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The stakes are high in the first elimination round as the teams strap on their toolbelts and plan their backyards builds. From grill gazebos and pergolas to play structures for the kids, each family adds entertaining areas, shady spots for relaxation and tons of fun to their final design. Which teams will move forward to compete for the title of Best on the Block?
About Backyarding:
Master landscape designer Tyler Banken and carpentress Rachel Taylor host a battle for the title of “Turf Master” as neighbors snap into action, taking their yards from wilted wasteland to green oasis. The sun isn’t the only thing keeping it hot – each episode, families face off to complete challenges and elevate their spaces, creating the perfect outdoor escape. Served with a side of grilling and outdoor entertainment, the ultimate backyard showdown is right at your doorstep!
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– Ever look at your neighbor’s backyard and wonder, “How did they create that?” – Well, we did too. – [Rachel] Welcome to Backyarding. Where in six short days, four families battle it out- – [Tyler] through a series of challenges- – [Rachel] fighting to be crowned best on the block.
I’m Rachel Taylor, carpentress extraordinaire. – And I’m Tyler Banken, master landscape designer. And together, we’re gonna help these families whip their backyards into shape one challenge at a time. – Join us as we go – [Together] Backyarding. – Welcome families! (crowd clapping) Good to see you all back again.
– Welcome back to Backyarding! We still have our four families here competing to change their drab outdoor spaces into a backyard oasis. – But today, things do get real because the family with the lowest score over the last four days will be going home. – But no one leaves Backyarding empty-handed. You’re all gonna get products today from Backyard Discovery to help enhance your outdoor space and make it a lot of fun. – Our last winner yesterday was Team Red. Gary and Tiffany and JJ, congratulations! You did a great job with your repurposing and upcycling with your furniture. You ready for challenge number one today? Challenge number one is all about organizing your space and making room for fun. – And challenge two is building it for fun. – Are you ready to transform your spaces and have some fun? – [Collectively] Yeah! – [Rachel] All right, let’s go! – Ready, set, have fun! – Woo! – Okay, well let’s get organized. Our first challenge. Oh, we should definitely move these. – [Chris] Yeah. – We’re gonna have the play structure on that area, so maybe… – Oh yeah, we could put them over there – We set them over there?
– so we can like hang out while the kids are playing. – Yeah and watch them play and make sure they stay safe. – Okay. – You get the chairs, I get the table. How about that? – Okay, yeah. All right, sounds good. – Hey guys! – Hi! – Hey, good morning. – Hello! – Y’all got to work! – I mean, you have really put some effort in. Wow! – The Olympic Stain looks amazing. – [Rachel] It really pulled all of these pieces together. – The plants on top, detail!
Let’s talk about the placement of some of our other items. Should we go through the rendering? – [Aisha] Yes! – Be sure that everything’s confirmed and good to go? – Yeah, let’s have a look. – Want to sit down? – Sure! – We have a place. – And now that everything is clean
And organized, we can really visualize your design with our rendering. The Backyard Discovery raised planter, we’ve got here on the left, you all stained to match the cabinet and then… – [Rachel] The Echo Heights play structure. – [Tyler] It’s gonna look so great over there in that corner. – [Rachel] Fantastic.
– [Chris] I can’t wait. – [Tyler] Y’all surprised us by staining chairs to match. – My goodness. I mean, they came out beautifully. – Yes. The Olympic stain pops on those as well. They’re gonna look so great under the tree. So you could sit there and watch the kids play.
– [Rachel] And then, the pergola. – [Tyler] Yes! – [Rachel] Oh my gosh. It’s gonna look great right there against the ADU. – Great job guys. You ready to build? – I think so. – Okay? – Got some work. – Okay, 1, 2, 3, let’s go! – Hi. – Hey guys. – Look at you, just relaxing in the shade. – Can we sit down? – Please, join us. – Okay. So we are going to be organizing and moving things around to make space for your larger items that have been given to you by Backyard Discovery.
Tell us how you’re gonna organize things. – I wanna clean up a lot under our existing pergola. Make a lot of space there so we can make that into a really nice adult seating area. We’re moving the metal bench over to where the playhouse was
And we’re gonna make that area where it was a nice adult seating area. – Beautiful. Barbecue. – Great. – Backyard Discovery gave us a grill gazebo, which is made of cedar, and it got an insulated roof to keep the temperature down 20 degrees, which is gonna be amazing for Ross.
– Yeah. – Keeping me cool while I get things hot. – There you go! Remember day one, we did our design, right? So just wanna confirm the placement of everything. So we look here, we see our grill gazebo going in right there, which is gonna be a perfect spot. Right outside the kitchen.
Then we’ve got our adult area number one. Our goal was two adult areas, so we’ll put the other one over here. We’ve got our play structure going in right here as well, so you can actually sit at both of the adult areas and watch the kids play. Be sure everyone stays entertained.
What do we think? Everybody love it? – Yeah, it’s gorgeous. – Love it. – Okay. – Amazing. – Well, hello! – [Collectively] Hi. – Day four. – Oh! – Is this the first time you’ve sat down in days and days? – Yeah. – Felt like it. – Well, y’all are doing great and speaking of sitting down this table looks amazing. – Yes. – Thank you!
– Thank you. – What are the next steps? What are you going to add next? – So we got a pergola that we’re gonna put right there – And then a swing set for my grandson, JJ. – Only your grandson. – And everybody’s gonna be so thirsty
And maybe we might have a party here. – Looks like you’re thinking you’re gonna make it to the next round, yeah? – Well fingers crossed, right? – Yeah, positive. Think positive. – Let’s revisit the design. – Of course. – Just to be sure that our placement still looks good.
Okay, we have the 16 by 12 foot Trenton Pergola from Backyard Discovery, which is really gonna extend this already covered outdoor space. Then we’ve got the raised planter, JJ’s play set. – He’s lucky. – Right there, yes. – Right over here. So I think it’ll be perfect. – Fantastic.
– Which of the playhouses did you choose? Which model? – We chose the Endeavor II. We really liked it because it’s a tree house model, so JJ can play and it goes for multiple ages, so he won’t outgrow it too quickly. – That’s a big upgrade from our existing plastic swing.
– It’s gonna be an all new experience for the kids and the adults. It is so good to see you again. And I see someone has a little bit of a trophy. – Golden hammer. – Golden hammer. You won the last challenge. Congratulations. – Thank you. – Tell me about the pieces you all chose for your backyard. – Yeah, so we chose a playset.
Josiah will love that. We have a pergola. I think the adults will love that part as well. – So I thought we’d revisit the design, now that we’ve got stuff cleaned out. Okay? So remember this? This visual we had in the beginning. – Oh.
– So we’ve got our pergola right off the sunroom, which fits perfectly in that little nook. So it takes care of that kind of dead space in the backyard, that corner. – It frames out the space nicely. – [Tyler] The playset area is right across form the pergola,
Which would be perfect, like you said, for the adults to sit and relax, watch the kids play. You’ve got your greenery over here in the back corner. The new, freshly painted basketball court. – I love it. – I love it. – Can we just talk about the elephant in the room
For a second here? You guys really surprised us by staining this entire fence. – [Tyler] What? – [Rachel] This is at least 60 feet of fencing. – We surprised ourselves. – We surprised ourselves. – If nothing you’ll get done. – Tell me where you’re gonna put your beautiful wedding stand
That you just repurposed yesterday. – I’m already having plans of JJ’s birthday and what we were gonna put on it, and I can kind of see like some small favors. So we’ll, we’ll see. – Wonderful. – Lots of ideas. – All right, well it’s time for challenge two.
Time for you to build it. – Which is some work. – Ready? – Yes, it is. – We’re gonna let you get to it. – Watch your step. Let’s go get another box. – Okay, so we have the grill gazebo, and then a big old play structure. – Yeah. Kids are gonna love it. – Yeah, they’re gonna go nuts. – The gazebo’s in two pieces. So let’s just start with this one. Okay. – Open it up. – Open the box.
– Well this is the roof. – These are like, hinges or something. – All right, let’s see. Whoa, nice! – So we got a pergola and a play set for JJ in our backyard. – He’s gonna be a happy camper. – We just gotta get the instructions. – I heard the instructions are real easy. – Yeah, I mean from our experience with the planter,
It was super easy, so. – Right, right, right. The planter. – I’m sure these are just as easy. – A, B, C. – It’s been great doing this with you. We’re gonna have some fun. – Alright. – I like how the boxes are labeled. Makes it easy to keep track of. Oh wow. This is beautiful. – Beautiful! – Oh, he is gonna be sliding up and down and up and down. – JJ’s gonna love this. – Okay, I’m gonna start on the first box. Kind of get it open.
Let’s take a look. Oh my goodness. – You can smell the wood. Take it in. – Mm, new playset smell. All right, let’s take a look at the instructions. So when it’s all said and done, look at that. – Wow, goodness. – It’s gonna have three swings
This is gonna be the rope ladder for him. – Oh, neat. – Oh my goodness. – Little picnic table. – Oh, picnic table underneath. – And he’ll still have the telescope. – He’s got his telescope. – [Simultaneously] He’s gonna love that. – Let’s take all the hardware and put it to the side.
– Okay. – So that we don’t lose it. Okay. And then I’m gonna start moving the wood blocks back here and keeping ’em together. And then ideally we’ll keep the boxes in their own sections so it’s easier to find things. And I think this wood is naturally waterproof,
So we don’t have to deal with any rot or termites hopefully. And we can wash it pretty easy. – I’m all for easy. – You know, I am so happy that JJ has this to play with. And then when we finish this, we’ll put together the pergola
And then we have something to play with with our friends. – I’m really excited to see it all come together. – Okay, here we go. Good job, babe. Alright, we got our pergola here. Let’s get it opened up and see if the instructions are in here. – Okay.
– Feels like Christmas, you know? – Oh, baby, here they are in this one. All right, let’s see here. The instructions. – Okay, we got our parts list. We got- Oh, that’s nice and light. – Really? – Well, fairly. No, that’s great. Look at that. That’s gonna be great.
I’m looking forward to this. Alright, let’s keep working. – Oh yeah. It’s not heavy. – But feels solid. It has a real solid feel to it. – It looks beautiful. – Oh, this is great. – Hey Gi, I need a little bit of help just to finish up the structure here. – [Gigi] Coming. – (both cheering) – Yes! – Good job babe. – Thanks darling. – What do you think of the pergola? – Beautiful! So amazing. Especially you, too. You put that screw in there. – I know. I think it was my first day using a drill. – Alright, we’re almost done here babe. – This is so nice. It honestly is a lot cooler under here.
– Oh, I could use that right now. – Yeah. – Hey guys! – Hi! – My goodness! – Pergola progress. – Pergola perfection. This is just gorgeous. I am so impressed. – I just got done with some of the last screws. – What I love about this 10 by 10 pergola
Is that it’s made from a hundred percent cedar wood, which is hugely resistant to decay. It’s gonna last for a really long time. – I really like the smell of cedar in the afternoon. – Yes. – I gotta tell you, it was a lot of work, you know, like getting all these bolts,
But it was pre-drilled, pre-cut, pre-stained, you know, it just made it a lot easier than some of these other things that I’ve seen around. – Absolutely. – That’s great. – I really love the design. It’s so airy and open. The shade will really be comfortable for my mom.
– You are almost done here, huh? – Yeah, almost. – Okay, well I’m gonna jump in and give you another drill set. – Okay, wonderful. That helps. – Let’s do it. Alright. Tighten some things up here. Wow. – For the picket fence, it comes with this Picket Pal
That helps me space it out so I can really easily just pop it – Oh, that’s fantastic. – in there real nice. – That’s great. Jigs and templates really help to make the structure sound and solid. But also look fantastic. – Area looks great. – Yeah? One more? – Yeah.
Why don’t we put it like here next to this one? Kind of like give it another level. Yeah, it looks great. – Great! Thank you. Thank you. – Great job. Okay, we’ll see you later. – See you. – Looks like we’re about done, huh?
– Yeah. Yeah, I think so. – You think so? – Yeah. – All right. – Can’t wait to show it to the kids. – Great job. They’re gonna love it. – All right, come over here. 1, 2, 3, surprise. – 1, 2, 3. Look! – Look! What’s that? What is that?
You wanna go check it out? Pretty cool, huh, baby? – So what do you think? – It’s great. Now we can sit, relax, watching the kids playing. – Yeah, we can still see them – I love it. – from here. Hi! – Hi. – Babe. I can’t believe we did it.
But we did it. – We did it! – Awesome. – Good job. – Wow. – Wow. Hey guys! – Look at this. Hello! – Hello! – How are you doing? – How you feeling the little daybed, JJ? – Oh my goodness! – You enjoying it buddy? – I love it. Guys, this looks incredible. – Swinging, just getting it!
– Tyler, this plan really did come together. – Yeah. – Are you happy? – I am! – Are you happy the work is done? – Yes. – You’re set. You get to enjoy it now. – Now you can sleep, eat, relax. You wanna take us for a tour?
– Yeah. – Beautiful. All right. – Let’s do it. – Well, the pergola structure is absolutely outstanding. This is sort of the crown jewel of the backyard, wouldn’t you say? – Yes, I agree. – Oh yeah. – The pergola also can withstand, get this, up to 100 mile an hour winds.
It’s unbelievable. Those Santa Ana’s will not win. – Hey guys, listen. No matter what happens at judging today, you completely transformed this backyard. – You did. – You should be very proud of yourself, you got a nice, beautiful space to enjoy, to dine, to play, to play basketball. Congratulations. All right guys, we’ll see you later.
– See you. – See you soon. See you at judging. – Wow. I mean, so impressive! – Denise is pushing them. I love it. – Yeah. – Swinging my problems away. – Yes! I got next. – This looks great. Everything looks great. – You have very limited space for these huge structures. Tell me about what your thoughts were in positioning the play structure.
– That was tough a little bit. We put the pergola just right in between, so the focal point still comes out, and then squeezing this is another thing. Yeah. – I see you angled it slightly for the slide. – Yeah. – On the side? The swings have full clearance.
You’ve got the rock climbing structure to the rear. Plenty of room to come up and come back down. Looks like a really great plan. – Let’s go check out the pergola. – Alright. – I know y’all were building that today, too. – The Trenton pergola. I love the construction.
I love the design. You chose something really modern. I didn’t see that coming. Tell me about that choice. – We thought it’d be a good mix. We have a lot of wood in here. Instead of worrying about if the woods’ kind of color went together, we thought black.
– It’s a powder-coated construction so you can wipe it down. So this is really low maintenance. I love the coverage that it gives. – The sail shade canopy is UV protected. We can already feel a lower temperature just being in here. – Yeah. This pergola also has a outlet.
That’s the great thing. – Oh yeah. – Now I could hook up the lights. Even the bug killer. – Oh yeah. – Well, we’re super impressed. We’ll see you at judging. – Okay. – Great job guys. – Hey. – Hey. Wow! – Wow! – Hey guys, come on back.
– What do you think? – I mean, this is fantastic. – We just finished doing this. This is the Saxony grill gazebo, doesn’t it look great? – It looks amazing. – It’s gorgeous. I mean, what an extension of this patio. – It’s the perfect size. – I know, it really
Brings it all together. – Could this be a bar? – Anything could be a bar. – Any surface can be a bar. – I’m just saying. – It provides a lot more prep area and it provides another staging area, so it really makes it a lot easier even to grill.
We got the Grayson Peak swing set for the kids over here. – Ah, look at this thing. – This is everything. Rock wall, steering, telescope, slides, swings, a rope ladder, the kids have everything they want. – How was it putting it together? – It was simple, you know?
Followed the instructions, went to the BILT app and was able to just follow really easy. – So rewarding. – Yeah. – It looks great back here. – Thank you. – And this is our whole kids cove area, right? – Exactly. – We’ve got the trampoline, we’ve got the play set.
We’ve got their own little chill out area. – Yeah, they’re gonna love it. – What a great flow. – We can watch them from the adult area. – Yes, absolutely. – What a great plan. You’ve gotta be thrilled. – We are so happy with how this came out.
– We’re proud of you guys. – Thanks. – And we’ll see you later on at judging. – That’s right. Goodbye. – Okay, bye. – Thank you. – It is elimination day. – It’s gonna be really tough to see someone go, but that’s what competition’s all about. – Everyone’s yard looks totally transformed.
Such teamwork, enthusiasm. It’s just, it’s been great. Gigi and Ross. – They really just cleared everything out. They worked so hard. And they set everything up and built things beautifully, to perfection, I’m really impressed. – Yeah, that grill gazebo, – And the playset. – As well as the playset, it looked great.
– Rock wall, steering, telescope, slides, swings, a rope ladder. The kids have everything they want. – Chris and Aisha have absolutely blown me away. They transformed what was a very shady backyard. – That play set was made for that corner. – It really was. And of course the pergola for their mother-in-law.
It’s just a beautiful, beautiful setup. – Now we can sit, relax, watching the kids playing. – Hi. – Hi. – Gary, Tiffany, and JJ. – The original playset they had there. It was big. – Yeah. – It was a job to get that down. I’m proud of them for getting that down,
Getting the new one up. Little JJ is going to be so happy. – You know, I am so happy that JJ has this to play with. – The huge pergola where it is on the property, it fits perfect in that little nook. That’s kind of a dead space in the yard.
They nailed it by putting it in that area. – That’s right. It really was an extension to their outdoor patio, and now it’s just a really welcoming garden, entertaining space. – Dennis, Denise, and Victoria. – They fit so much into one space. It was unbelievable. Their clear out was phenomenal.
They really have always worked really well together. – What do you think of the pergola? – It’s beautiful! – So amazing. Especially you too. – I wasn’t sure that that pergola was going to fit in that space. – Yep. – It’s a perfect extension of their existing overhang. I just love the look.
– They wanted to bring their living area out. They did just that. – All of them did a phenomenal job. But unfortunately someone has to go and I think we kind of know who that is. – I think we know too. – Hello, families! – Welcome back. – Welcome back for day four.
– Who had fun building those products from Backyard Discovery? – They look great. – It’s a tough day because we have to eliminate one family. – Even if you don’t take home a win, you’ve got beautiful backyards. Best of the block for sure. – Gary and Tiffany, you started going into this challenge today with a total of 67 points.
Today, you all excelled. You had an existing huge play structure that you got down, removed, totally cleared from the space, brought in the new Backyard Discovery items, the pergola, the new playset, the raised planter, and it all looked amazing. Y’all did great. You got five points for teamwork
And five points for use of space for a 10. Bringing your total after today to 77 points. Gigi and Ross, y’all came into day four with a 67 point total. You had your small existing playhouse you got rid of, as well as a few other items.
You made room for the new items coming in, the barbecue gazebo, and the new play structure from Backyard Discovery. You placed everything perfectly. Great job. You got five points for teamwork and five points for use of space. – That’s a total of 10 points. Congratulations.
– Which brings your total total to 77 points. – Moving on Team Green, that’s Dennis, Denise, and Victoria. You did a fantastic job in a surprisingly small space with large structures. Excellent use of space for your planter, for your pergola, as well as the play structure.
Your score for today, nine points out of 10, bringing your total score up to a 76. – Now unfortunately, that puts them at the bottom right now. – It does. Our final family Team Blue, Aisha and Chris. You had a lot to do in terms of making space
For the new structures, bringing in those new structures, marrying them all together with the color, different levels, with your existing furniture, with all of the structures coming together so beautifully. We’re incredibly proud of you and we’re really impressed at the end result. The score that you came in with today was a 66.
Your score for today’s day four challenges. Your total is a nine out of 10. Unfortunately, that brings your total four day score to a 75, which means that you are going home. – Well it’s bittersweet, our competitive side is, is upset a little bit, but you know, as a parent, we’re happy
To spend more time with the kids. – We’re excited and enthusiastic about this new space that we have to spend time in with our kids. – Obviously, though, you’re not going home empty handed, from what I saw today, you have a pretty beautiful backyard. – You’ll have a place to build memories for years to come, including your extended family as well. We’re really happy for you and we wish you all the best. Congratulations. – Congratulations. – But that means we still have three families left coming in to day number five. Congratulations for making it this far!
We will see you tomorrow. – Rest up. – [Tyler] Coming up next on Backyarding. – [Rachel] We are now down to three families. – Challenge one is creating a menu for your possible backyard party. – You know, I really wanna incorporate our backyard. Family recipe. – Yeah, that’s your mom’s family recipe
– Challenge number two, you’ll be cooking for us. – I think this is a winning menu. – Mama mia! My taste buds are exploding right now. It hurts. I have no words. Today, one of you will be eliminated, leaving just two families to face off in the final episode of Backyarding.