yard update

This Memorial Day weekend was a busy one at Casa Reisfelt. Between intensive yard work, hosting a garage sale, and remodeling a bathroom (what?!), there was no rest for the weary. The men were outside most of the weekend, hacking up the yard and putting it back together again. They spent 3 days preparing the yard for what I like to call "the pretty part." Day one included digging a 1 ft x 1ft ditch around the perimeter of the yard and digging out a massive root. The ditch was for a french drain to irrigate the yard.  The root was left behind by whomever dug out the trees from our backyard. This thing was so big that it took four guys most of the day to get it out of the ground. They used a chainsaw, a sawzall, and shovels to dig it out piece by piece. The remains filled up our entire yard waste bin. Crickey!

Day two included leveling out the ditch and destroying the big root's slightly smaller brothers. (Two more roots crossed the path of the french drain. Ugh!)

 Day three was the day when the french drain was installed and the backyard was leveled. And that is where the progress stops. After three very hard days of labor, it's time for everyone to head back to their day jobs and save the rest of the work for the next couple weekends.  

 In other happy news, we found out our HOA pays for all fencing so we don't have to repair those holey fences on our own! Even though we still have a yard full of dirt, it's easier to see what it is going to become and we're so excited! Of course, one thing leads to another and the progress so far has got us talking about Phase 2 (which will have to be saved for next summer, I'm afraid). Things like new patio furniture, an arbor, outdoor lights, a fire pit and other ideas have been dancing in our head... For now though, we are just glad to see this part of our home improving slowly, but surely.