July 17th - We got sod.

And not as in the rude UK phrase, sod as in grass. Oh my heavens to betsy. We still had a good amount to do on Friday and the sod was supposed to come late that afternoon. We needed to re-plant our trees. They were too low, which you would think isn't a problem BUT we found out that if they are too low, the water sits on top of the roots and will actually rot your roots. If you plant it just above ground level, the water is able to run down the tree flare so the tree only takes what it needs. 

Skylar needed to finish some stuff with the valve box. I honestly don't even know what it was. He also dug out the end of our down spouts to pour gravel underneath so that when they drain it doesn't get clogged by the dirt. 

In addition to that we still needed to till the south side of the yard, and rake and weed everything on that side. By noon, we saw other neighbors getting their sod. And every time a truck came by, we were worried. We weren't ready yet! It must have been national sod day because we had 3 other neighbors laying their sod on Friday. 

We finished getting the yard all ready and actually had time to sit and relax for a bit before the sod came. No one ever told me how heavy those suckers were. Holy moly. 

What we started off with on Friday

 After we finished tilling, raking, and weeding

That's what 5,000 square feet of sod looks like

 After we were mostly done laying sod

Our estimation wasn't too bad on how much sod we needed. We had one extra pallet after we had finished laying sod everywhere we had prepped. The next morning, Jon got up at the crack of dawn before me and Skylar, tilled a little farther back in the yard, raked it up, moved the entire extra pallet with the wheel barrel and even cleaned all our scraps up that we left laying around the yard. What a man. 

The morning after, once we had cut all the excess, finished laying all the extra sod and cleaned up a bit

 All the rocks from our yard thus far and the sod pallets hanging out in the back

Special thanks for all those who helped. Our neighbors for watching kids, for coming to help lay sod, to our family for coming to help get us ready for our lawn.

Welp. I think for this year we are just about done. Toward the end of the season, we may look to see if any of the other trees we had planned for the back yard are on sale. We need to put mulch around the trees to help them keep moist but other than that, we are done for now! More to come next summer.

July 11th - 13 hours in the yard. NBD.

No kidding. We were at it from 8am until 9pm. Huge shout out to our wonderful parents, Jon and Debbie. We were able to get so much done yesterday. Because our sod was pushed back, at the end of last week Skylar and I basically did nothing in the yard. So we caught back up and now just have one side of the yard to finish.

Weeding the yard and parking strips

Digging out the trenches we dug last year

(Deciding if we need all the trenches we have or need to make a few new ones)

Putting in the sprinklers (pipes and heads and sprayer heads)

Installing curbing

Installing trees

Spreading out top soil in low areas

Keeping the weeds away

De-rocking the yard

Installing sod

Weeding and rocking is DONE in most of the yard. We just need to finish up the south side and then just the sod is left. JUST THE SOD IS LEFT! (And then we get to do it all over again next year in the back yard...)

One thing that we wanted to finish that is not on our list was cement work in the yard. We had a walk way put in from our driveway to the front door as well as a continuation of the walkway we already had but extending it out to the mailbox. Both seen below:

We had top soil delivered so that in the low areas of the parking strip, we could even out the ground to make sure the grass would be level. That way you don't feel like you're stepping down from the sidewalk into the grass. 

Also on Saturday, we installed all the sprinkler heads (by we I mean Jon and Skylar) and raked and weeded the yard. 

A couple of kids for cuteness

Finally what it looked like after

What we still have left to do

July 9th - Good News and Bad News

Good news: We are so close to being done! Like so close. We have a limited number of things left on our checklist. 
Such as - 

Weeding the yard and parking strips

Digging out the trenches we dug last year

(Deciding if we need all the trenches we have or need to make a few new ones)

Putting in the sprinklers (pipes and heads)

Installing curbing

Installing trees

Spreading out top soil in low areas

Keeping the weeds away

De-rocking the yard

Installing sod

Everything was happening for this week. Trees Wednesday, top soil Thursday, sod Friday! But then. Right after we planted our trees a storm with 70 mph winds blew in with tons of rain to boot. Because of that, our sod was soaked. When it's soaked it can't be cut. When it can't be cut, it can't be delivered. And instead of pushing everyone back a day, our delivery date was rescheduled to Wednesday of next week. It's not that big of a time difference, BUT WE WERE SO CLOSE! And we still are. In all honesty, it's a good thing. We have more time to make sure all the ground is prepped really well, get everything set up how we want it and then bring in the sod.

Also good news: We got our trees! My goodness. I was so excited. And man those suckers are heavy. Now it feels like our yard is taking shape. (Also, of course we get a crazy wind storm right after we plant our baby trees with NO roots in the ground yet. I was so worried for them. But they survived, thankfully!)

Pictures!

I should have used a kid for size. These mothers were huge and took me forever to dig out!

Pretty maids all in a row

My father in law's joke about planting trees:

When is the best time to plant a tree?

20 years ago.

July 6th - Pipes, Trenches, Curbing and Burying

After changing the date for curbing and sod, twice for the first and once for the second, we now have official dates for all of it! Curbing was done last week, cement work is coming tomorrow, trees are coming sometime either this week or next and sod is coming Friday! (I realize I said we had dates for everything and that I just said sometime either this week or next but whatever. We're ordering trees tonight so we'll find out then.)

There is no pathway from our driveway to our front door unless you count the sidewalk that runs along the road, which I don't count. So we are having someone come and lay a pathway for us as well as a cement pad in our parking strip from the sidewalk to the mailbox. Pictures to come. (TOMORROW!)

But that means that we need to bury the pipes in any areas close to where the cement will be. Along with de-rocking and weeding said areas. That is what we will be doing tonight. So much prep work! 

Checklist:

Weeding the yard and parking strips

Digging out the trenches we dug last year

(Deciding if we need all the trenches we have or need to make a few new ones)

Putting in the sprinklers (pipes and heads)

Keeping the weeds away

De-rocking the yard

Spreading out top soil in low areas

Installing curbing

Installing sod

Installing trees

And now that we know how much everything will cost, we're only doing trees this year. Maybe at the end of the season when things are on sale we'll get some more of the stuff we have plans for but for now, I'm happy with grass and trees.

Pipes for downspouts. That was fun driving down Pioneer with those strapped on

Prepping for where the curbing would be

Look at all that pipe. We're ready for sprinklers now!

More prep

The valve box for the sprinklers. Something I didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago.

Curbing!