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Desperate Landscape: Bachelor Pad A bachelor with a busy schedule and a rather embarrassing home exterior gets some help with the yard he's been neglecting. From "Desperate Landscapes" episode DDSL-101

Homeowner Brandon Delis

In this installment of Desperate Landscapes, a young bachelor gets help transforming his own desperate landscape so his neighbors will stop complaining.

Landscape pro Jason Cameron heads out to Edgehill Lane where Brandon Delis's home is desperate for some attention. Brandon is busy with work and a charity organization he founded. That's why his porch is falling apart, his sidewalk is busted and his landscape is overgrown. Jason and the Desperate Landscapes crew have the landscaping tips, tools and tricks to fix up Brandon's yard in just one day.

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The basic steps in this landscape rescue, as seen in episode 101 of DIY's Desperate Landscapes, are summarized below.

Before

Before

After

After

The porch is damaged by age, wear and overgrowth of invasive wisteria.

Brandon's porch is in serious disrepair. Some of the railings are falling off and it is lacking trim. These are all easy fixes with some DIY help from Jason Cameron.

Porch Railing

• Examine railing to make sure the wood is in good shape.

• To install railing, cut a couple of blocks of wood to hold the railing up at the desired height (figure A). This will make it easier to install.
  

  	Figure A
  	Figure B
  	Figure C

• The railing can be attached using exterior grade screws, a hammer and nail or a 16-gauge pneumatic nailer with galvanized nails (figure B).

• If you use a nailer, follow the manufacturer's instructions for use.
  
  
• Sometimes when using a nailer, the nails don't go all the way in. Simply use a nail set to drive in the nails (figure C).

• After the nails are in, fill any holes with wood putty.

• Allow to dry.

• Sand and paint.

Porch Trim

Brandon chose trim to match the house. For the top trim, he chose casing molding. For the bottom, he chose 1x6 pine cut with miter and chamfer cuts. He used an adjustable miter saw to cut the trim to desired lengths. Here are the basic steps:

Figure D

• Attach trim using a nail gun.
  
• Fill in gaps wood putty (figure D).
  
• Let dry.
  
• Sand.
  
• Paint.

Figure E

Painting the Porch

• Use stiff wire brushes to scrape the porch (figure E).
  
• Scrape in the directions of the wood grain.
  
• Use quality exterior paint.
  
• Paint with even strokes.

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