Just yesterday we completed the deck.  Done, finished.  It only took a little under a year.  No biggie.

And the lawn is coming in really nicely too.  It’s still a little thin, but starting to fill in.  Another week or so and I think it will be ready for the kids to play on.  This is just so exciting for all of us.  A real back yard, Wow!

I was just marveling yesterday how a year ago I drew a picture of how I wanted it all to look and now it actually looks just like the picture I drew.  It’s a huge sense of accomplishment, especially since we have been so paralyzed by the overwhelming task for so many years.

It’s amazing what a small boy’s never ending energy can drive you to accomplish.  Go outside and play please!  Yea!!!

Here are the latest photos…

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We bought this house eight years ago in August and it has been a giant project and a huge learning experience.  I think we could both honestly say that we would never have bought this house if given another chance to make that decision.  But, we have grown here as a family and slowly turned it into a pretty nice place and although it is much to small, we have grown to love it in all its quirky obnoxious glory.

One of the most overwhelming problems we have dealt with is the drainage in the back yard.  We bought the house in August, which we came later to find out is the only month of the year that the back yard is dry.  The rest of the year it takes various shapes of swamp land.  Seriously, there are parts of our back yard that in the spring you will sink past your ankles into muck that will steal your shoes and knock you on your ass.

This problem has been overwhelming us for years.  We would sit on our old rotting deck and be totally paralyzed by the sheer amount of work that would need to be done to improve the situation.  But with two small children, one a very energetic boy, it became more and more important that we do something.  

So, we buckled down and broke it into attainable pieces and started work.  Last year we built the new deck, a big undertaking at a little over 700 sq. ft.   The goal was to deck over a good portion of the muck and provide a great space for entertaining.  

We had no idea the impact it would make.   It opened up the whole back yard and made it look twice as big, even though we decked over a good portion of it.  It is two levels, all at ground level due to the slope of the yard, and the top level looks over both the large side yard and back of the house space.  It’s really amazing, I couldn’t believe how different it was and how inspired and hopeful I became that someday we might actually have a yard the kids could play in.

And this weekend that dream is becoming a reality.  We cleared out the whole yard and put up temporary fencing on the deck (classy huh?) and even made Pella a really fancy poop spot that he will hopefully love some much he will continue to use once the yard is done (wishful thinking, i know).

Then we hired a friend of a friend who is starting a landscaping business and he cam over with his bulldozer and a rototiller and tilled everything up and graded the whole yard, laid down drain lines across the whole area, brought in 15 yards (yes, I said 15 yards) of new soil and leveled it all out.  It is gorgeous, I just don’t even have words.

We then laid out the lines for all of our beds and the area for the play set and in came the hydroseed guy and ten minutes later we had this beautiful green painted future lawn.   Hoses and sprinklers, some weed fabric, mulch and a few plants here and there followed by a load of large bark nuggets and several weeks of waiting and I am going to have a yard.  

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Have I said how excited I am.  This was definitely one of the best birthdays ever.

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