Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Calling Miss Utility Before Building A Deck

We were busy bees this weekend. And as some of you noticed in yesterday’s post, in the picture where John was playing the role of the deck, we had already started to clear out the liriope/weeds/bushes that were going on in our future-deck spot.

Alley John Squatting

You might remember that we started with this:

Alley 5 To Be Dug UP

The first step was to call Miss Utility to make sure digging things up and building a deck wouldn’t endanger ourselves (or our house) by potentially hitting an electrical line or a water pipe or any other booby trap that might be lurking below the dirt. Thankfully we got the all clear. So we transplanted that big bush (seen above hugging the side of the house) to a spot in desperate need of some greenery: the left side of our house. It looks kinda lonely by itself, but right now we’re filing this under “it’s better than nothing.” Someday we’ll get him a line of friends (the same bushes – called Gold Dust- grow along the bedroom addition and look great, so we have high hopes that this spot works for them too).

Alley 6 Transplated Bush

Next up, digging up liriope. Our favorite thing! Not. But at least we had our favorite thing to cheer us on: Burger. Here he is giving the “glad I’m not the one who has to dig up all that liriope” look.

Alley Burger Supervising

I think it took a little over an hour of digging (with Clara inside napping with her monitor on blast by the door) for the space to go from this…

Alley 7 Plants Before

…to this.

Alley 9 Plants Gone

We dumped the dug-up monkey grass on our side yard in hopes that some of it will survive and fill in (that stuff is crazy-hardy). Also, under the balcony are pallets that we’ll get rid of when we demo that thing out.

Unfortunately the clearing task didn’t end there. We also had to take care of this weird assortment of bricks, weeds, and lawn ornaments that we lovingly call “the AC shrine.”

Alley 10 Shrine Before

We can’t quite figure out what its purpose was – besides maybe putting some leftover bricks to use. They were arranged kind of like some permanent four-square game, with the stone pagoda in the middle. It earned the name “the AC shrine” because between the mini-temple and unusual layout we decided it must have some greater, cosmic meaning while being located right in front of – you guessed it – the AC.

Alley 11 Shrine Starting

In digging it up we didn’t find sacrificial animal bones, but we did discover that the bricks were laid two levels deep. Awesome. It gave us flashbacks of this and this. Yes, we’ve done our fair share of brick-digging-up around here.

Alley 12 Two Bricks Thick

Around 160 bricks later, we had everything dug up. Oh yeah, don’t mind the pile of paver stones in the background. Those were leftovers from the patio project. Guess now you know where we’ve been hiding them for the past 12 months. But we’ve got plans for them someday…

Alley 13 Pile Of Bricks

Several sweat-inducing wheelbarrow loads later, to take them to our brick stockpile next to our carport – future use still unknown (but possibly for when we convert the carport into a garage), the area was officially clear. Well, clear of bricks at least.

Alley 14 All Bricks Gone

A bit more digging later, and it was also mostly clear of weeds.

Alley 15 Weeds Gone

We still have to move our paver collection, demo the existing balcony, and get rid of the pallets it’s shielding – but the area is much more ready for a deck than it was last weekend.

Alley 16 Cleared

Now we just have to:

  • continue weighing the pros and cons of different decking materials (we’ll share a lot more on that when we make a final decision)
  • get some estimates for our materials
  • get that dang permit thing taken care of

Oh yes, and then we have to actually:

  • build a deck

Haha. You know we’ll keep you posted! Oh and speaking of keeping you posted, we called our power company to make sure those electrical meters on the side of the house won’t sabotage our deck plans (we have heard in some places they have to be at a certain height so people reading them don’t have to crouch – which would mean no deck) but thankfully our meter readers are happy to crouch, so there’s no issue with them! Wahoo! One of them is actually not active anymore (the extra low one) and the other one will be about 2.5′ above the bottom of the deck (and since they do most of their reading remotely now, it just needs to be accessed to be serviced, which they say is no problem at that height). Whew. And we’ll paint it to blend in like we did at our first house.

Have you guys been clearing things or digging up any areas around the house? Did you find anything cool while digging? We once found an old milk bottle cap at our first house…

Oldmilkbottletop

… and actually hung it up on our gallery wall to commemorate it.

FrameWall Milk Cap Close

Someone tell me they found a box full of money or gold bars or something. Or a dinosaur bone.

Psst- In one of our quickest giveaways in history, we hit 10,000 entries within six hours of posting it, so we’ve already announced this week’s winner here.

Comments

  1. Melanie@MailboxJourney says

    I can’t believe that giveaway went that quick! Everyone must love them some Lazy Boy furniture.

    I think the deck right there is going to look and be great for you guys. Such a cool spot for it.

    Reply

  3. Kristina Strain says

    I found an old house number from when our house was #24, not number #60 (pre-911 system), and… borrowed from you guys by gluing it to a small canvas and hanging it in our frame gallery. Such a good idea.

    Reply

  5. Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says

    Looks so much better back there. I was wondering what was hiding under the current deck!

    My parents replaced their wood deck with this sort of eco-no splinter-faux wood thing (I’ll ask what it was) and it’s held up for at least 10 years and still looks great! Can’t wait to hear what material you decide to go with.

    Reply

  9. Kelly says

    About two weeks ago we dug up all the plants on the side of our ~150 year old house to fix the grading and replace with gravel (sorry plants, but now having water gushing in our basement every time it rained seemed more important.)

    The whole time we dug I just kept chanting “diamond ring, baby!” but we didn’t find anything except a bagillion tulip bulbs, onions, and trash.

    Reply

  10. Missy G. says

    I don’t have any cool digging up stories, but I did make an awesome find while cleaning up our back apartment after a brother-in-law moved out. He left all kinda junk for us to trash and clean up for him (nice, huh?). Actually I’m not sure if it was that brother, another brother, or one of my hubby’s random friends that rented that apartment from him, but someone decided to hide a bag full of quarters in the back of the entertainment center and then forgot about it. There was $100 worth of quarters in there! Yes, of course I counted. I certainly kept it because, hello, I had to pick up your junk. :)

    Reply

  11. Krystle @ ColorTansformedFamily says

    Monkey Grass is extremely hardy, no need to worry about planting it. I love that y’all are transplanting as many plants as possible. I wish I felt that way about some of mine. I would rather dig them up and be done with some of our shrubs.

    Reply

  12. Brooke S says

    Looking forward to hearing what you guys use for materials as well, thinking about DIY this summer for a front porch. Do you know how you will get the footings in the ground? (I believe that’s what their called)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      No idea yet! We are still figuring out what we’ll need to do for our permit (what they require, etc). Will keep you posted for sure!

      xo,
      s

  13. Jackie E. says

    Great job cleaning everything up.

    Now for a plant tidbit for you.

    That “gold dust” plant you have is also known as Aucuba and you can make more plants from your if you are so inclined. Cut a few branches and stick them in a container of water. They will make nice indoor bouquets and will grow roots, so you can plant outside when the root system is nice and developed.

    Reply

  14. Maureen @ This (Kinda) Old House says

    I am so upset that I didn’t win that giveaway! LOL

    We plan on replacing the boards on our deck and really going back and forth about whether to use composite or regular wood. This will probably be a “Next summer” project unfortunately. :( I can’t wait to see how you guys do it. I am trying to convince my husband we can do ours. Now, with your future tutorial, I am pretty sure we can pull it off!

    Reply

  15. Katie Carroll says

    I thought that temple thing was a frog house? At least that’s how they sell them at our local garden place! :)

    Reply

  16. Karen J says

    You should get or mix some “brick” colored paint and paint out the utility boxes. They would blend in a lot better. We did that at our old house and it made such a difference in the look (as they were all visible from our patio).

    Reply

  18. KLL says

    Do you ever hear any feedback from the home’s former owner? I’m wondering if they read your blog and come across a paragraph like the one describing the AC shrine and feel inclined to drop you a line and say “oh, here’s what we were actually trying to do.”
    I have SEVERAL head scratchers at my place that I’d love to ask the former owners about. Like the row of holes in my bathroom wall where the former owner obviously tried 12 times to find a stud by drilling into the wall over and over and over and over again.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually are friendly with the former owners, although sometimes we wonder if certain things were there before they moved in too- ya know? We’ll have to see if they email us to tell us about the AC shrine!

      xo,
      s

    • Annie Swift says

      My father in law did just this in the bathroom in our house…He must have drilled around 20 holes an inch apart to find a stud…

    • KLL says

      I have a list of things I’d ask the former owners of my house! Lots of ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ that leave me wondering!

  19. Lauren says

    Hysterically creepy but true: back when I was in high school, my mom and I were taking down the drop-ceiling panels in the basement of our house in preparation for finishing part of the basement for my brother’s bedroom. We found a lockbox that had been stored up in the panels, and after breaking it open found a box of little hunks of some sort of metal. It turns out that a previous owner of the house was a dentist who held onto the gold fillings of teeth he pulled (DISGUSTING, I KNOW!), but we ended up getting about $500 from that gold!

    Reply

  20. Jenny says

    Great progress! My husband found our 50-year-old house’s original house numbers when he was raking leaves. I refurbished them and they are now on display. I love their 1960’s vibe.

    Reply

  21. Karen L. says

    Thanks for sharing your progress; it is exciting to see the “nitty-gritty” of it all——but guess you’ll all cover nitty-gritty most days! Haha…
    One question that a relative newby to blog land has is: when I read the comments or write one sometimes, the time you have on the entries is always 10 minutes ahead of real time. Is that a security thing or is it something wrong with my computer/setting, etc.? (Just tryin’ to learn is all..)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It’s on our end, but we have no idea why it’s glitchy like that. We just think it’s a wordpress thing, haha. Wish we could fix it but we just choose our time zone and they do the rest.

      xo,
      s

  23. Amy says

    We found a railroad spike! Either someone once used actual railroad ties for flower beds OR it came the railroad yard that was once less than a mile away. I like the second theory better. :)

    Reply

  24. Allyn says

    I always wanted to find a buried treasure. For some strange reason, I was convinced as a kid that there was a secret hiding spot under my oldest sister’s floor (parquet wood). I came SO CLOSE to try to rip one of the squares out to see. I guess the only thing stopping me was which one to jimmy up? I’m sure my mother would be horrified to know just how close I came to ruining the floor. In the name of treasure, of course.
    Can’t wait to see what’s next!

    Reply

  26. Tara says

    The people that bought my grandmother-in-law’s house (my husband’s grandmother’s house…you follow me) found a watch and jewelery when they had the hardwood floors re-done. I guess Grandma had found a loose spot to hide things and didn’t tell anyone, so we didn’t know to check in there before we sold it. Luckily the new owners went through their agent and found us to return it. Happy ending (silly Grandma)

    Reply

  27. Emily says

    I wish I found something cool digging, but unfortunately I haven’t. A childhood friend growing up sure did though! His family decided to put in a pool, and they found a mammoth fossil. I think one of the leg bones! It was HUGE news in our area!

    Reply

  28. LaMadre says

    Great progress. We had a power meter like yours on the deck of our old house. We actually, painted the box and the pipes running up and down from it, the same color as the house. In the summer we put a tall plant in front of it. No one even noticed it was there.

    Reply

  29. gina says

    I think this is going to be perfect. I am having the hardeest time understanding how your house is situated. Is this the sliding glass doors of Karl’s room? If I was standing in your front yard is this the back or left?

    Reply

  32. k says

    My parents friends legit found a wooly mammoth skeleton when they built their house. A whole one.
    Which is cool except when you find cool skeletons in your yard you have to stop building for a while. And I guess you don’t get to keep them either (it lives in a University museum now)

    Reply

  33. April says

    We weren’t really digging but a couple months after we moved in our dog drug up a whole key chain full of keys and a remote lock on it too. The previous owners had dropped it somewhere in the yard while moving out. We got it back to them thank goodness!

    Reply

  34. Beth in DC says

    I live in a 90-year-old house with lots of utility lines and boxes here and there that are fairly unsightly. I’ve always wondered what would be involved in having the defunct ones removed. Do you know?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have no idea. I think if they’re dead lines (I think there’s a way to test that somehow) you can just remove it- maybe consult an electrician and call the county to be sure?

      xo,
      s

  36. Sarah says

    We found a gun sealed up in a plastic bag in the backyard of my childhood home. Always wondered what the story on that one is…

    My great grandmother was a German who worked with the resistance in Poland helping the Jews. Many Jewish families in her town knew their homes would be searched and that they would be taken away to camps, but didn’t realize it was more than temporary. They would bring my great grandmother their valuables to hide under her floorboards, with the expectation they’d be back to get them. My Great Grandma/Grandma/the rest of the family became refugees thanks to the war, and the home passed to new owners when they fled. We’ve always wondered if the same floor is still there, hiding everything. Unless they ripped it up at some point to replace it, there’s no way for later owners to know what lies beneath, and no way to give those treasures back to the original owners.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Wow- that’s so interesting! I’m so curious to know if the floor is still there hiding everything. I hope if they find it it’ll make the news and those families can claim things or something.

      xo,
      s

    • Jen says

      That’s super interesting. Do you know her old address? Is there some way you can contact the current owners and see if they can check for curiosity’s sake? Have you tried Google Street view to see if the house is still standing? It is entirely possible that the house was destroyed in the war as well. I live in Germany and from time to time, you still hear about construction crews finding bombs or other war related weapons on building sites, people get evacuated, etc. it’s just kind of excepted that you may find something hidden underground when digging. My inlaws’ neighbor found a bunker under the land they bought to build on.

  37. Ruthie says

    My sisters house was built in 1911. They were pulling a mantel off to re-store and found tons of old pictures and postcards.

    Reply

  38. Giulia says

    At our last house we planned our post right were a big chunk of bedrock was hanging out. Not fun to get the 4 feet of depth needed for a Canadian deck even with a breaker! We also found some beautiful broken tile, which we assume came from the original house sitting on the lot.
    Our decking demo will happen this summer and I’m collecting inspiration for this next project! Hopefully no bedrock.

    Reply

  39. heather says

    Our sits on the old foundation of an old farm which burnt down. So we have found tons of little things in our yard but nothing of monetary value. It’s been cool to use all the old hinges for things, see the types of toys people played with, etc.

    Actually, I take the monetary value back. We have found a mass amount of granite slabs that were used for foundation work back in the day. Including some smaller pieces. We’ll be using them to hard scape around our yard and build a stone fireplace in the house.

    Reply

    • Elsie says

      Heather,
      Depending on their age and condition, some old toys can be quite valuable. If they look older than the 1980’s, it might be worthwhile to look them up.

    • heather says

      We’ve thought about it! We definitely have some that are much older, old trucks, etc. They’re in pretty bad shape though but we keep them stored in the house.

  40. alex says

    My boyfriends childhood home is old old old…like late 1800’s old, just a simple square farm house and they recently had to replace the floor and jack up the house and when they did they found really old soda bottles, old iron toy soliders and a few coins.

    Reply

  42. Corrie says

    Okay, I just have to tell you about all the stuff we dig up. We live downtown, also known as “inner city,” in a neighborhood that is being revitalized. We live in a new house that was built on a lot where the old house was torn down. We just moved in this past December, so this spring is our first adventure in digging. We have found vintage spam cans, bits of glass, liquor bottles, chip bags, t-shirts, sardine cans, parts of a toilet (it has the year “1931” engraved in it), many bricks, old keys, pieces of metal, and a wide variety of other things. This is not something we were expecting! But we really do love living here and being a part of changing a neighborhood. We have been laying a cobblestone walkway using a mold and quick-krete, so we’ve been putting some of the brightly colored pieces of glass and china in the quick-krete to add color and memories. :) I’ll have to send a picture when we finish.
    Corrie

    Reply

  43. Sara says

    My house growing up was built on an old junk yard, we found all sorts of cool springs, brake pieces and other car parts whenever we planted anything. The not so cool thing we found was huge oil spots where nothing would grow, we’d dig into the dirt and hit an oil slick!

    Reply

  44. Karen F says

    We haven’t found anything cool in our yard (and our house was built in 1920, so I’m kind of surprised!) but we did dig up a ton of weeds this weekend, so I can appreciate the amount of work you guys did! It’s nice to do something that has such immediate results!

    Reply

  45. Anne Marie Laney says

    close to a dinosaur bone. we live in texas.. and of course everyone knows it used to be a ocean. we found a fossilized ammonite in our flower bed! really weird to think long ago our house would be under several hundred feet of ocean water!

    Reply

  46. Hannah says

    When we demoed our kitchen we found two beer cans in the wall that said “Proud Sponsors of the 1988 Summer Olympics.” I wonder how many more are hiding in the walls of our house…

    Reply

  48. Pamela @ Pink Hammers & Sippy Cups says

    Oh my that looks so much better! And I wish we only had bricks in our yard! Practically our entire yard is covered in carpet!! Like omg!! It would be fine if the yard was at least level but it’s all hilly so we have to rip it all up and level it, what work! We’ve also found a ton of tires! *sigh*

    Reply

  49. John@Our Home From Scratch says

    Feels good to clear brush. Looks much better.

    My buddy, who lives near South St in Philly, found leg and hip bones in his yard when he was adding piers for a roof deck. The cops told him they were from a dog, but for a while there he thought it would be “Cold Case” all over his house!

    Reply

  50. Shannon says

    Congrats to Azar on the win, but I really wanted that one. I made my husband get rid of his nasty Lazy Boy when we were first dating and would have loved to surprise him with a beautiful, new one! Lazy Boy has come a long way. Gorgeous stuff.

    We were doing some work on my mother in laws house at Smith Mountain Lake and found a 1960’s fireman’s hat in great condition. We took it to the local firehouse and they auctioned it off at the annual fundraising cookout!

    Reply

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