Backyard Renovation

A little over a year ago, Nick and I were signing the lease on our very first home.  We had just gotten off a plane from a week-long hiatus honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico and didn't know what lay ahead.  Fortunately, closing a day after we returned from Mexico went off without a hitch, but the house hunting process amidst planning an out of town wedding was a little overwhelming.  When we found our home, we both knew that it was exactly what we wanted.  There was work to be done, but we were ready for the tasks at hand.  Rather than fork out tens of thousands of dollars to have others complete it, we decided that we'd take on the project and see what happened.  

I'm sure there will be others that top this; however, the yard has been the biggest project to date.  3 dump truck loads of topsoil, 300+ bricks, sod, mulch, tons of sweat, and a bit of cash later, and we have a usable yard.  I tried helping as much as I could, but I credit our yard to Nick and a couple of our close friends.  Why did we we have to redo it you ask?  Well, not only did it look like a muddy swamp land, but...  it basically was a muddy swamp land.  The slope of the yard and the drainage weren't conducive to a working yard.  Nick and his buddies drafted a solution and got to work.  

We bought it looking like this:

and note: these are official "relator" photos (touched up and angled as best as they could make them), so they look 24324x's better than it actually was...  Imagine swamp + mud + misery.  


So we began the process:

 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


And after quite a bit of hard work, we ended up with this: 






 
 
By the end of it, we had raised a portion of the yard a foot and a half...  Which was quite the feat!  I'm so proud of Nick & grateful to him and our friends for pulling it off.  The space still could use some sprucing (see: I need to learn how to be a better gardener/decorator), but the yard itself is much better than where we started.  We've had neighbors compliment the yard who were originally skeptical, and are glad to have a usable space that reflects all the hard work we (Nick) put into it.  
More projects on the horizon (we hope): -Crown molding on the first floor -Replace the sink in the kitchen -Painting master bath, upstairs hall, & laundry room
This homeownership thing is hard work, but we're loving every minute :)