The Saga Ends (Almost)

It is the end of February now and all that remains to do is to shape up the court, put the drainage in and put the sand in. Like I said in the last blog though, I have to let the rains subside and the court dry out. Any tractor that went into the pit right now would be spinning mud all over the place.

I talked with Mark to see what days would work for him. We finally settle on a Monday and Tuesday that we will both be in town in June. Works for me since we have to let everything dry out anyways and that will probably take through April. Mark sets up all the heavy equipment we need to rent as well as sets up the shipments of sand that will be coming in.

I posted a little about putting in the sand back in June. Basically I flew back from Atlanta on Sunday night but got stuck in Vegas due to a cancelled flight to SB. Had to get back though so I rented a car and burned the midnight oil as well as the freeways. Got home at 6:30am with the sun coming up and Mark about 20 minutes away from showing up. Started shaping things up at 7:30am and finished that up by the end of the day. Not as easy as it sounds to shape up a volleyball court. Kind of a long process.

The next day the sand was due to arrive around 1pm. In the morning we put in a special french drainage system and did some knick knacks to prepare the court for the sand. Sand started coming in at the requested time. I believe it ended up being about 10 or 12 loads of sand. A load being a semi-truck bed with 2 beds per truck. Mark was hustling moving the sand from the dumping end of the court to the other end. Thank God for heavy equipment. We got all the sand in and spread it out by nightfall. The court, minus net and lines, looked fantastic.

Two days later I left for Charleston and then on to Europe for a couple of weeks. Needed to focus on my job rather than putting up the court. I wanted to put up the court but I needed to dig some holes in the sand and measuring ect... I started the process but didn't get it done until mid-September. Took a lot more adjusting than I had thought it would. I should have had the AVP crew to come over and put it in. They are the professionals. Have to give a huge Thank You to Dave Culpepper from the AVP crew. Without him I would never had been able to put up the net. Thanks Dave!!

So now I have a court to play on in the backyard. We have had a bunch of family games with girls against boys. My wife and daughter vs. the son and I. I have to say the boys have been pretty dominant so far. :) We play a half court kind of game rather than the full court. Probably be a year until both kids can go for full court play. Lots of fun though. Probably play tonight since the high temp is supposed to be about 85 degrees today. Yesterday was beautiful.

The almost part of the post is because the court morphed into doing a ton of landscaping. We put a very nice brick wall around the majority of the court to hold the dirt and water out from the mounds. (The court is slightly sunken in from the level of the ground around.) We put in a bunch of sod throughout places in the yard that had been dirt. We put flagstone walkways where there had been dirt walkways throughout the yard. That part is almost done. We put in a second wall on the other side of the mounds to hold in dirt and water from running into the yard. Basically our mounds are surrounded by block walls. Looks really nice and the guys putting it in are doing a great job. Although it ain't cheap. Have a guy putting a metal grille over a window that could be broken on the guest house. Wanted to have that done before I have any serious games on the court. We have to finish up some landscaping on the mounds as well. Put in some lavender and stuff like that. Something that when the ball flies into it will not pop the ball but at the same time will not die.

The sand cost about $10,000 and we put 3 different types of sand in. The first 6 inches was building sand which isn't the best to play on but is about 3 times less $$$ than the good sand. The next layer was the good sand but had not been dried out to kill any plant seeds ect... The third layer was the good stuff but dried out. That is the most expensive and we topped off the court with about 6 inches of the stuff. The middle of the court is about 2 feet deep and the outer part of the court is about a foot deep. Probably a little more than I needed but it helped with the drainage and I don't think we are ever going to have to worry about hitting bottom on this court.

The landscaping and other stuff is costing a bundle. Not really sure how much that will end up running as it is on going still. Some of it we would have done regardless as it needed to be done to improve the yard. The flagstone not only looks nicer but helps keep the dirt out of the house. The stones will be surrounded by grass so there won't be any dirt areas that kids and dogs will be walking on and tracking it in the house. Should be done with it all by the new year and everything will look great come training time in February, March and April. Looking forward to it.