Sunday, July 25, 2010

Now that's a Shillelagh!

Step 1: unearth the Shellelagh... (if you don't know what it is, you should google it and you will laugh looking at the size of this one compared to what they should be) I can't imagine anyone wanting to carry that thing around with them much less a small Irish chap.
Smooth out the dirt and this is what we have been working on for 2 weeks. I sure didn't think it would be that sweaty or take that long.
Finally I get the luxury of using my own front door!! YIPPEE!! I was telling Steve that I don't think americans or people in general realize what a convience it is to be able to walk up to your home and enter thru the front door. I am so grateful.
Unfortunately our temporary porch is falling a little short these days but my husband is not only clever but also very funny. "Ride that wave baby!!"
So the temporary porch is extended and now we have a gangplank to walk everyday. Of course this lead us to thinking about filling in the hole with water and having a giant pond out the front door with a lovely bridge leading you into the yard. I am sure we will give it some consideration. Seems as all things do it will evolve naturally.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Enter.... Tractorman!!

In previous post you see Steve and I tilling and picking dirt... we felt there was a better way...
Step 1: remove mail box... (this was surprisingly easy)

and relocate to the other side of the drive.
There is no time to build a proper stand so we "installed" it Magalia style. (one bungee is really all you need to secure the mailbox to a tree)
Enter... Tractorman!!! whoo hoo!!

We moved a ton of dirt to the front planter bed.

Curb Appeal...
We are still working on the retaining walls for the porch..


Thursday, July 15, 2010

Prepping the yard... change is blowin' in the wind...along with a crapload of dirt...

It's been a few weeks since an update.. we have been busy as usual and making progress. Below is a picture of Steve and I killing ourselves trying to dig out the dirt so the water will drain away from the house when we build the porch. Needless to say, we are renting the tractor tomorrow because rototilling and picking until you reach physical exhaustion just "isn't the way". (I think we are smarter than that!) Of course, after all that digging we needed to put the temporary porch back which now is more like a temporary ramp.
We tilled and dug a trench around this stand of trees in the yard to make a "flower bed" of sorts.. I think it's practically "parklike"...

And here is the "clean slate", after removing the trees and getting the stumps ground and then cleaning up the mess.. this is what you have. (I do regret not getting pics of the yard after the stump grinding. Just try to picture the yard with giant mounds of dirt and wood chips. It looked like we had a mole the size of my car living in the ground)
Part of the wood clean up was making someplace to store the wood for the fires we will have in the yard (after we rebuild the firepit).
Steve built the one above and I built the one below. (I did have a little help) :)
We did finish doing the demo on the back porch and resupported the roof and it turned out nice. The breeze actually blows thru and it became a nice addition to the back yard. With a little pressure washing and a change in the direction of the steps and a new roof.... you get the idea...I am sure this weekend will be an adventure. We have never operated a tractor for excavation but, like I said before, "we are smarter than that" ... right???