This summer Ryan has worked his butt off landscaping the backyard. Not one step has been hired out. I am really impressed with the commitment and determination he has shown in getting it finished. I, on the other hand, got to enjoy sitting in a camping chair and catching up on reading and other things. I'm pretty sure that until it became obvious that I am pregnant, all of our neighbors probably thought I was super duper lazy for not helping Ryan.
We still aren't completely done, but with cold weather and earlier darkening skies in the evening, the time available for such a project this year is coming to a close. Next spring/summer will involve installation of rock and a deck in the backyard, with a few other minor additions.
I have taken pictures throughout the summer to document the different stages of this project. Get ready for picture overload!
The initial outline of the project.
Gotta get the weeds pulled! Our nephews, Ethan and Jared, were troopers helping Ryan pull weeds and move dirt.
The huge piles of fill dirt and top soil.
The top soil has been laid (lain?) and rototilled.
Digging the trenches for the sprinkler system. My brother came to help out that day.
It took a long time and looked extremely tiring. I was so glad when they were finished! I have a hard time watching somebody work really hard while I just sit there. But I did make sure to have a yummy lunch for them!
We got our trees! 2 aspens, 2 maples, and a spruce. Our friend Ryan helped to pick them up and move them into our backyard.
These are their permanent homes.
A little friend came to sit with me! I realized later that it was a dead friend.
Testing out the sprinkler system. Hallelujah, it works!!! That was, by far, the most involved part of landscaping, at least from my point of view.
It's kind of hard to see what's going on here, but I was helping Ryan plant the spruce (I held it straight while he put in the soil) and it started to POUR. I ran inside after a particularly loud clap of thunder, but Ryan stayed out there for probably 10 more minutes finishing up and bringing everything in. That was a fun adventure!
Planted trees and a moss rock border.
Ryan got super ambitious and decided to put a French drain along our north fence. That was another project that was really time consuming, but necessary.
Our grass was delivered! This was at 8ish in the morning and I was standing out on our front porch in my jammies and robe. I'm sure Ryan loved that. ;)
Laying the sod. Ryan's brother came to help for a couple of hours. We weren't really expecting him, so his arrival was a great surprise!
Gotta take some time to relax and soak up the sun.
This is our friends' baby, Xavier. He helped out by looking cute on our brand new grass! Ryan (our friend) and Jenna came over to help finish laying the sod.
This is Ryan working on the French drain. I told you it was time consuming! Our neighbor from down the street came over to help Ryan shovel dirt back into a big pit, and our next door neighbor helped out by taking the extra top soil that had been on our driveway all summer. They talked politics and I sat in my little chair trying not to get mad at them for practically calling Ryan ridiculous for liking Romney. The help was nice, but the conversation was less nice.
Big...mess...
See that pipe underneath the sidewalk? Ryan put it there so that the water would drain out to the street, like you can see it is doing. Getting the pipe under there was 4 hours of him pounding the pipe into the dirt a little bit, and then pulling it out and cleaning the dirt out until it went all the way underneath the sidewalk. I felt like throwing a party when that was finished!
Finishing up fixing the dirt and putting the rock back after laying the French drain.
I must say that my husband totally rocked this project. It was a very productive summer for him!! I loved watching him work, and I know that he liked doing it.
This project was brought to you by Google, without which Ryan would not have known how to put in a sprinkler system or French drain.
