Thursday, August 2, 2012

Who Needs Yard Crashers...

One of the main reasons we bought our house was the big yard. We knew the house needed work; but  also knew that while you can remodel a house, you can't alter the size of your lot. When we moved in the yard was full of full-grown trees, creating so much shade that the grass couldn't grow. Growing among all the trees were three messy cottonwood tress that we wanted to get rid of. I called Provo city Forestry Department to see if they would take them out for us, because they were so tall that we didin't want to take a chance of knocking out a power line in the process. A few days later, as I was leaving for work they were pulling up with their trucks and told me they were here to take out "those trees," but when I got home...what a surprise! Not only did they get the three cottonwood trees, but they took out 29 other trees along with 'em! At first we were a sad about losing the trees, but then realized the potential our yard had. We still have lots of trees, so the house gets lots of shade in the summer, but now the yard is open and a blank canvas for landscaping.

Little by little we have worked out there. We brought in sod and planted some flowers on the hill. It was looking pretty good, but the lower yard had two tiers to it and still seemed disconnected. Last summer we brought in 15 truck loads (each weighing 15 tons) to build up the lower level. It really changed the look of the yard and made it look even larger. This year in early June, Eli started calling landscaping companies to get bids for them to finish leveling and either sod or hydro-seed. One of the bids was quite a bit lower then the others, and the guys were pretty anxious to get started; but we were working on the basement and needed to be able to drive across the yard to unload cabinets and stuff, so we asked if they could wait a couple of weeks. Well a couple of weeks turned into a couple of months! But last night at about 10:00 I was at the kitchen sink and as I looked out the window there was a huge back loader sitting in the yard, and at about 11:00 this morning Eli called me at work to tell me "there's work being done in our back yard." Yay! I can't wait to begin working out there and getting things planted again.
From the balcony...
Eli helping out a bit...
View from the sidewalk out front...
The patio and fire pit...
From the bottom end of the yard...look how nice & level!!