The Summer Project

The summer project we tackled this year was relandscaping the front yard. I have been looking forward to this project for over a year so it was fun to see it become a reality! The problem was it just wasn't that simple of a task. The lady that lived here before had dumped these flaky little pieces called chocolate mulch on top of red rock on top of white rock. So we had a mess to dig out before we could start doing much of anything in the way of landscaping. But after about a million wheel barrel loads of rocks to the woods next to our house we had it all just about rock free. I would load the wheel barrel in the morning (with my two little helpers by my side) but it would be too heavy for us to get to the woods so Kreg would dump it at lunch. Then we'd load it again in the afternoon and Kreg would dump it again when he came home at the end of the day. This routine went on for what seemed like weeks.
Below is a BEFORE picture. Pretty much everything you see in this picture came out and got replaced. (Its not the greatest picture so its hard to tell how desperately we needed a "curb-appeal" makeover. So just go with me on it) Something you cannot see is what you use to be along the left side of the sidewalk. Earlier in the summer we gutted that area and put grass seed down. Prior to the grass it was a mess of rocks and weeds. You can still see the outline of where the old flowerbed use to be. Also notice on the left of the picture a big muddy spot that has our well cap in the middle of it. What in the world were we supposed to do with that area??? Kreg had the perfect idea...

Kreg's great big idea for the well cap was a great big rock to go in front of it!! Sweet! What a great idea! So Kreg took the backhoe from the farm and went and got a huge rock from one of the fields. He spotted it last year during harvest. When we went to get it, it was larger than we had remembered and waaaaay down in the ground. It was doubtful there for a while whether that rock was meant to be in our yard or not. I'm still not sure how we got that thing out but thanks to Kreg's dad showing up to help we got it home.
This is what sat in our front yard for a night: (Aiden is showing how big the rock is!)

And then somehow we miraculously got the rock in just the perfect spot. Kreg told me wherever that thing landed was where it was stayin....so I was prayin it landed where it needed to. And it did!!! (nice driving honey!) Below is the finished product (big rock and all...complete with 20 some new plants!)


I don't think the pics do our "curb appeal" makeover justice but I still thought I'd share because I love our new look. Next year is the backyard!! That too is going to be quite the project....it's a good thing Kreg gets a break for a few months before starting that one.