History: Putting in the Yard

Well, it's Sunday afternoon and I'm waiting for my iPod to finish syncing before we head over to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Dad's 53rd birthday. I actually wiped my iPod clean and started over, so it's taking a while to fill up again. So I thought I'd take a few minutes to post a few before and after pics of our house as we put in the yard this past fall (October). Those that were here over Christmas never saw the grass and therefore cannot fully appreciate the work we've put into the house already.

First, I need to give props to Dad and little Scotty for helping get this project underway. Scott really helped out by helping me prep and cover the sprinkler trenches. He rightfully earned the nickname "teaspoon" because it took him 2 or 3 passes to get the same amount of dirt in the shovel that Dad or I could get in one. As the project went on he earned his way to "tablespoon" as he increased his output. But, joking aside, we sincerely thank both him and Dad for their help with the sprinklers. (PS - Scott - as you know, we still need to install the heads - more work this spring!)

Here's a couple of front views of the house the Friday evening before the project:

Notice the huge mounds of dirt - actually a mixture of dirt and steer manure which left a pleasant odor for the neighbors for a about a week or two. I was a little nervous that the guy we hired to do the grading wasn't going to show before the sod was delivered. He came early on Saturday morning and pushed the dirt around, leveling out the grade and moving the excess to the back for a garden (which we hope to plant for the first time this year). As the grading was being finished the sod was delivered. By this time it was between 8 and 9 AM and we weren't expecting people to come help until early afternoon. Fortunately we have great neighbors - several people were called on short notice and we had a crew of 6 people within the hour. We started throwing the sod by about 9:30 or 10 and we had the yard done by about noon.

Now for the "after" pics:


We were the only ones on our street to get grass in before the snow came. We're really glad because we've seen the muddy messes that our neighbors have had. That alone was worth the extra effort to get the yard put in.

We have a number of other projects in the queue, but waiting for the time and $ to get them done. I think our next mini project will be painting/decorating the downstairs 1/2 bath. That should only take part of a Saturday...