
and the crew had a busy night.
I don't know about anyone else.
Did anyone else dream of concrete?
[ Laughter ]
NARRATOR: Overnight, they poured
for the sunken living room and pathways,
stacked block for the water/fire feature,
and faced the barbecue island with cement board.
We stayed late, but look what we got done.
So now we are in good shape.
You are gonna go with Jonus.
You got to do the fire/water feature.
I'm on it.
And you get to work on the...
hanging plants up here.
Yeah.
Let's go. Day 2 -- Let's keep it strong!
Let's go!
NARRATOR: Connie's team digs in to lay the groundwork
for the custom yin-yang planter.
They nail together bender board and curve it around the stakes.
Meanwhile...
This here's for the chimney.
...Mike's crew skims the barbecue island with stucco.
And Matt's crew gives the old chimney a new look.
We're just gonna stucco it.
In two coats.
Uh-huh.
And then just slowly move your way up.
They start with their hands, then move to a metal trowel.
Oh, that's beautiful, Dan!
Take a look.
Friends join in to help.
Faster, the better.
I think she's done it before.
Sort of.
Oh!
Now it's on!
WOMAN: Hey, I'm not afraid to get dirty.
[ Indistinct conversation ]
You can't, you can't!
[ Laughs ]
NARRATOR: On the other side of the yard, Alexis and Jonus drill gas holes
Like that.
...then spray on water sealant.
Out front, the sod arrives,
and crews carry the first of the new landscaping in
as Matt and Dan measure and stencil the area
for the yin-yang planter in back.
That's just an outline. Now we're gonna make the real thing.
And we're gonna make it out of 16-gauge sheet metal.
They make a series of 1-inch stitch welds...
There you go. Stop.
Now move it along. Yeah, good.
...then move on to the corners.
You want to make a nice bend.
Not too bad.
They clamp and, once again,
stitch-weld the pieces together.
See that?
Just like that.
While Jonus and Dan continue to weld the planters...
Donna creates a bamboo frame
for some very low-maintenance plants.
Homeowner's really into air plants.
Evidently, it's one of the things she can't kill, so --
so we've got a bunch of these air plants,
which are really exotic-looking.
Aren't they cool?
Beautiful!
You just take these little plants.
It just hangs there, and these --
As you water them, these are gonna grow a little bit.
Yeah, what you can do is
take this thing down every so often
and just kind of dunk them once or twice a week.
And that's it. That's all they need.
That is cool.
Out back, Mike stuccos the sunken-living-room area.
And Matt and Dan hit step two of the chimney rehab.
This is a pure acrylic stucco.
So, the color's already in it.
We're just gonna brush it on.
Oh!
I just got you right in the...
There's an apology needed.
Nothing like acrylic in the eye.
Up next, the cool custom planters are
coming together.
Let me get a bird's-eye,
making sure that we're yinging and yanging.
Matt has a yard-crasher realization.
My first barbecue/chimney combo.
Beautiful.
And who says these two things don't mix?
You got water, You got fire.
I do.
NARRATOR: Two days ago,
Matt met a very skeptical Dan Paulsen.
You don't just want, like, the pitch.
No.
You want a little bit of...
pre-pitch.
But Dan took a chance and took Matt home.
Now he and his wife, Alexis,
are just a couple of hours away
from the backyard of their dreams.
Matt and Jonus haul back the yin-yang planters.
Friends and family help plant the yard.
And sod goes down.
Final stretch! Who's ready for it?!
All right, let's go!
NARRATOR: Matt and Dan stake
the yin-yang planters in place.
And boom!
Let me get a bird's-eye,
making sure that we're yinging and yanging.
Oh!
Then...
Can you clone yourself real quick?
...soil goes in so planting can begin.
It worked out, didn't it?
It did.
So, if you haven't noticed, your...
[ Chuckling ] your husband and I, all right,
have been sweating,
making these beautiful ying and yang.
Yes, we've been busy.
So, the metalwork is done, and now the planting can begin.
So, the contrast that I wanted to do,
all right -- white and red.
So we're gonna use some geraniums and some mums.
And then these...
the Angelonia.
Okay, nice, white Angelonia.
And we're gonna pop -- We're just gonna pack
three of these right in here just like that
to give us that white.
White, red -- You like it?
Ying. Yang.
[ Laughs ]
Who's the yin and who's the yang
in your relationship?
I'm the more powerful one -- whichever side that is.
Just like that.
Beautiful.
With just hours of daylight left,
Dan and the crew fill in the paver borders
with decorative sand.
Playing in the sand.
And Mike preps the barbecue island
for its final touch.
All right, Mike, barbecue coming in.
Look at that beautiful, beautiful countertop.
Okay.
Oh, that is sweet!
My first barbecue/chimney combo.
ALEXIS: Whoo!
Beautiful!
NARRATOR: As the day comes to an end,
Mike grinds down the top of the water feature,
and Connie gives it a three-layered stain.
A few final touches, and this crash comes to a close.
Whoo!
You got fire.
You got yard!
We do.
We got a thing of beauty, is what we got.
My friends, we are wrapped.
Before "Yard Crashers,"
all we had here was a concrete mess,
and it was totally unusable space.
We were -- It was an embarrassment to us,
and we never had guests out here.
DAN: Now that we've been crashed, coming out here is gonna be --
It's not gonna feel like I'm coming out and, like,
I have to do some work out here.
It's peaceful.
I actually can relax out here rather than freak out.
It's totally transformed now.
There's still concrete, but this concrete is beautiful.
MATT: Are you happy you canceled your contractor?
[ Laughter ]
I am. Yes, this is perfect.
ALEXIS: I definitely recommend "Yard Crashers."
Remembering what this used to look like
to how it looks now, I mean,
how can you not be sold on being on "Yard Crashers"?
Before, you just had concrete circle.
Where to go?
You were gonna knock it all out, all right?
We incorporated it.
We brought more concrete in, and we made it so usable.
Stepping-stones, water feature, fire.
It doesn't get more Zen than that.
I got to say, that is the coolest planter box ever!
Ying and yang planters made out of metal.
You love it?
Not in a million years could I have even dreamed
this backyard could be this way.
[ Laughter ]
It just couldn't. There's just no way.
My favorite thing about this yard is
the sunken seating area.
This is the perfect chill-out place.
I challenge any contractor to do the amount of work
that we have done in two days.
Bring it.
It was a hard battle, but we won!
[ Cheers and applause ]
I couldn't have done it without my amazing crew --
Jonus, Connie, Donna, Mike and his incredible crew.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Killing every time!
Now Zen out, my friends.
DAN: That'll be easy.
Because that is a yard crash.
Enjoy.
All right, let's get out of this place, guys.
[ Cheers and applause ]