Friday, June 22, 2012

Backyard Update


Here is an update on our Backyard Makeover.  We now have a stepping stone path and stairs up to the playhouse and the pathway along the wall. 


Jason and his brother Lynn built the stairs and they turned out PERFECT.  We added some pea gravel and they look and work wonderfully.



We placed the stepping stones to connect everything together.


It looks complete now!  I only wish it was like this when we moved in.  The kids would get so dirty climbing and falling trying to get up the steep hill to the playhouse, now it's so easy.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Backyard Makeover

 I want to show you our progress with our backyard from when we first bought our house, until now.  We have slaved, and slaved, and slaved over this backyard, but I think it has paid off, especially now that we will be moving to Arizona and need to sell our house.  I would never had predicted we would be moving so soon, when we moved here it was suppose to be forever, but a job usually has top priority and so that is why we are moving.  I really LOVE this area, the house, neighborhood, schools, church, family, and our old and new friends.  This is going to be a hard move for me.  But I love my husband more and I want to be where he is!


This is what our backyard looked like when we first moved in.  The hill was out of control, but I saw potential there.  The apple tree needed pruning, and there were lots of weeds and briers.


We moved into our house in October of 2010, so most of the apples had already fallen off the tree.  But we were told they are very delicious apples.



We began our makeover, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, etc.


We promised the boys we would build a play house for them, so it was one of the first things we did.  It's a nice size, 8ft x 8ft.



More digging!!!


Still digging!


Oh yes, more digging!


My friend, a wonderful gardener helped us prune our apple tree.  Now it has lots of apples growing, which also makes me sad to move because we didn't get any last year.


We start to build the retaining wall we call, "The Great Wall".


And we finally finish the wall, add some new bark and weed block.  Tah Dah!!!


The pathway along the wall has pea gravel.  Now the top half just needs some new plants and bark and it'll be more beautiful.


This was a huge landscape project that we undertook on our own.  We first got a couple bids from landscapers, who both said $8,000, which was mostly for labor.  That's a lot of money, so we did it ourselves and worked hard together as a family and did it.  I think we are all proud of what we accomplished, and we love the outcome.