Tuesday, May 25, 2010

DIY Outside Project

Ok so here's one project that I did not initiate. Tony decided he wanted to take on this huge task and took 2 days off of work to get it done. The weather in Michigan has been crazy rainy this spring, so when beautiful days were forecasted for this week he jumped on the opportunity.

He decided he wanted to add a hardscape to our backyard, for a couple reasons.

1. We love doing our gardens but mowing around them well isn't fun, we decided to add a second (smaller) box this year so he wanted to put the hardscapes around them.
2. Caleb has a very big, very heavy play house, it was on grass and that was just killing the grass and impossible to mow inside of the house. So we wanted to put some hardscape under it.
3. Less lawn to mow - I mean isn't that a good reason in itself!!

We don't claim to know anything about landscapes, maybe we did it wrong - who knows, but I think he did a pretty great job!!

On to the pictures!!

Here are a couple before shots of the area:

Tasks Completed: Built smaller raised garden bed, and got up the guts to do project.

before1 web

before2 web

After Day 1:

Tasks Completed:
~ Pulled up all the sod using a rented sod cutter
~ Repositioned old raised Garden Bed and positioned new garden bed
~ Mapped out area for play house
~ Pulled a bunch of weeds

Day 1-01 web

Day 1-02 web

After Day 2:

Tasks Completed:
~ Laid down weed barrier
~ Put in flagstone and pea gravel
~ Filled in play area with Rubber Mulch
~ Moved a TON of pea gravel around to various locations

Day 2-01 web

Day 2-02 web

Day 2-03 web

Day 2-04 web

Day 2-05 web

Day 2-06 web

Tony couldn't have done this without the help of his friend Shane or his Mom, so thank you for the help!! I can say I didn't do much for this DIY project and yeah I'm not complaining!!

Tasks still needing to be done:

~Fill in garden beds with the good soil/compost and stuff
~Plant my yummy veggie plants and herbs!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Some of my 2 favorite people...

I didn't post yesterday but I do want to say Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there. I hope you got to spend some great time with your families yesterday and got a little relaxation time too. I love when I have a nice afternoon to go to the park and enjoy a walk with Tony and Caleb. Caleb really loves to be outside and to explore so that's what we did. And all the while, I took a couple pictures of them. I love looking at these and seeing Tony interracting with Caleb. Enjoy!


Mothers Day_0009 web


Mothers Day_0012 web


Mothers Day_0013 web


Mothers Day_0024 web


Mothers Day_0020 web


Thanks for looking!