House Projects: The Backyard*

Oh lovelies, I am so tired.

I’ve been up since 5:45am, and my book and my bed are screaming my name. However, I promised to give you another house update this week, and I will not disappoint!

A little while ago I told you all about our jungle backyard and shared with you The Story of the Sodcutter. We started out with this:

And a close up of our beautiful “grass”…

By the time that was all done and finished, I was pretty much ready to live happily with a backyard full of dirt.

Seriously.

However, the Hubster had different ideas…

On Monday he called a local nursery and ordered five yards of soil for our backyard. When I got home from work on Tuesday, there was a mountain of soil on my front lawn. He and a friend got right down to work.

Since our old lawn had already been disposed of, our palate this time was an uneven lawn of dry dirt with patches of weeds that had begun to grow again. Before we could put in our new soil, we needed to till the earth to loosen the soil and prepare it for seeding. The Hubster and BC (his incredibly handy friend) trekked over to our beloved Home Depot to rent a tiller.

It looked like it was a little easier to maneuver than the sodcutter was, but it was still a beast to push through the soil.

Tilling the backyard was no small job–it took the boys nearly three hours to complete it.

And what was I doing while they were playing with the tiller, you ask? (Besides taking fun photos, of course)

Shoveling, shoveling, then shoveling some more.

We had two wheelbarrows, and I stood next to our mountain of dirt and filled them as they emptied each one into our back yard over and over and over again…

By the time we finished on Tuesday night, we had gone through almost half of our soil. Needless to say, my shoulders and arms were a might sore the next day…

It was after 10pm by the time we finished and returned the tiller, so we decided to call it a night and finish the next day. BC offered to come over and work a bit during the day while the Hubster and I were at work, and we gratefully accepted.

I swear this man works miracles. When we got home from work the mountain of soil was gone. Our backyard was level and raked smoothly. Our mountain of crap and tree limbs from the trees the Hubster took out was safely deposited at the dump. I was so immensely grateful–I still don’t know how he managed to get it all done!

All that was left was seeding and watering our lovely level dirt yard. The Hubster seeded while BC and one of our neighbours followed behind to rake and water the lawn.

We are slave drivers and don’t believe in rest. Rest is for the weak! (And for me. ha)

Every day since we’ve been watering and watching, waiting for the first signs of our new lawn. I know it takes time, but I can’t help but run down the stairs each morning to see if there are any little buds yet.

It’s way more exciting than TV.

Tonight we fertilized the lawn and raked away the last remaining bits of our mountain of dirt. It was thrilling to was the soil off our entrance walk way, and I am longing for the day when I won’t have dirt tracked through my front hallway.

Maybe I’ll have grass tomorrow. :)