New Yard!

The number one requirement for our house when we bought it was that it did not have a pool. Neither of us wanted it and neither of us wanted to clean it. Amazing houses were not visited in the process all because they had a pool. So we bought our house and found out from our neighbor that it actually used to have a pool, but one of the previous owners filled it in on his own. Which is probably some of the cause of our foundation issues that I'm glad to report we have resolved. Basically the entire house is jacked up, but that's just fine with us!

The house did come with a swing set that was infested with bugs, and a pergola and deck covered with vines that was rotting from the inside out. The old pool deck was also there, right in the middle of the yard. We would probably still have all of that if our daughter didn't love to swing so much that I had to stand out and look around at it for more than an hour a day last summer.

Many discussions later, two tree trimmings, and one hallway paint job later, we were ready for a new lawn. We actually started ripping the deck and pergola out in the fall. Apologies for the lack of Before pictures, this has been a long time coming, and I think I have them on an old computer. I think they still give the gist of how much work this was.

Notice that the tree needs it's 2nd trim here, we had already spent one weekend ripping out most of the deck during naptime.

Our trusty little helper. She was so little!

After that we went after the swing set- it had two swings, a slide, and a playhouse but it was seriously in danger of falling apart, so we didn't feel comfortable keeping it up.

Notice the sink hole underneath where the deck and pergola used to be. There's also a huge white electrical line that we think they had run to be able to watch TV out under the shady pergola.

This day, our little helper worked with Bean to get the ladder taken apart. She loves doing projects like this, and was really interested in the Home Depot line of tools at Toys R Us! Makes my heart smile.

So here we are, in the spring, when we planned to get the yard put in. I got a quote from our tree guy, and he wanted $5000 to do the front yard, and half of the back. When I got the quote we didn't have the pool deck jacked apart and thrown out yet. I was trying to get a feel for how soon we could get that done (Bean planned to do it himself but was held up with his sprained wrist), and then get the yard put in. I was hoping to have it done before Abby's Jungle Safari 2nd Birthday but it was looking pretty bleak.

Then we got a quote from another yard guy and he asked for $5000 to do the front, rip out the old pool deck and haul it off, do the whole backyard, and reroute the flower bed, plus adding a couple of sprinkler heads to the back to make sure all the grass gets good coverage. And he could start later that week. It was a no-brainer!

The main concern from our tree guy was whether grass would actually grow in the back. He didn't want to install it when it could likely fail. I figured for the same price, we could have it done the way we envisioned it, and if it doesn't grow because there is too much shade, we can adjust our expectations and plans then. But for now, we have exactly what we wanted.

So here are a few Before pictures of the front yard, the way we have been looking at it for months.

This shows the big black mud pile, filled in with mud from the foundation work.

And here is the After! Just simple and beautiful. We had them re-route the line of the front bed a little, and we plan to update the actual plantings sometime but for now we are happy! They even did the strip along the street, that used to be either dirt or weeds or a combo.

The back is much bigger, so there are a series of pictures to show. Here are the Before shots, starting with the weed filled pavers.

This is what we've looked at for months. So stressful with all of the different surfaces, and the random line of the flower bed, and the thought of having to rent a jackhammer to get up the old pool deck, plus the concerns over the uneven grading.

The fence is on the replacement list. Again, if someone would just send us $50K, we could get a lot of stuff done quickly! Our list is so very long.

I wanted to take these last shots standing in the middle and looking side to side, to show the scope of the project. It was so overwhelming.

The guys told us it would take 1 to 2 days to complete. At the end of Day 1, the front yard was completely finished, I came back from a whirlwind one night trip to Houston, Bean had a stomach bug, and we figured out the sprinkler system which we hadn't used in over a year. No sense in watering grass you are getting rid of, right?

Here's how the backyard looked at the end of Day 1.

Some of the pool deck broken up. Bean said they did all of this by hand!

A new line for the flower bed that makes sense, and some grass!

It was hard to take these pictures standing on gravel with no shoes on. I was so excited to see it all completed. I mentioned it earlier, but I also enjoyed learning how to program the sprinkler system after we had figured out which zones were what.

Mom and I spent 2 hours hand picking the weeds from between the pavers and sweeping to give it the clean look. I love it, and I can't wait to set up a couple of activities for the kids at Abby's party.

Just simple, clean, grass. Nothing complicated. So relaxing to look at. Abby kept saying, "Man. Green grass. Yard. Swing!"

She will swing as long as you will let her!