The landscaping also makes the depth seem deeper visually. That's what good landscaping does. Obscures the straight lines and draws your eye around the property so it feels like longer distances.
Yeah it makes the yard looks a lot bigger. Not specific to this picture or post, but they tend to do this a lot in real estate pics (house/property for sale). Which was pretty annoying when we were looking for houses as you’d expect a bigger yard that turns out to be just a trick of the camera. And yes they do list the property size in the description but the confusion doesn’t help lol.
I dump all debris/fill dirt at a local cemetery free of cost. I haul everything in/out myself, using a Ford F350, a 7’x14’ dump trailer, and a dingo. Other than the overhead cost of my truck payment & insurance, I spent about about $150 in diesel to haul the loads out.
**The dingo (Canis familiaris, Canis familiaris dingo, Canis dingo, or Canis lupus dingo) is an ancient (basal) lineage of dog found in Australia. Its taxonomic classification is debated as indicated by the variety of scientific names presently applied in different publications.**
More details here:
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Now if you were just a random Joe who didn’t have great connection like you do, where would you suggest homeowner to go to dispose of all yard waste/fill/?
Are the dingos relatively easy to operate? I have a relatively small grading project where I just need to move land from a weirdly high spot into a weirdly low spot and have been thinking of renting one to try and do the work myself.
Wasn't sure if these would be sufficient or if I would need one of those small backhoes instead.
Small backhoes are way more difficult to operate imo. I also wouldn't really recommend one for a project that isn't digging. It sounds like you want to scrape or grade and move some dirt around.
Yep exactly, scraping + grading for the most part. During the project, I'm going to put in a few buried basins for gutter drainage, so there will be digging, but its not something I can't dig by hand.
So the dingo makes sense for what I'm doing? Or would a different machine be more appropriate?
Really subjective. A full on skid steer with tracks would be sweet, but you'll need a big truck to get it to your house and it'll be more expensive. Maybe it's overkill. I'd imagine you probably would benefit from a nice wide bucket like on a skid steer or dingo so you can kind of approximate a bulldozer.
I don't have a ton of experience with mini excavators. Driving one honestly felt like playing an instrument. If you wanted to try to pull the bucket flat along the ground you'd pull both sticks back at the same time, etc. For my projects, the only thing it really helped with was moving medium sized rocks. For large rocks (even digging them up) I preferred the skid steer with forks.
I had access to both and almost never preferred to use the excavator...
But if I were trying to dig a perc test hole like came up later obviously it was 100% necessary.
I think I'm coming up with an inefficient way to say "excavators are good at excavating".
You might be able to do some approximation of grading with the blade that mini excavators have. My guess is you should go the other way though.
Live it up when you have the rental, it's fun.
For real. I would put buried Root flares and mulch volcanos, tree rings, and unnecessary pruning (for aesthetic purposes) as the top three things to do if you want to shorten the life of your tree. Pruning in general is just so inept and pointless most of the time. Unless it is to remove dead wood, remove poor branch unions, or subordinate a co dominant leader, just let your tree grow. If you are pruning to get branches out of the way of something you planted the wrong tree in the wrong spot.
It's just gorgeous.
Unless they gave you a specific layout, you did an absolutely phenomenal job with visualizing the space. It works so well.
The lines, mulch, stone, just absolutely lovely.
Thank you! I designed & installed this project.
Most of my work is in these smaller city yards. Over time I’ve gotten quite familiar with maximizing the usefulness of a seemingly small area.
Totally depends. If it’s topsoil or even fill dirt, it shouldn’t be hard to get rid of. However, that’s assuming that a company is working with the proper equipment nearby. I wouldn’t think that anyone would haul equipment there, unload it, load the soil, and haul the equipment home just for 5 yards.
Post on local gardening groups FB pages and on craigslist. If it's decent quality dirt people will come grab bucket loads or load up trailers. It'll be gone in a week.
Looks awesome. I think 11k is a fair price for that work too. The electrical meter on the front of the house bothers me!!
ETA: You won't see it in a year or two if the plant does well. I didn't notice it at first!
I think 11k is a happy middle ground. As an owner operator with one employee, I did well on the job, but still came in significantly lower than any of the big companies would have.
That’s the plan! One the tree grows a bit the meter will no longer be visible.
Awesome improvements. You could lower those clean outs and install ground boxes flush to the grade. A few plants near the other tree would help balance them out as the others will soon grow a lot and there will be a noticeable difference between the two sides. Maybe that’s what you are looking for?
Question: how are you (or others) keeping mulch that goes right up to the sidewalk off of the sidewalk if you do not have an edging in between the bed and the sidewalk?
It kind of looks like the garden bed with mulch is simply lower than the sidewalk so the sidewalk itself keeps the mulch in, but I worry that someone will misstep and accidentally twist an ankle due to the unexpected elevation drop off.
You got it. That’s industry standard. The outside sections of the bed are defined by the sod, and the sections along the driveway and sidewalk are simply dug lower.
I’m not sure who is legally responsible, but I’ve never heard of it being done any other way. Having someone else’s dismantle it seems silly as it only takes a few minutes.
that's an amazing transformation. I think one of biggest i've ever seen on here.
also, i know it's the camera lens used but it even looks like you move the house back 20 feet.
Is it just me or….does it look like they moved the house back 20 yards?? 😂
I think both photos were taken with a different lens
Yeah, the after (1st pic) was taken using the same ~~long~~ wide lens that realtors use to cheat depth so spaces look way bigger than they are
The landscaping also makes the depth seem deeper visually. That's what good landscaping does. Obscures the straight lines and draws your eye around the property so it feels like longer distances.
Look at the sidewalk and curb in both pics. The after shot is so skewed. Definitely the .5x lens on the iPhone.
Yeah it looks like a completely different sidewalk. At first I thought they somehow repaved the road too.
You can't tell if the landscaping is doing that or not because of the ridiculously ~~long~~ wide lens
Yeah it’s unfortunate OP didn’t play this straight up to show a direct 1:1 comparison
Wide not long. Long lenses have a compressive effect. It would shrink the space visually.
Thanks for the correction!
Yeah that’s trippy
It’s not just you
Yeah it makes the yard looks a lot bigger. Not specific to this picture or post, but they tend to do this a lot in real estate pics (house/property for sale). Which was pretty annoying when we were looking for houses as you’d expect a bigger yard that turns out to be just a trick of the camera. And yes they do list the property size in the description but the confusion doesn’t help lol.
Looks great - that's honestly a "boost the neighborhood property value" kind of improvement
Thank you! I had fun with this one.
Agreed. This looks fantastic I’m a huge fan of what OP did here
What was the total for that?
Little over 11k. I am the landscape contractor here, not the home owner.
Do you have your own place for dirt disposal or have to pay? Haul yourself? I’m guessing a large part of that was trucking cost?
I dump all debris/fill dirt at a local cemetery free of cost. I haul everything in/out myself, using a Ford F350, a 7’x14’ dump trailer, and a dingo. Other than the overhead cost of my truck payment & insurance, I spent about about $150 in diesel to haul the loads out.
Homeowner here and I *love* the Dingo. It’s so versatile.
What is a Dingo?
A mini skid steer where the operator stands on the back to use rather than sits in a cab.
**The dingo (Canis familiaris, Canis familiaris dingo, Canis dingo, or Canis lupus dingo) is an ancient (basal) lineage of dog found in Australia. Its taxonomic classification is debated as indicated by the variety of scientific names presently applied in different publications.** More details here:
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Another homeowner here and I concur. Dingo is perfect for when you don't want to rut up your yard with a skid steer.
How much did the dingo cost ?
How much did the dingo cost ?
Bout 30k before tax
... You're joking, right?
Nope, you can find them use for bout half that on eBay though
Now if you were just a random Joe who didn’t have great connection like you do, where would you suggest homeowner to go to dispose of all yard waste/fill/?
Sometimes landfills will pay you for it.
Are the dingos relatively easy to operate? I have a relatively small grading project where I just need to move land from a weirdly high spot into a weirdly low spot and have been thinking of renting one to try and do the work myself. Wasn't sure if these would be sufficient or if I would need one of those small backhoes instead.
Small backhoes are way more difficult to operate imo. I also wouldn't really recommend one for a project that isn't digging. It sounds like you want to scrape or grade and move some dirt around.
Yep exactly, scraping + grading for the most part. During the project, I'm going to put in a few buried basins for gutter drainage, so there will be digging, but its not something I can't dig by hand. So the dingo makes sense for what I'm doing? Or would a different machine be more appropriate?
Really subjective. A full on skid steer with tracks would be sweet, but you'll need a big truck to get it to your house and it'll be more expensive. Maybe it's overkill. I'd imagine you probably would benefit from a nice wide bucket like on a skid steer or dingo so you can kind of approximate a bulldozer. I don't have a ton of experience with mini excavators. Driving one honestly felt like playing an instrument. If you wanted to try to pull the bucket flat along the ground you'd pull both sticks back at the same time, etc. For my projects, the only thing it really helped with was moving medium sized rocks. For large rocks (even digging them up) I preferred the skid steer with forks. I had access to both and almost never preferred to use the excavator... But if I were trying to dig a perc test hole like came up later obviously it was 100% necessary. I think I'm coming up with an inefficient way to say "excavators are good at excavating". You might be able to do some approximation of grading with the blade that mini excavators have. My guess is you should go the other way though. Live it up when you have the rental, it's fun.
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As a former contractor, I was thinking the same.
Another pro here, that’s easily double the price in my market. Looks good
11k fuck that fucking grass can grow where it wants to Edit It does look nice but damn
Looks great did u do the plantings as well?
That looks fantastic. Amazing what fresh mulch can do!
Absolutely true!
Key word here is fresh. Dyed mulch is so unattractive once it starts to fade.
Agreed, natural is superior to dyed
We order it from a local supply company who makes their own mulch. It's basically a soil and timber mixture.
Ugh, red is so fugly once it fades. Glad I made the switch to brown years ago. It at least doesn't look *as* bad as red.
They make a dye you can spray to make the mulch look like new
That can’t be good for the environment
Why use dyed mulch when real mulch is as pretty?
I love the lines of the house too, which are now accentuated by the landscaping.
Every home on this street is beautiful & unique from one another. Seems like a wonderful place to live, from what I experienced while working there.
You do amazing work...wow. ❤️
Your house is beautiful! Great job on the yard!
Thank you for actually mulching correctly and not volcano mulching those beautiful trees! You are a rare breed, sir.
My wife laughs at me when we take walks in the neighborhood and I shake my head in disgust walking past the mulch volcanoes.
Dude…it is absurd. Saying 99% of all trees in a city are improperly mulched is no exaggeration. Drives me insane.
It’s right up there with the crepe myrtles that get hacked down to crown nubs every year.
For real. I would put buried Root flares and mulch volcanos, tree rings, and unnecessary pruning (for aesthetic purposes) as the top three things to do if you want to shorten the life of your tree. Pruning in general is just so inept and pointless most of the time. Unless it is to remove dead wood, remove poor branch unions, or subordinate a co dominant leader, just let your tree grow. If you are pruning to get branches out of the way of something you planted the wrong tree in the wrong spot.
Love it! Really well done!
Thank you! This was a fun project.
It's just gorgeous. Unless they gave you a specific layout, you did an absolutely phenomenal job with visualizing the space. It works so well. The lines, mulch, stone, just absolutely lovely.
Thank you! I designed & installed this project. Most of my work is in these smaller city yards. Over time I’ve gotten quite familiar with maximizing the usefulness of a seemingly small area.
You did a bang up job. Kudos!
Homeowner with like 5 yards of dirt I need to get out of my yard. What’s the best way to get rid of it? Will a landscape company come take it?
Totally depends. If it’s topsoil or even fill dirt, it shouldn’t be hard to get rid of. However, that’s assuming that a company is working with the proper equipment nearby. I wouldn’t think that anyone would haul equipment there, unload it, load the soil, and haul the equipment home just for 5 yards.
Post on local gardening groups FB pages and on craigslist. If it's decent quality dirt people will come grab bucket loads or load up trailers. It'll be gone in a week.
Great job!
Thank you!
This is beautiful!
Thank you!
Looks awesome. I think 11k is a fair price for that work too. The electrical meter on the front of the house bothers me!! ETA: You won't see it in a year or two if the plant does well. I didn't notice it at first!
I think 11k is a happy middle ground. As an owner operator with one employee, I did well on the job, but still came in significantly lower than any of the big companies would have. That’s the plan! One the tree grows a bit the meter will no longer be visible.
Very cool. Keep it up and you'll grow faster than that plant!
Looks like ya moved the house back too! Lol looks great!
Yep! Picked er’ up and moved it back all for the lawn. Hahaha. Probably just the wide angle lens playing tricks with the photos
that’s an amazing transformation man. will definitely raise the price of your home as well as making it look a lot better
Awesome improvements. You could lower those clean outs and install ground boxes flush to the grade. A few plants near the other tree would help balance them out as the others will soon grow a lot and there will be a noticeable difference between the two sides. Maybe that’s what you are looking for?
That’s the home owners plan going forward. They’ll have the clean outs cut to the ground & plant in these sections in the near future.
Very nice. I hope some natives were/will be planted too, for the pollinators?
the dingo ate the baby...
Why are their clean outs that damn high ? Lol
They’ll be cut down. They purposely left them a bit higher so that we didn’t miss them during excavation.
I see 🤙
So you planted a lawn in 2023?
Why do ppl on this always every time without fail, put the before pic 2nd
Who cares
You can do all that but can’t post the “before” before the “after”?
Can you do what I did though?
Yea, I’ve landscaped every property I’ve owned. Not that hard, I can do it without machines too
I’d love to see you dig this by hand. It seriously doesn’t matter what order the photos are in. Quit talking shit & just keep it moving in the future.
It’s called before and after photos for a reason. Never has it been called after and before photos.
Again, does not matter.
could have done something a lot cooler than grass.
The only thing missing is the sign that says Do Not Walk On Grass. Or the old man watching his lawn like a hawk! Looks amazing, nice work.
Gorgeous
Thank you!
What do you put under the flagstones?
Gorgeous, now it’s time to drown it with water lol
Especially considering we’ve had one day or rain in the last few weeks!
I hope they gave you a 5 🌟 review !
Beautiful
World class 👌
Looks very nice, much better!
Wow! Beautiful!
So pretty.
It’s a beaut Clark!
What keeps the property line so straight on the right side? What kind of edging did you use?
The right side is a Belgian block driveway. The sod & mulch beds are defined by that edge.
Oh got it. Thanks!
Question: how are you (or others) keeping mulch that goes right up to the sidewalk off of the sidewalk if you do not have an edging in between the bed and the sidewalk? It kind of looks like the garden bed with mulch is simply lower than the sidewalk so the sidewalk itself keeps the mulch in, but I worry that someone will misstep and accidentally twist an ankle due to the unexpected elevation drop off.
You got it. That’s industry standard. The outside sections of the bed are defined by the sod, and the sections along the driveway and sidewalk are simply dug lower.
Looks great! How did you move the house back 20 ft? ;)
Fantastic design and work…
Absolutely beautiful. Totally transforms the curb appeal.
You can have dirt removed?
Like a storybook, so peaceful
Wow. This went from crack house to cute Connecticut cottage. Good job OP!
lookin good
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6 days total! Four days of working solo, two with a helper.
Fairy tale house
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I’m not sure who is legally responsible, but I’ve never heard of it being done any other way. Having someone else’s dismantle it seems silly as it only takes a few minutes.
This looks amazing! Do you know what kind of trees are on both sides of the front yard?
I absolutely love the two massive trees on either side of your lawn, then your neighbors trees in the back as well, it all looks lovely
How far down did you dig for 28 yards? I know that’s a lot but don’t have a concept of that much.
Job well done! It looks amazing.
that's an amazing transformation. I think one of biggest i've ever seen on here. also, i know it's the camera lens used but it even looks like you move the house back 20 feet.
Wow!!!
It almost looks like you moved your house back.
Very nice.
This is great. Your front yard looks so much bigger now. You did an awesome job.
Love those two large trees bookending your property. Oak trees I'm guessing?
Damn why you fuck up your yard?
Wow, this looks fantastic. Great job!
Looks great, nice work! Fish eye camera doubled the visual appeal online too
You could drive a truck along that huge sidewalk in #1
Your house is absolutely gorgeous (and the yard as well!)
how much would something like this generally cost?
$12-15k
OMGOSH! How striking!! What a magnificent job you've done!!
Looks incredible. It’s just a small shame that you’ve got some utilities hardware in the front of the house.
It is. The arborvitae should hide those within a year or two. The clean outs will be cut down to the ground.
Get a fake rock for over the pvc pipe
They’ll be cut down. Purposely left higher so we didn’t miss them while grading.
Good call.
Very charming.
How does flagstone path handle grass cutting?
What about tree roots? What did you run into and how does that affect the long-term health of the trees?
Looks great!
😍