The Lawn: Completed!

The 7-day project completed in 28 days. Cost us an unexpected "land disturbance" permit and 3 citations! Tim went to court last week and was aquitted of all charges. Though he was threatened with contempt of court with his excessive Blackberry use!

Even with all the drama, we are thrilled with our new yard! It looks great, we have WAY less leaf/pine straw maintenance, and we are really looking forward to playing the grass this spring.

Here are a few photos; some leaves have fallen over the newly sprouted grass, but you get the idea...

The hill, now a wall and much farther back on the property. Look at all that room to play!

With clearing out the brush, we now see a bit more of our neighbor than we like, be we can remedy that with a few well-placed bushes!

Look at all that flatness! Plenty of room for a swingset. The second photo shows off the drainage swail.

The End!

The Lawn: Nearing Completion

With the trees down, we could get down to moving around dirt. We moved dirt from the hill in the back yard into the front yard. This allowed us a build a retaining wall in the back and create some flat space, as well as build up the front yard a bit.

Just a reminder, this is what the hill looked like before we started the project:


The temporary hill created by carving into the big hill. We had no idea how much dirt this would be...



Where the wall will eventually go...



The flattened back yard, with a swail to direct water away from house and down the side of the property.


The front yard with a whole lot more dirt on it. Now the land is as high as the driveway...remarkable! Notice the silt fence; the source of much wasted time and money and "discussions" with the city.

Finally! All the Trees are Down!

Tree Graveyard

woops....

The Felling Continues...

Property Transformation, Day Two

As Tate would say, "Whoa!"

Now you see 'em...now you don't!

We have begun the process of taking back our land!

23 trees will be cut (though about 70 will actually come down)
We'll cut into the hill in the back and relocate the dirt to the front
We'll build a wall to hold back taht hill and leave nice flat space for...GRASS!

Here are a few before pictures, for comparison

The front of the house: The side yard (where grass never had any chance):
And after Day One!

The Dingo!

And as Day Two Begins:

Random Photos...

Nana colors with Tate...

We visit with Eric, Nancy, and Nora...

Tate loves Da-deee

Alex's First Birthday...

(Alex stealing Tate's sippy cup)

Elmo!!

Just chillin...

We start 'em young here...

Why Loca Loves the Baby

Loca doesn't love the baby because she has any mothering tendencies...
she doesn't love him because he's the offspring of her favorite humans...
she loves him because he guarantees her a delicious dinner every night!

When Tate is "all done", he like to have his placemat clean. So he shoves any leftover food off the mat and usually onto the floor. Even if it doesn't make the floor, Loca considers it hers and she will get it!

Not to mention that if he's not a particular fan of something, he throw it to the ground. Loca takes pride in her job as clean-up crew, but even she misses a few pieces

When Tate is removed from his chair, Loca gets anything that falls off of him. Luckily, she hasn't tried to get that which is stuck in his hair!