Yard work is hard work

We have done A TON of work to the back yard this year.  It has been hard work but it has also been so rewarding to see the improvements.  We basically had to start from scratch in the back yard, so that has been a challenge.  We also had to deal with tons of roots leftover from the devil tree that we had cut down but we finally dug all those out and were able to put down sod.  Here are some pics of the progression:

Back at the end of February I started working on this corner to clear a spot for a sandbox.  This corner had tons of random rocks and weeds and it sloped slightly down towards the fence.  I had to clear out all the rocks, rake it out really good, and level it so that we could put in a sandbox.  It took me many hours but I am so happy with the result!

Before

After spot was cleared and leveled

Here's Keith with the frame of the sandbox he built....he built it over on the cement and then we moved it to the spot it was going.

A butt load of sand....that was a lot of fun to move (*sarcasm*)

Putting it in to place and stabilizing it

Done!

Next I cleared a spot next to it for a swing set.  I also had to rake it out really well and level it.

Here's Keith building the swing set.

The kids love it!  It has provided hours and hours of entertainment.  We still want to put down some bark or something, but that's a project for another day :)

And on to the rest of the yard.....

So this is what it looked like at the end of winter (yuck).  The goal was to at least get this one flat spot in our yard prepped for planting grass seed (which was all we would have been able to afford with that size of yard).  I split the yard in to sections so that we could take each section one at a time.  We had to slowly dig out the roots from that tree by hand one by one.  It was pure hell!

This was just a couple of the sections of roots.  We pulled out way more than that.  It's unbelievable!

Little side note.....

During all of this we had a CRAZY wind storm one day that totally uprooted one of our trees!  I was sitting on my deck watching it all freaked out because I didn't know what to do.  Thankfully I called my step-dad and he saved the day.  He came and cut the top off so that it just fell in to our neighbor's yard (luckily we have awesome neighbors!).  I was worried it would damage the fence but the fence was just fine.  Phew!

Back to the grass.....

So we were just going along working hard to get the yard ready for grass seed when I got a call from my step-dad (who is a landscaper) saying that he had some sod for us.  Not only was it awesome sod but there was a ton of it and it was completely FREE!!!  It was like Christmas for us.  We were absolutely thrilled!

So we worked our little tails off for weeks tilling up the soil, raking it, and laying sod.  P.S. Laying sod is HARD WORK!!  It is freaking heavy!  But it was so awesome to have grass!  We had help from lots of awesome neighbors, friends, and family members.  We couldn't have done it without them!

The grass took really well!  I am SO happy with it!  I get giddy every time I look out the window and see all that green! :)  It has been a dream come true to have a good yard for the kids to play in.  We do have the front yard but I feel a lot better knowing my kids are playing in the back away from the road and it is all fenced.

We also put some down in our front strip because it didn't have grass.  Turns out the grass we put in and our front yard grass are totally different colors now.  I feel kind of dumb but oh well!

I also decided to do this little mound in the corner of the front yard.  We got a little tree called a Rose of Sharon from my step-dad that we planted in the middle there.  We also had tons of leftover rocks from the corner where the sandbox went that I used for the edging.  I thought it turned out nice!

I also got my front flower beds planted.  I did the brick edging last year and planted flowers/shrubs but they all died so I kind of had to start over this year.  I love how it looks with the red mulch!

Our next project was the retaining wall.  I'm grateful that we already had the structure of the retaining wall in place when we moved in, but boy was it ugly.  The railroad ties were all rotted and gross.  It was just a huge eye sore.  We wanted to do a stone or rock retaining wall but those are SUPER expensive so we decided in the meantime to just cover it with wood.  

Before

During

After!  

I think it looks SO much better!  We also took dirt and filled in the little space between the old retaining wall and the new one so that it wouldn't be a spot for little critters to make a home.

Next we painted it with a water seal that was a cedar color.  It turned out a little more orangey than I would have liked but I think it will darken with time.  We painted our deck the same color and it dried darker than this one but I think it will work out ok.

Then we planted some little trees my step-dad gave us and hung up some planter boxes.  Voila!

The next project I did was to make a flower bed in my back yard against the back of the house.  I raked it out really well and then took the leftover rocks from the corner where the sandbox went and edged it.  Then I planted a couple of plants, put down rocks for the spot where the hose goes, and laid some red mulch.  Pretty simple!

Next year I will probably plant some flowers but for now I think it looks good as it is.

Next project....cement pavers.  We had this spot where the old deck stairs used to come down to a cement pad but the cement pad had been lifted up from the devil tree roots and was all uneven and cracked.  It was so bad that the gate wouldn't even open all the way!  So we ripped out the cement so the tree people could grind down the roots way back when we first bought the house.  We want to put in a new cement pad eventually but for now we decided to just put in some pavers.

It's kind of uneven and sinks down in some spots but I seriously don't even care.  It looks way better than dirt and will get us by until we can do a new cement pad. 

And last but not least....a fire pit!  We just bought a cheap fire pit at Walmart and used the bowl inside these little stone bricks.  We already fired it up once and did s'more with the kids, it was awesome!  I'm excited for many more nights around the fire.

It has been a TON of work but we are so happy with how it looks!  We still have a little bit more to do, like finish planting more grass (we ran out of sod) and we also want to make some boxes for a garden but that will be next year's project I think.  It feels pretty good to see how much progress we've made this year in the yard! :)