.:Wednesday, April 9, 2008:.
Almost Done
| I really thought that we would get the yard completely done yesterday but that didn't quite happen. We do have 98% of it done though. You know how the home improvement shows tell you to come up with a budget and then double it? That's actually pretty accurate. Jeff and I figured $2500 for the back yard was about what we wanted to spend. We didn't really budget anything more than that, but after Tera and I went shopping for the plants and rocks, I thought we were going to come in right around $1500. Not so much though. The 2 tons of river rocks were delivered at 9am yesterday morning. Dumped into the front yard, and by 9:20am, Tera and I were hauling them to the back yard. We were completely and totally shocked when we had them not just completely hauled back but laid and sorted as well by 11:20am. What shocked us even more was that there was only enough to do one side of the pool. Yep, back to the Stone Place for another $400 worth of rocks. We also stopped by the nursery for 15 more bags of mulch....in addition to the 15 that we had already laid....and 2 more bags of soil. We came home and built the flower bed in front of the shop at that point. 100 12" border rocks to build up that bed. Needless to say, the dogs were less than impressed that we were taking away their digging hole! Tehehehe. The first layer was pure hell I tell you. We had to sledge hammer out all of the old concrete and dig trenches for the lips of the rocks. After that though, it was cake. Even if we did break the wagon and had to start hand carrying them from the very back of the yard. About that time, the next 2 tons of river rock showed up. And so did Jeff thankfully. So, we let him pick up the kids from school while we went back to the nursery for 20 more bags of compost to finish filling the flower bed and a new wheel barrel. Obviously our estimate of needed composte was the heck off. Clearly we were completely exhausted with non functioning brains, or we would have taken the truck to pick up all of this stuff. We got the composte in the car just fine but regretting not having the truck due to the horrid smell. I laughed telling Tera that it must make her feel like being back home in Clovis! Tehehe. Now the question was where were we going to put the damn wheel barrel? As we pulled up to Atwoods, I laughed telling Tera that we were going to have to put it in the front seat and she was going to have to lay across the high pile of composte in the back seat. She on the other hand was convinced that she could lay under it in the front seat. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. I haven't laughed that hard in I don't know how long! We got home and immediately started hauling the newly delivered rocks back and sorting them. Jeff did the biggest chunk of the hauling this time. I did a few trips, Tera did a few more and then neither one of us could pick up those stupid wheel barrels even one more time. So, we sorted as Jeff hauled the rest back. He sooo freaking rocks! Finally, we had it all laid. Then we filled the garden with the compost and the kids had a fantastic time climbing up and in there to stomp it all down. Tera planted the flowers to go next to the palm tree while Jeff and I finished off the mulching. Then we cleaned up the yard. The only thing left is the border along the back fence and mulching that spot now. Hopefully that won't take more than about an hour today. Although, we do need to go buy another 4 or 5 bags of mulch! ARGH! The yard looks amazing if you ask me. Tera keeps calling it a tropical paradise! Tehehehe. Once we have everything completed, we'll take pictures of the final product and then post the before and after pictures. For now though, I'm going to go enjoy my cup of coffee, try not to move at all (since I can barely move from all of the work yesterday), attend a PTO board meeting at 10, shop for a new desk and some wicker furniture for the sunroom, buy new doors for the shop, hit the grocery store and nursery and then come home to collapse! Muwahahaha. Needless to say that the work on the kitchen is definitely waiting until next week! We're taking a small break after all of this work. Our love to you all! |
