Enjoying the long awaited completion

Mike's Birthday Celebration!
(The late night crew)

We had a fire scare when one of the tiki torches exploded. Of course Mike had to pick it up and wave it around before his twin brother Matt put a stop to the madness with the hose. (damn crazies)


The stogy smokin', corona sucking crew. (What's Allen selling?)

Earlier in the evening Jack got some good man time with daddy and Chris. Glad to know they are being a good influence (drinking machine)?




So the backyard is finished and it was good to celebrate but you have to know the whole story on what this project took.

This was where we started...last summer. As you can see (from the picture) we had a rock garden and a patio. But on top of the fact that our neighbor wanted to build a new fence in between our houses, we had a problem with a tree that was trying to grove. The tree (beautiful as it was and pictures in the far top left hand corner) had run out of room to grow. It was approximately 3 stories high and the roots were growing underneath our flagstones at a rapid pace. Soon it would be hurting the patio and the foundation, so it had to be removed.

Meanwhile the fence project stood at a standstill from October 08 to March 09.

In March we got the problem tree removed (big job, paid someone else to do it) and the new fence was completed. Of course, once the tree was out of the ground, we were left with a big mud pit. Our house is at the end of a slope and we have always had trouble with a soggy yard. Therefore, we had to put in a french drain keep the water from collecting where the tree was. I don't know the history of french drains but it is harder than it looks and not too fancy. Let's just say this was a ton of work that no one will ever see or appreciate. We flattened, then sloped the area towards the drain and several stages later...we have our rock garden back. And better than ever, but it will take some time for the creeping plants to spread.

While this was going on we were inspired by the new fence to take on another project. A total redo of our patio. We hired John (pictured) to bring a crazy crew of hard working Latinos out to tear out our concrete patio (by hand, taking turns with a sledge hammer). Then they formed a new bigger patio space and 2 weeks later poured the new pad.

The lower part of our yard had always been a mess. It had a major slope, a little tree in the middle, and yucky grass.
After the fence was done we dug up the tree and potted it. Then John sent some guys over to dig out a bunch of the existing dirt. Several loads of that nasty dirt had to be removed.
Then we had this really cool delivery truck come and shoot some nice new top soil into the space so it would be even higher and the new grass would actually survive.









Look at it now...my favorite place to chill.


Now we are ready for summer!