Thursday, May 13, 2010

Backyard

When we first visited the house that is now our own, the backyard was a scary, scary place.

Totally overgrown with weeds. The pool was a toxic swamp. There was a ginormous mound of dirt up against the wall that was probably covering some sort of horror. Anyways, it was uuuuuugly.When we moved in, we made the pool blue, cleared out all the weeds, leveled out the grave, and left it at that. No time (read: no money) for pretty-ifying.

A few weeks ago, since we thought we had money, since we got our tax refund, and since our entire air conditioning system hadn't blown yet (which is another story for another time), we decided it was time to do a little Extreme Makeover: Backyard Edition.

Here are some pictures of our journey:

Dallin put in a whole new sprinkler system, because he's awesome and (somehow) knows how to do things like that. He dug all the trenches and laid all the pipes and set all the heads and everything. Tell me that's not hot.


Then all the holes got filled in, and he dug a trench for our little brick thing that would separate the rocks from the grass.


Then that brick (wall? path? divider?) was laid, and the ground was cleared of weeds and leveled as much as possible to get ready to put the rock and grass in.


Dallin's mom leveled out this part. Thanks, Dixie!


And then...rocks!



And then...grass!


BAM!


Still to come...a pool fence. Right now our only defense against unwanted swimmers is a "high up" doorknob on our back door. And an immobile baby. But the gate will soooo be in by the time she starts moving on her own.

HUGE thanks to everyone that helped. You know who you are!

And since a backyard is no good unless you enjoy it...



This little girl in a swimsuit is just about as cute as can be.

So..who's ready for a BBQ?

15 comments:

  1. That looks fab! I am so jealous that you have a backyard. Someday TJ and I will be real grown ups with a house and yard too...but in the meantime, you can just invite us over for bbqs and pool parties this summer!

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  2. Ooh we're ready! It looks beautiful! I'm so ready and excited to get our yard lookin good. We're slowly shoveling all of the ugly gravel out.

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  3. HOLY COW!! What a transformation!! It looks spectacular!! I'm so glad you posted pictures of the finished product. Amazing!

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  4. You should totally run that by me before you put pictures of my rolls and/or tan lines up for all to see :)

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  5. Oh come on, babe - the baby is too cute for anyone to notice anything else anyway. Of course, now that you've pointed it out...

    :)

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  6. Looks good!! You guys did a great job.

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  7. Looks great Katie, you guys did a good job! And was the rock water fall by the pool there before, or did you guys build that rock feature?

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  8. Karen - the rock waterfall was already there...thank goodness :)

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  9. Beautiful transformation! Totally wishing we had a pool right now...

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  10. We are in ;) When can Scott come home teach you and show off his BBQing skills?! Looks good!

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  11. Oh! That looks amazing! Great work-I am totally impressed!

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  12. FANTASTIC!!! DO you rent out your crew?

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  13. That's amazing! Nice work! Remember who Scott's partner is, too. I'm sure his family would love to join you all. ;)

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