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ANNOUNCER: This backyard has spawned a mini nightmare
for its homeowners.
This used to be a-- just a tree stump,
and it grew into, like, 100 trees.
So we're clearing it all out...
I don't think I have the right muscles
for that kind of work.
to make way for a unique
outdoor stage and lounge area...
Whoa, crazy idea, but I like it.
plus plenty of spaces
for their guests to kick back and relax.
This is the countertop to your bar area.
All right, lovely.
We're turning this mess of a yard
into entertainment central.
Oh, my God.
This looks incredible.
This is my not-so-lovely back yard.
And I hate my yard. It's basically a big desert with no character at all.
WOMAN: Everything about the yard we hate.
It's just embarrassing.
I don't think you could pay me to come up with one thing
I like about it.
When a yard's this bad,
you need all the help you can get.
That's where top landscape designer Sara Bendrick
comes to the rescue.
Now we can get going.
This might take longer than we thought.
So maybe just angling a little bit that way.
Tough, creative, and determined,
Sara can turn that yard you hate
into an outdoor space you'll never want to leave.
MAN: That was amazing. I was blown away.
MAN: I've never seen anything--
I don't know about you, but I'm home right here.
I'm good.
♪
( dog barking )
ANNOUNCER: Sara and Kevin are happily
making music together
in their Southern California home
after relocating from the East Coast 4 years ago.
The folk-singing duo was making quick work
of their to-do list around the house,
but became overwhelmed
by their out-of-control, unkempt back yard.
There's a lot of reasons we hate our yard.
There's no privacy,
there's no livable space out there,
and it has beautiful possibilities
but, you know, we haven't been able
to do anything with it.
Wow.
This has basically been given over
to the chickens and the dog, this area.
This is so awesome.
Yeah.
So right now the chickens are my favorite part of this yard.
Okay.
'Cause there used to be grass here.
They've eaten all of the grass.
Privacy is a huge factor here.
I love your screening shrubs.
( laughing )
This used to be just a tree stump
and it grew into, like, 100 trees.
Yep, that happens.
This tree makes me really sad
because I feel like if it had been
It could've been gorgeous.
Yeah.
I know.
Trees are beautiful,
but this one-- not that beautiful
and it's in the center of your yard.
KEVIN: There's also a basketball hoop which--
Do you guys play some ball?
No.
So basketball hoop is not important to you guys.
Okay.
It's important to me to get rid of the basketball hoop.
Yeah.
Well, let's check out the rest of this area.
Okay.
that we have never known what to do with.
Well, you know, this is kind of a nice spot to hang out.
The one good thing is that there is shade.
You know, if we're going to lose that tree,
we're going to need some shade, but--
Okay.
You have some nice screening back here,
Yeah.
KEVIN: A little bit?
Yeah.
And over here, what is this?
Is this a garage?
This is our guest cottage.
With our band, we've done a lot of touring over the years
and stayed in a lot of people's houses.
It's nice to be able to repay the favor
to a bunch of the friends we've met.
How about you guys tell me
what you really want to do with this space,
how you want to use it,
how you want to feel back here?
I would love to have a private,
Oasis.
I really love to throw parties.
Oh, do you?
So I would love a space that I can have,
you know, a big dinner party of like,
you know, 10, 12 people.
But it should also be functional for our pets
because they're going to be back here a lot, too.
Pet, people, and parties.
Perfectly put.
All right.
I'm thinking urban folk design would really fit this yard
and really fit your personality.
You guys trust me to take it and run with it?
I think so.
Okay.
ANNOUNCER: Here's Sara's plan.
She'll start by freshening up the house with a coat of paint
and building a deluxe chicken coop
for the backyard inhabitants.
A recycled timber patio will be created
from the remains of an uprooted tree.
Flanking the patio will be a bar
which will be divided from an adjacent dining area
by a wall made from wire mesh
filled with all natural materials.
The rear of the yard will feature
a uniquely designed stage/lounge area
for the two musicians to entertain guests.
The budget for this project is 32 grand.
All right, you guys ready to get started?
Yeah.
Well, the first thing we need to do
is to remove everything we don't want.
We'll rake up all these leaves,
we'll take out the basketball hoop,
and I actually have an arborist coming
to help us remove this tree that's going to create
a better space in your back yard.
All right, guys, it's time to hug your tree goodbye.
I know.
It is sorta sad in a way, you know.
Yeah.
But it--when it's in the center of your yard
and it's been topped like this, it's got to go.
It's important to hire an arborist
to help take this tree down.
It can be quite dangerous.
They'll lop off the top branches and then work their way down.
I still want to recycle the tree
and use it in the rest of our design.
So I'm having the guys cut it into 3 to 4-inch disks
so we can recycle that and make a patio out of it.
In addition to cutting the tree down,
I'm going to have them grind the stump.
They have to bring a big machine in,
they grind it 12 to 14 inches down,
which is all you really need to do.
The yard looks great now that we took the tree out
and we cleaned up all the shrubs on the perimeter.
Now we're ready to go ahead and start building.
I'm amazed at all the progress that the crew made.
And it's all happening so fast.
I almost had a breakdown when Sara was like,
"Oh, yeah, we built six gabion baskets."
I was like, "No, no. I'm out of here."
ANNOUNCER: The bones of Sara and Kevin's backyard
are starting to come together.
BENDRICK: The deck and the barn wall were built yesterday.
We were able to put up the 6 x 6 posts
so we could build our beautiful barn wall.
We're going to use reclaimed wood
to slot the whole back of it.
So it's going to bring a lot of charm to this back yard,
but it's also going to act as a punctuation
to the end of the space.
All right, Sara, so part of the design here
is to have a dividing wall
between your bar area and your dining area here.
So to do that, we're going to use gabion baskets
to create that wall.
Cool.
So a gabion basket is basically a cage
that's going to hold rocks or other hard material,
and it creates space, it divides space.
It's typically used in civil engineering projects.
All right.
So instead of making it our own with raw materials,
I found a kit, and they made it so easy.
All we have to do is attach the rest of it.
They're done.
Well, almost done.
What we're gonna use
is this spiral galvanized wire.
Okay.
We're gonna go ahead and get some pliers.
I have some lineman pliers.
We're gonna trim the edge of this off.
Oh, there we go.
There we go, all right.
Now this is your very first gabion basket.
How do you feel?
I feel very accomplished.
( both laughing )
All right, so now that we have it excavated,
we're going to add about two inches of gravel
and we're going to compact that
to make a nice base for our gabion wall.
You got it.
All right, that's good for now.
Let's go ahead and place one of our baskets.
Okay.
Perfect.
Done. Yay!
Now it's time to rock and roll.
This is the fun part.
There we go, right in the center there.
Beautiful.
Ooh, it's hot.
My tiredness is taking over.
( laughing )
SARA: When we got finished with that first row,
I almost had a breakdown when Sara was like,
"Oh, yeah, we built six gabion baskets."
I was like, "No, no.
I'm out of here."
This is the last course, so you're almost done.
I don't think I have the right muscles
for that kind of work.
BENDRICK: We're filling the baskets layer by layer,
and each layer has a different size boulder
or a different material altogether
to create this awesome soil profile.
And we are done.
All right. But it wasn't that hard.
( both laughing )
You did so good, though.
All right, we got another project to do, so...
Okay. Oh, my God.
Good job, though.
BENDRICK: We have so much to get done today
if we're gonna stay on schedule.
We have a sod bed on top of the deck
that needs to be installed.
We're pouring a concrete countertop--
and, of course, the wood patio that we're gonna do.
That's not gonna be an easy, quick task.
All right, Kevin, it's finally time for you to help out.
Okay. What are we doing?
Uh-huh.
and I want it to be a nice raw material, so we're going to do
Cool. Sounds good.
I want to make sure we seal all the edges with this silicon here.
But it's pretty straightforward, pretty simple.
All right.
Sara is gonna be mad.
This is a lot easier than dropping rocks in the basket.
Yeah, I know, I know.
All right.
So we have the silicon in place. Our forms are set.
We're gonna make a rebar sandwich.
It's gonna be concrete, rebar, concrete.
Okay.
If we didn't have the rebar, there's higher potential
that it could crack in bigger cracks.
Okay, I see.
I'm gonna be terrible at this.
I'd never made it through the Boy Scouts
to, like, the knot-tying portion.
That's not so bad, right?
No, no, no, that's not so bad.
I still think this is easier than
moving the rocks in the gabion, honestly.
You're still in trouble.
I--
Okay, slide it my way.
Okay, we're ready to start mixing concrete.
Okay.
We're gonna use a high-strength concrete
which is gonna be great for the countertops
Okay.
We're going to finish it off with a metal float
which is gonna give it a nice, clean, polished look.
Great, yeah.
So now that we got the concrete in,
the next step is to go ahead and screed it.
Kevin, you want to grab the other end for me here,
Yeah.
Now we're going to use a steel float,
and what this is gonna do,
it's gonna help us soften out the top here.
You want to give it a shot?
Not too much pressure.
Nice. You're a pro.
It's like you've done this before.
How long does it take to set?
Oh, probably about 12 hours.
It also depends on the weather, though.
We're creating a sod bed within your deck here.
Whoa, crazy idea, but I like it.
ANNOUNCER: While the concrete bar top sets up,
Sara's turning her attention
to Kevin and Sara's funky stage and lounge area.
What do you think of the reclaimed wood?
KEVIN: I think it looks amazing.
So good.
Okay.
What we're gonna do now
is we're creating a sod bed within your deck here.
Whoa, crazy idea, but I like it.
So what we have here
Mm-hmm.
Then we're gonna have some landscape fabric,
and that's gonna separate the dirt,
and then we'll have the dirt.
We'll have the drip irrigation system,
and then we'll have the sod.
So to start things off, we need to go ahead
and waterproof our little nook here.
All right.
So now that we have the waterproofing membrane down,
we still want to encourage drainage for our grass,
so we're going to go ahead and cut along the seams
in between the 2 x 6s.
When it does get water, the water will go right
Okay.
And you don't have to cut along the whole way.
You can just do areas.
And then fold the flashing membrane in.
So I'll just take one end.
How deep do we want the soil?
We want it about 2 to 3 inches deep.
That way that'll give enough for the grass
to kind of grow into it.
So now we have all our layers in except for the sod.
But before we do that we need to get irrigation.
This end ties up to the rest of the drip irrigation.
Okay.
Okay.
So let's use stakes here.
( grunts )
It's time for sod.
Let's do it.
So go ahead and start off in the far corner,
Okay.
It looks incredible.
You can try it out.
All right.
Lovely.
We did good. We did good.
I'm gonna have Sara and Kevin
help me create a wood disk patio
using the existing tree that we cut down.
So in addition to your tree, I have some more stumps.
I have a very large stump over there.
I have some small ones.
So we're gonna put them together
in a way that pleases the eye.
We're gonna place them on the ground, we're gonna seal them,
and that's gonna be your patio.
But the first step is-- is to put the base down,
which is our gravel. We'll add a little bit of decomposed granite,
and that's gonna allow us to kind of shimmy the logs
to make sure that they're even.
Our base layer is so important in this project
because each log is gonna be a little bit different.
The gravel is gonna help for stabilization,
but the decomposed granite is gonna allow us
to kind of shimmy the logs into place,
so we can reach a similar height at the top.
All right, so I'm gonna step on it a little bit and see if it moves.
So we need to put some DG under this
side to make it stable.
So let's go ahead and place some buddies around it.
I'm thinking maybe some midsize ones and maybe some little guys.
So what I have here in the pump sprayer
is a wood sealer and preservative.
So we're just gonna go ahead and put a nice coat all over.
It's getting dark, guys.
Okay.
And me and my crew here, we're gonna wrap it up.
We got a lot to do,
but I really want you guys to be surprised
when you see it tomorrow.
Alrighty.
Rest up. I want smiles tomorrow.
Good night.
BENDRICK: Sara and Kevin have been working so hard,
but it's time to send them away.
Me and my crew are going to wrap up this job,
and it's going to look so good tomorrow
when they see it.
Oh, my God.
This looks incredible.
It's great to have a versatile space like that,
that allows us to do anything that we want to.
ANNOUNCER: It's the final day of Kevin and Sara's
backyard makeover,
and there's a flurry of activity happening.
They had an existing chicken coop, but it was really small.
So we decided to build them a giant chicken coop
so their two chickens have a first level, a second level,
and they have a planter in their chicken coop.
The yard's almost done. I just need to put a couple of finishing touches
to make it all come together.
Table dressings are a great way
to change the mood of an area.
By adding different colors and different themes,
you can change the feeling of an area
just by changing the settings.
We put in a lot of hard work to get this job done,
and I cannot wait to show
Sara and Kevin their new space.
I know they're going to love it.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
ANNOUNCER: Before, this yard was full of overgrown
trees and plants and was cut off
smack in the middle by a basketball hoop
that was never used.
Now it's an engaging space for musicians
Sara and Kevin to perform and entertain their many guests.
Yet it's warm and cozy enough to enjoy
when it's just the two of them.
Oh, my God, look at the chicken coop.
Is this for all the eggs that they're gonna give us?
We need to get, like, ten more chickens to have that many eggs, but--
Well, look at all the realty they have.
They have a downstairs, they have upstairs,
they have a little garden.
This is nicer than our house, I think.
BENDRICK: Remember the giant tree in your yard
that was dividing this space?
KEVIN: Actually, no, I can't even remember it anymore.
And, you know, your tree
left and came back in another form.
Yeah, that's great.
KEVIN: It turned out great.
It's such an awesome idea.
I love the ones with the red center,
kind of popping out in different--
I like these giant ones.
This one, I think, this one's my favorite.
And then you guys said you like to entertain a lot.
Well, check out your new grill and a fridge.
This is going to get a tremendous amount of use.
Whoo!
Sara, did Kevin tell you
how hard it was to make this concrete countertop?
It was really hard.
I love all the reclaimed wood in the back.
It gives it nice dimension.
BENDRICK: So you don't see your neighbors anymore.
Very cool.
BENDRICK: Sara, do you love the gabion dividing wall?
I do. It's really a great texture to the whole space.
And the drinking rail just adds to it.
So not only does it divide these two spaces,
but it also creates a functional space
you guys can hang out around.
SARA: I think this is probably my favorite spot.
I just love having a space
that I can entertain this many people.
It's the perfect size.
And the rest of your yard, we have the barn wall.
Isn't this just awesome?
SARA: Oh, my God.
KEVIN: Totally incredible.
Oh, my God, look at these pillows.
So your barn wall
is really a punctuation to the end of your yard.
It feels so cozy up here.
I was a little worried that it was gonna feel too big
for our yard, but it's really nice.
KEVIN: It's great to have a versatile space like that
that allows us to do anything that we want to up here.
BENDRICK: How about the sod bed, guys?
Don't you love this?
The sod bed is so great.
And this whole structure is so unique.
To be able to have something like that
in your backyard, it just-- it feels great.
ANNOUNCER: Finally, Kevin and Sara
can entertain the crowd
they've always dreamed of. And best of all,
they came in $1,700 under budget.
You shouldn't go.
You should stay because we're throwing a party
and we're gonna play some music.
Yeah.
All right, fine.
Yes.
That sounds great actually.
I'm feeling great.
Sara and Kevin loved their yard.
It looks so amazing.
It's just perfect for them and their needs.
♪ ( indistinct ) ♪
♪ It will complete you ♪
♪ Holding the hand of your grandfather's child ♪
♪ As ( indistinct ) just smiles and smiles ♪
( cheering )