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Sunday, May 13, 2012

Landscaping... oh my...

We still don't have a completed kitchen, baseboard in the bathroom, a deck rail, or siding on one wall (or C.O. for that matter - don't tell the town)… But we decided that it was a good idea to make our yard a bit more aesthetically pleasing. Luckily, Steph's dad has a tractor at his disposal, so he brought it over and we went to work.

First order of business was straightening out the shed in our backyard. There are some massive roots in our yard and a bunch of them were under this shed. Using the tractor we lifted the shed up and started to clean out the mess that was underneath - roots, cement, blocks, dirt - it all had to go.
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The main root was about two feet thick so we had to dig around it and chop it out with a chainsaw.
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Next we used the tractor to clean out all the ivy and trees that were growing everywhere…
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I thought we just got this mess cleaned up!
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Cleaning up by hand seems so… manual… guh… But Steph was employed to clean up the more "delicate" areas.
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The benefit is that we find lots of little suprises… like this little guy!
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We also found something a little less "cute" - a partially decomposed squirrel… but I'll leave that off this blog.

Look at these monster roots that came out - Thank goodness we had Steph's dad's truck and a couple chains to get these suckers up.
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It looks nice and bare… and ready for improvement! IMG_1098

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Steph and her mom planted some amazing knock-out rose bushes out front… at 8:00pm. This is serious business!
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And don't forget the fern, of course...
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In the end, it came out really nice for a start, though.
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And this is just the front!
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Originally we were just going to have to bring in "a few yards of dirt" to grade - no problem, right? Ha! Due to a slight "misjudgement" with the height of our deck steps, we needed just a little more… try 13 yards. Our neighbors love us.
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What are we going to do with all this dirt!?
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So we decided to cover our whole backyard with topsoil and grade everything. It probably would have been nice to do this piecemeal, but it will be awesome to have a level yard!
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We had to put fertilizer and new seed down. Our lawn is going to be so plush!
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But now I have to water it...daily - which might be the scariest thing I have ever had to do. I feel like if I cannot get this grass to grow I will fail at being a man and will be forever shunned.
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As of this blog post, nothing has sprouted up yet… but there is still time… I hope.

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