The Backyard Discovery

Walked into my backyard shed this weekend, tripped over a dusty volleyball net I bought last summer. Forgot about it completely. Picked it up, thought about playing with the kids on the driveway concrete. Bad idea. Knees won’t like that. Then looked down at the old worn-out hardwood floor in the shed. Lightbulb moment. “Why not put the net here?,” I mumbled.

The DIY Disaster Begins

Got way too excited. Grabbed a tape measure first. Measured the shed floor – roughly 15 feet long and 10 feet wide. Good enough for bumping the ball around. Next problem? The floor looked like crap. Faded finish, scratches everywhere. Sand it? Yeah, right. Borrowed a neighbor’s orbital sander. Plugged it in, grabbed medium grit paper.

Big mistake number one:

• Just started sanding randomly like a maniac.
• Kicked up a dust storm so thick I couldn’t see my own hands after two minutes.
• Forgot a dust mask. Coughed for an hour straight. Eyes burned.
• Ended up with weird uneven patches. Some spots too rough, some spots still shiny and untouched. Looked like a cow chewed on it.

Calling in Backup (Sort Of)

Gave up on sanding the whole thing. Wiped down the mess with a wet rag – took forever. Okay, focus on the worst parts. Found some leftover water-based poly from a kitchen project years ago. Hah! Opened it. Chunky. Like cottage cheese floating in pee. Tried to stir it. Nope. Scraped it off my stick and dumped the whole can. Great. Wasted trip to the hardware store for new poly. Bought the cheapest quart.

Applied it with an old brush I found. Strokes were all over the place, left bubbles and brush hairs stuck in it. Dog walked across it when I went for coffee. Tiny golden retriever paw prints forever captured in the finish near the door. Classic.

Getting the Court Ready

Let it dry overnight. Smelled weird. Really weird. Dog sneezed a lot. Next morning, screwed some old pipe clamps onto the shed walls, about 7 feet up. Draped the volleyball net over them, clipped it tight with zip ties. Looked awful, but solid. Hauled out an old beach volleyball we had. Tossed it onto the “court.”

Surprise: The ball didn’t bounce too badly on the smoothed patches! The paw print area? Dead spot. But everywhere else… decent. Kids came out. Knocked the ball around. It rolled funny towards the uneven door frame corner every time. We laughed about it. Called the court “Roughneck Arena.”

Job Done. Mostly.

Yeah, it looks messy. Sanding was a failure, the finish is patchy with bubbles and dog prints, and the net’s hanging crooked. But hey, it works! The ball bounces. Kids had fun for an hour. Back doesn’t hurt from concrete. Total cost? One quart of cheap poly and some zip ties. Would I do it again? Probably. But next time, I’m paying someone to sand the damn floor. Or just using concrete. It’s volleyball. It’s messy already.