99% done

Waterfall is done... lights are done... fish are in... I just need a nice statue for the top marsh area and you guessed it... more rocks! The left side isn't complete yet and also need to move all that dirt! I've been lazy, I will try to finish that side this week but it is basically complete. A lot of hard work but I'd do it again!

waterfall...BOOOM

Waterfall is running and I put in a couple fish. It was too dark to take pictures of the fish but I will take some soon. I still need to finish the rocks on the outside wall and above the waterfall. I'm 85% done!

weekend update

I drained the pond this weekend so I could powerwash the liner. You can see how dirty it gets from all of the rocks. I also installed my pump and filled in lava rock in the marsh area. I constructed the PVC pipe connector so the water would rise evenly. If you do not make something like this, a big piece of lava rock could get jammed in the tube and it will slow the water down.

I plugged in my 6,000 gallon per hour pump saturday night and..... it wasn't strong enough! so, i went to North Hills Water Garden and bought a 10,000 gph pump and that did the job. Right now I am waiting for the cement to dry on the spill rock. I will update pictures once the hydraulic cement is dry and the water is flowin!

new pics

first picture is very dark. I went outside today to take more pictures but it is raining. It should clear up around 1pm so I will take more. It is almost done, I just need more rocks!!!!!!!!!

MORE!

Updated Pond Pictures

I finally have my liner in and started my waterfall. Before putting in the liner, you need to have some kind of underlayment. You can buy this or do it the cheap way (like me). I decided to use carpet from my house that I ripped out. If I did not have the carpet available, I could have used newspaper and sand, but carpet is a better choice. The idea is to cover all of the dirt with carpet so the liner has a smooth surface to lay on (this also prevents roots from growing through the liner). Once I placed the carpet in, I stretched the massive 45 mil liner across my yard and began forming it into the pond. This took a while because it is extremely heavy and very hard to manage. Since the liner is so big and there are a lot of edges in my pond, the liner will have many creases. This is not a big deal because it will be covered by rocks. I filled the pond and started stacking my waterfall rocks. These pictures show the early stages of the rock work and may change as I continue working. MORE TO COME!

THE BEGINNING

I am starting a Koi Pond in my backyard!
I meant to take photos before I started digging but I got waaay too excited and forgot all about it. My first design looked nothing like this. I was going to have an 8 by 12 rectangle built up 2 feet above ground and 3 feet below ground but my design changed completely.

I completed the hard part (digging) and now I am working on the waterfall. The basic idea is to create a wall and "marsh" area for the waterfall. The water will be pumped up from the bottom pond, and will filter through rocks/plants in the above marsh that you will see in future photos. The cinder blocks will be covered by rocks and it will look very natural. Stay tuned for more.

worst day ever

So, I had a pretty crappy week at work last week. A lot of stress and all i wanted to do was go out and do some fishing on Saturday with my friends. After waking up at 5am to get an early start on trout, I kind of had a weird feeling about the day. I met my friend Jeremy at Pine Creek and we did not catch one fish. We decided to go to Moraine State Park and fish on my boat. Well, after we picked up Jeremy's gear, my Yukon would not start (bad battery). So there was 90 dollars on a new battery. We start heading up to Moraine, hit a lot of traffic, but we made it. We met my buddy Jim from work and I still had this bad feeling. We drop my boat into the water.... I turn the key... engine does not start. At this moment... I am so mad. We can't fix the motor so we decide to fish at a pond because I just want to catch one stinkin fish.... well.... this video kinda sums up my frustration and how unsuccessful the day was...

http://vimeo.com/4301866

I can look back and laugh at it now but man.... what a horrible day.

Home!!!

front


side


back


driveway / private road


garage / boat


living room


dining room


guitar / office?


1st floor bathroom


stairway


We are still working on the upstairs bedrooms, kitchen, and basement.
I will post them as soon as we are finished!

1stPost - the crew

yo! this is matt! (the handsome fella about to destroy that cake)
i will be posting random things to this blog.

This first post is to introduce the smochkos.
1.) Matt (a.k.a. Smoch)
2.) Kelly (a.k.a. KelsBels)
3.) Niko (a.k.a. MegaMan)
4.) George and Charlie (a.k.a. ?)