Backyard View

San Diego, here I come. ANNOUNCER: Matt Blashaw is crashing Southern California. I know you have one guy working in your yard. But how about another? ANNOUNCER: And he's on a mission to give someone a brand new yard. Really? Is this serious? Are you serious? ANNOUNCER: Oh, he's serious. And whoever takes him home will get the ultimate backyard getaway, complete with a huge paver patio, a relaxing shade structure, a water feature, and a barbecue island bar. What is this? Yard Crashers? It actually is. No. You want to take me home? ANNOUNCER: Professional contractor Matt Blashaw stakes out home improvement stores. I'm giving away gold. ANNOUNCER: Looking for do-it-yourselfers who need an extra hand from a pro. I don't know. ANNOUNCER: What they don't know is he's gonna transform their simple project into a total backyard makeover. WOMAN: It's amazing. ANNOUNCER: It's like winning the landscape lottery. Yes. MATT: Here we go. You looking for me? Well, that depends on what you're doing. You do? Yard crasher. You know how many people wait for this opportunity? No. No, no names. No names. Come on, San Diego. What is your name? Yeah. And then there's Matt Muenster. Okay, don't get me confused. What should my name be? 'Cause there's a Matt Muenster. How about Matty? Matty. Done. We get a name card, right there, editor. Matty Blashaw. You guys are in the expensive zone. Yeah, dreaming. You're in the-- Oh, is this the dream zone? Let's just dream together. What are you guys doing? We're actually here to buy some grass seed today. I burned the grass with some fuel. You what? I burned the grass. I was lighting some wood on fire using some gasoline. I didn't think the lighter fluid was enough, 'cause I had a lot of wood. And then the fire caught up and went into the container I was holding. So I just poured it all over the grass and put a little burn hole in my grass. I landscape. That's what I do. So how about you take me home? I don't know about that. You almost burned down your house. Right? What's the catch? No catch. The catch is that you just say yes. That's the only thing you need to do and I take care of the rest. But what do I need to convince you right now? Do I need to dance? I don't dance. You serious? I boogie. Show me your boogie. Show me how to boogie? ( laughing ) All right. Yeah? Doesn't matter what we do in your backyard. We just got to go right now. Let's do it. Yeah. You say 'yes'. Mrs. Pants? Let's do it. I'm in. All right, man. I'll tell you what. I'll meet you guys right up front. All right, the dream starts now. We're taking Matt home because Jessica thought he was good-looking. Right over here. I mean, in terms of luck, we never won anything. But, um...I think now our luck might be changing. Okay, let's boogie. MATT: Back through here? JESSICA: Yes. All the way. MATT: All right, back through here. Oh, it's tiny. JESSIE: Yeah. MATT: It's small. You got some grass. JESSIE: A little bit. We put that in recently, but that's about it. That's it. Okay, is this yours? JESSIE: That's our yard as well. JESSICA: Yeah, that's all ours. Whoa. Hey, neighbors. It's so unusable. Yeah. But you do have kind of a view. We do. All right. Yes. We do and that's one of the issues we're having as we-- I mean, especially at night with the sunset and even with the sunrise. I mean, those mountains are beautiful and this fence pretty much blocks it all. So what's the issues you guys have? Well, I think the biggest issues we're having right now is there's no shade. Also, there's not that much room for entertaining the family. We have family over a lot. We have barbecue. MATT: This is not entertainment? JESSIE: Yeah, come on. The Shamu pool? Yeah, you invite the friends over and you have an old, Shamu pool. That's the pool party right there. You got a patio. Obviously, you don't like this either because the jackhammer took to it. JESSIE: Yep. MATT: Okay. JESSICA: We wanted to make it a little bigger like he said for entertaining family and... Yeah, 'cause this is not a party pad. No way. This is just small. I can't boogie on that. MATT: No. This is what we're gonna do, okay? I'm gonna come in here with a gang of people. Okay. All right, we're gonna rock it out in 2 days. Any questions for me? No. All right, 2 days. I'll see you guys soon. ( honking ) ALL: Yeah! Here we go. And a good morning, San Diego. You ready? All right, excitement. I've got an amazing San Diego crew with me. Yep. All right, this is Jesse Cryns. He's from JCMS Landscaping. And then right next to him, that is Steven Letz from Letz Design and Landscape. ALL: Yes. Come on, San Diego. Let's go to the backyard. Let's go. You guys ready to see this? Yes. This is the new stuff. JESSIE: Whoo. JESSICA: Oh, my gosh. ANNOUNCER: Matt's design starts with a barbecue island bar for entertaining and a pergola covered with a shade cloth. So it is gonna be nice and cool back here. ANNOUNCER: A water feature surrounded by a low-maintenance garden, a massive paver patio, artificial turf, and a horizontal fence to take advantage of the view. Yeah, we love it. Good, excellent. Well, now we have to destroy your yard. Does that sound good? Oh, yeah. Well, let's get to it. Demo, guys, come on. Let go. This isn't a good-- Whoa! Pop goes the fence post. ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a paver patio the DIY way. So that's two. And I'm already sweating. A hundred more to go. ANNOUNCER: The guys get an art lesson. We just got schooled. ANNOUNCER: And... broken tile becomes a killer wave. Look at it though. Step back. Isn't that nice? Surf, sun, and hopefully some bad yards. ANNOUNCER: Matt's crashing San Diego where he bumped into Jessie Graham and Jessica Dukerschein. You just have to say yes right now, I give you a brand new backyard. ANNOUNCER: They took him home and now he's crashing their yard. Right now, it looks like a tornado came through the backyard. ANNOUNCER: Demo's done. All right, close your eyes. ANNOUNCER: And the first delivery arrives. Look what I had built for you. This is your bar. And the grill area, all studded up. I love it, dude. Let's get this thing off. There we go. We want a nice, steady barbecue. So what we're going to do is we're going to put the cement board on it. ANNOUNCER: They use self tapping screws to attach the cement board and trim head screws for the face. There you go. Perfect, see that? Now it's nice and smooth for when we tile over it. ANNOUNCER: Out back, the crew sets the new fence posts with concrete... and dig 18 inch holes for the pergola posts. Nearby, friends prime the old shed and the crew hangs the fence rails on the new steel posts. Then they measure, cut, and attach wood posts every 4 feet. Out front... All right, let's see how you did. You got all of them? JESSIE: It should all be in there. Well done, sir. Well done. All right, so let's get the mosaic going on this. This is the front of the bar and this where I want that little piece of mosaic to go in. So it could be anything you want, but I'm thinking San Diego. Waves. Yeah. So I want you just to draw from here. Okay, just give me a nice wave. All right. Dude, that's great. Kind of looks like a slug. Yeah, not quite the wave you were looking for, huh? We don't have the best waves in San Diego. All right, you know what? Let's call the artistic side of the marriage. All right? Let me go grab her. Why don't you just throw some erase action on that? I'll be right back, all right? No problem. This didn't turn out to be a wave. So can you give us a wave? Yeah, let me try. Okay, let's go, Da Vinci. Something like that? We just got schooled. That's a wave. Back to the backyard. Thank you. All right, so you and I, we're gonna break up some tile. ANNOUNCER: They strike the tiles on the back to break them into little pieces. All right, let's glue and go, baby. ANNOUNCER: And apply it with construction adhesive. So we're good to grout. ANNOUNCER: Final step, remove the excess with a sponge. Now we're starting to see the pieces shine through, baby. Whoa, the San Diego wave. Jessica may have done the drawing, but, man, you're all art in there. Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful job. ANNOUNCER: On the patio, the crew dumps base rock and compacts. They spread one inch of sand base and screed it smooth. Now it's ready for pavers. The great news, I got you some nice, big, heavy pavers. The bad news, I got you some nice, big, heavy pavers. Okay, so we're gonna lay our first row. The trick to this when you do it is that you don't want to set it down into that sand. Okay, you want to tilt it back towards you, hit it on the other paver. Just like that. Okay, and then just drop it down. Go. Nice. All right. And I'm already sweating. A hundred more to go. What I'm learning about the pavers is how to place them. Can you give me a push? You need to get the Bobcat? I wouldn't have thought it would have to be everything so precise. Any little bit of sand against these other pavers Okay. One thing going wrong will lead to everything else just falling out. ANNOUNCER: They lay the pavers and level with a mallet. Feel them with your hands. All right, that's how you can really feel if one's lipping or not. Yeah, see this one's lipping a little bit? Just give it a little tap. Oh. You got it. We're done. Nice, look at that already. Yeah. Brightening up the yard, too. It's not brightening up my back. All right, let's keep going, come on. Let's go. Move, move. ANNOUNCER: As day 1 comes to an end, the crew runs conduit for the barbecue island bar. And the fence boards go up on the new horizontal fence. Here we go, bring it in. End of day 1. Let me give you some positivity here. Yeah. It's great. Look how gorgeous that is. And that little cut out, I mean, it's like looking at a picture frame, right there. So we're making good progress on that where we are lacking big time are those pavers. That's right. So we have to make progress tonight. Let's go! Overtime, baby. ANNOUNCER: Coming up, the do's and don'ts of tiling. Whoa. That's all right. ANNOUNCER: Plus, how to lock in a paver patio without edging. Just like that, okay? All right. Now when that dries, that's set. No. ANNOUNCER: And-- Definitely. ANNOUNCER: Gardening the easy way. Someone want to toss Matt a shovel? MATT: No, no, I'm good. ANNOUNCER: For Matt's favorite projects and tips, head on over to the Crashers page at diynetwork.com/crashers. Good morning, San Diego. ANNOUNCER: It's day 2 of this So-Cal yard crash. Overnight, Matt and the crew finished the fence, painted the house and tried to finish laying all those pavers. Late night last night and we didn't get done with those pavers, so we have to put our heads down and just get to it. We got a ton of work still left to do. All right? So I'll tell you what. You help with the pavers. You and I are gonna do the bar. You guys, we can do this right? JESSICA: Yes. Absolutely, we can do this. Come on, San Diego, let's go. Wrap it up. Let's go, here we go, day 2, come on. ANNOUNCER: While Jessica lays pavers, the crew digs a border for the artificial turf. They set the bender board and compact the base. Nearby... Tiling the bar. All right, sir. The tile that we're going to use is just ceramic tile. We are just going to butter the backs so we can see that line. You have to do a little butter action. Just to butter it, you just want to get that thin set on. Just like that. Because then you're gonna come back with your notched trowel here. You're just gonna run that notched trowel on the back and that's gonna give us our line right there. Buttering the tiles is cool. You see Matt do it. It looks really easy because he's skilled at it. And then when you get going, you kind of mess at first. So it's kind of frustrating. But once you get the hang of it, it actually is pretty easy. It's just like toast, just butter it up, but you don't put toast on anything. But you put this thing on something. I think we're good to go. It's a thing of beauty. All right, buddy, you're tile setting now. Okay? Just like you would a paver or something. Set it to the side and just drop it in. Just like a paver. Done a lot of those in my lifetime, Matt. ANNOUNCER: Jessie sets the tiles and adds spacers. JESSIE: And then this space will be filled in with grout. MATT: Yes. Beautiful. All right, let's keep on going with this thing. Okay. ANNOUNCER: Nearby, the crew digs an 18 inch hole for the water feature. They place the base in and level. Okay, last course here. Okay, for the last ones, this is our edge. So we have to lock them into place. Now the big ones, they're not moving. Mm-hmm. You know how heavy those things are? Very heavy. So the smaller cuts that we have, we're gonna make a little mortar bed. So go ahead and take your fingers and just give me like a little trough, right here. ANNOUNCER: They channel down to the base. MATT: Scoop that off, so you keep that nice, smooth paver. ANNOUNCER: And filled with mortar. Should I put more in the middle? Very good. Yeah, oh, yeah, little bit. Even if it squirts out in front, don't worry. It's fine? Yeah, just like that. I'm gonna smooth it out a little bit. Okay, got a nice little bed there. Okay, let's get this one into place. And let it drop. Just like that. All right. Now when that dries, it's set. Ain't moving? All right. What? We're not moving any pavers anymore. Sand, fiber plate, then we're done. Just grab some of the sand and just move it back and forth. Slowly just moving it back and forth into those joints. ANNOUNCER: They lay plywood to protect the pavers. Just like that. ANNOUNCER: And compact. That should do it. Perfect. And you got yourself a patio. All right, still quick. Pergola needs to go up. ANNOUNCER: Midway through day 2, the crew attaches support beams to the pergola. They screw on a 2 x 2 ledger and run rafters 2 feet on center. Down below, Jessie grouts the countertop. And Jessica and the crew lay landscape fabric for the artificial turf. Then it's time for plants. You wanted a low-maintenance garden? Definitely. I'm giving you low-maintenance, okay? Now how you get low-maintenance is with succulents. So I brought you a ton of succulents and this one's one of the coolest. This is called echiveria and it's hens and chicks is the common name. And that's because underneath it has these little offshoots that come off. You see this little baby? Like the chick, okay? When we plant these, you got to be really careful, 'cause they're fragile. But these are extremely low-maintenance. Don't take a lot of water and all you have is these little flowering offshoots. All you have to do, just like once they bloom. Lop them off. That's it. Very low-maintenance. Sounds good? All right, so we're going to plant this right here. Go ahead and get a hole right in there. Someone want to toss Matt a shovel? No, no, I'm good. I'm good. I like watching you sweat. That's good. Okay, so we're bringing in some ground cover, too. So we want it to sit a little bit above. All right, that's it. Nice. Okay, let's go. We're running out of time. Who wants to dig? Too bad, get in here. ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a planting pot becomes a water feature. Looks complicated, but it's actually pretty easy. ANNOUNCER: And the big reveal. Whoa... Money. Are you kidding me? I want to pick you just because you're carrying three energy drinks and you have a Teen Wolf T-shirt on. ANNOUNCER: When Matt crashed San Diego, he ran into Jessica and Jessie. You guys are in the expensive zone. Yeah, dreaming. So let's dream together. ANNOUNCER: He crashed their yard. Now it's time to finish up this massive 2-day transformation. Good. Yep. And the stucco mix we're gonna use, we can just do one coat and we're good to go. All right, remember when we put those flush screws in? This is where it's coming in real handy. Goes right over it. Well, we would have to float all those screw heads, but here we don't. All right, we just have to float these in the bottom. This side, next side, and then we're done with the barbecue finally, my man. ANNOUNCER: On the patio, the crew nails 2 x 2 lattice onto the pergola. Then the shades sail goes up. Down below... Water feature time. ANNOUNCER: Matt and Jessica plum the water feature. All right, you ready to hit it? Here we go. Nice. ANNOUNCER: Final step, cover the basin with rock. Beautiful. Right, let's get some ground cover in. Finish this place up. ANNOUNCER: The crew paints the island, the artificial turf goes down, and the grill comes in. Off we go. Slide it back. Whoa... Money. ANNOUNCER: A few final touches and this crash comes to a close. Before our yard was crashed, we had no view. We got some beautiful mountains behind and it looks great, but we couldn't see any of that. There was no shade. We didn't have a lot of room for entertaining the family. Now that our yard's been crashed, we definitely have some very cool areas. I love the artificial turf, kind of an area for our son to come out and play around in. We got a big patio to entertain the family. The water fountain is amazing as well. The bar is great. JESSICA: And the flowers, the flowers look great. They look a lot better than the weeds we tried to grow before. You know what we need? We need to backyard boogie. Come on, man, do it. Do the backyard boogie. Yeah. That's nice, man. You got to patent that. Look at this incredible backyard. It breathes now. Look at the back, you didn't see that before. A beautiful pergola giving you tons of shade. You got pavers for days, all the way out to the water feature, custom bar with a custom mosaic and it represents San Diego so well. You love it? Good, enjoy. I will. Game on. We're out. Let's go!