I was just about to go start on some sewing when I had to let the cat out the backdoor (for the umpteen time today). Anyway, when I really looked Isaw just how pretty the backyard had become this Fall. When Chip and I were designing our house we live in now our boys were five and four years old at the time. (Our daughter didn't arrive until a few months before we moved in.) We were so busy at the time of construction and we kept telling the boys this will all pass as soon as we moved in. Boy were we naive. They are now 14 and 13 and I still feel like we are moving in high gear. Anyway, we moved in and the backyard was nothing but ugly Virginia pines that were beaten with an ugly stick, repeatedly. If you look really close to the left side of the first pic below you will see the ugly Virginia pines still in our neighbors yard. And well, with small exception of a few hardwoods, I mean a few and one dogwood I felt blessed. Well, we wanted a backyard that our kids could play in. So, we hired a man to cut them down, smooth out the yard and dig out right behind the deck to make two levels. The builder when they landscaped the yard left it so as soon as you stepped off the steps of the deck you walked on an angle. FUN! By the time our landscaper had finished his part, our backyard looked like a war zone. Our neighbors kept asking each other, "What are they doing?" I just kept saying I promise when we are done you will like it. We fenced it in with a six foot wooden privacy fence and began our work.
Where our landscaper cut out for two levels we built a retaining wall. We had never done this before but I knew if a professional could do it , we could do it. I don't know if you remember back in early years of 2000 when a heat wave and then drought hit on the East Coast. Well, that was the day we started. 95 degrees and higher. What were we thinking? Yes, that was the day my husband picked to start our project. Well, he shoveled the area to lay the stone block and we went to work laying sand and laying stones one after another all summer long in the heat. The ninety five and higher heat. We spent more time on laying down a stone block and removing it to level out the sand underneath than I care to even talk about. We fussed, we fought, let me just tell you we knew if we made it thru that we knew we could do anything. Well, it paid off. After much planting and sowing of grass seed. This is our backyard now.
My husband says he built this wall twice. You may also notice we started something. Both of our neighbors on each side of us cleared their backyards of ugly Virginia pines. The other funny thing about this retaining wall. When we finished the wall we didn't have steps until the following year and we didn't have an idea of what we were going to use for them. We just happened to be out and about one Saturday and dropped by a nursery and they had these steps, a perfect match. Oh, back to what started this blog. The pics below.
And you know what we found out when we finally finished the backyard and it was ready for the kids to play in. They don't like to play outside. Isn't that a fine howdy do?
Oh well, my husband and I enjoy it. Even if it is us just sitting on the deck looking out at what Elohim enabled us to do.
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