The Yard....

I am a big fan of "Before" & "After" pictures. I love it when things come together.

When we moved into Winchester we knew the yard needed a little help......so 2 summers later we are at the end of the project......Yeah! One Summer to tear it apart...and one to put it back together.


It took awhile to go from the above picture........

To this picture above.......And we couldn't have done it without help from the kids. (again....The reason I had kids is to do the stuff I don' want to do)

We did have to get a mini back hoe to pull out some big stumps and posts.

I can see why our boys loved playing out back at grandma's when they were little. It was a virtual jungle back there, with an irrigation ditch thrown in. I always remember JoAnn saying "You boys stay out of that ditch now" Which of course made it all the more appealing. Oh! the water snakes that were found back there!!

We took out everything but two big trees.

We thought about pulling the trampoline out, but decided to just replace it, since there was allready a big hole in the ground.

We rented a mini excavator to move dirt and gravel around. Even Mckai got in on the action.

One of our biggest helpers was Erin, she wanted to do whatever we were doing. I just love that sweetie!

Finally a couple loads of dirt, and we got it leveled out.

We put in a small retaining wall. And fenced off all of the back yard.

We decided....Ok fine "I" talked Bruce into hydro-seeding. We have always done sod in the past on other projects, but its always good to try something different, right?. After "Way to Much" research we went ahead and hydro-seeded.

And we......yes "We" are glad we did. I love the new grass they did an awesome job. It sprays on green (above) and takes about 5 weeks........

.......and then you have GRASS, wonderful green grass! No more dirt. YEAH!

We just have to baby it a little, cause most of it is in the shade, and only gets sun in late afternoon.

Now when Erin and Kai run from the trampoline to the swings, they don't have to stop and put their shoes on, they can just run across the grass.

I just want to say THANKS A BUNCH to Bruce (Your the Best!...you hung in there even when I kept changing my mind, and never complained, but I did see you roll your eyes a couple of times) and thanks to the boys for always helping out when we needed you to.

Next Project: Basement Windows Believe me I wish we didn't have to!