The Back Yard is Done!!!! (Almost)

Well, we have slowly been working on our backyard. I say slowly because we have been in the house for a year and a half and we have done next to nothing. Last fall we had a screen room and small deck added to the back of the house. This was such an amazing addition and we all love this additional space. We moved our pine (Timberline) furniture to the screen room but did not have a table for our deck. We just purchased a small table and chairs for the deck so we can eat outside. We are looking forward to spending a lot of time outside this summer.

Over the last few weeks we have had a landscaper come in to grade our yard. We back up to a wooded area and our lot is flat right out the back but then there is a slope that goes down about 10 ft and then we have another flat area down below that is about 8 ft. The landscaper flattened out the bottom area. We will eventually make this area into a horse shoe pit with a few benches for sitting. The sloped area was covered in weeds and blackberry bushes. We had those removed and had juniper bushes put in. We will eventually build a stairway down the middle of the sloped area to get to the horse shoe pits. Once we have these horse shoe pits, my family better watch out the next time I make it to a family reunion!

The flat part of our yard that is up close to our house has seen the biggest change. It started out as all grass (mostly weeds). We had all of that tilled up and made several distinct areas. Looking out from our deck into the forest there is a stone pathway that will lead to the future stairway. To the left of the stone path is our grassy area. This is where we will keep our adirondak chairs and our fire pit. All around the grassy area is flower beds. They are all empty right now, but we will slowly start to build up this area. To the right of the stone path is the best part of all! THE PLAY AREA! We had special mulch put in and Craig, his dad and I put together the play structure over the course of a few days. Other than a few minor first aid moments, it went pretty well. We still have a few more things to add, but the girls had a great time playing on it yesterday. They woke up today looking forward to spending the day outside and it has been raining off and on most of the day. Oh well, I know they will get plenty of use out of it. The stone path goes around the deck and out towards the side of the house. Against the back of the house we will have a couple of small flower beds and we will be making a platform for the grill. In between the path and the play structure, we will be putting in a small garden with vegetables and spices. I bought several things to plant in the garden, but have not been able to put them in yet. I still need to get some soil to add to the clay we currently have so that my things will grow well. We are very excited to see it all come together. I'll try to get more pictures of the girls playing. I think they will be a lot more adventurous in their own backyard. We will eventually put fencing on each side of the yard to give us some privacy from our neighbors and make us feel better about letting the girls go outside by themselves. We will not fence by the forest because the girls will most likely not go down there and it is too beautiful a view to block.

Enjoy the pictures! The first few are before pictures and then you can see the progress at different stages.

I hope all of you Mother's are having a great Mother's Day! Talk to you soon.