( MONSTER POST with tons of pictures and videos ...consider yourself warned)

As soon as we moved in and the snow melted we knew we had our work cut out for us. The ground in our back yard sloped in two different directions and it was very unfinished. As we worked in the backyard we found that the ground had been slowly moving down hill in our direction pushing out out back yard neighbors fence with it. We knew we needed to do something sooner than later. So we saved. We looked into building retaining walls but with the lack of skill combined with the abundance of slope, not even knowing what "level" was in our back yard and the complete lack of time Derek had home we knew we'd never be able to do it ourselves ( not to mention two little boys that won't let us both work on anything together outside ). We were convinced that we'd be doing it for years and then end up hiring someone to do it right in the end. We saved some more. We had no idea who would do it until we had our friends Matt and Cristall over for dinner and we realized that he did landscaping as well as building custom homes and restoring barns which we knew he did. We were glad that we were getting someone to do the work that we knew we could trust and knew would do quality work.

So on April 11th I had the boys in the car getting ready to go to the library when I saw the Harper and company truck pull up with a little back hoe digger being pulled behind. In minutes the boys were out of the car and watching the digger moving it's way into the back yard.


We were so excited. Hyrum was giggling like a little girl as we watched it dig into our yard.

But by the time I got the camera out the sun was just too much for Hyrum. :)

Within minutes the entire wall line was dug. Then he began to dig the trench to depth.


The best thing about the construction project as far as the boys were concerned was the digger that lived at our house for the duration of the project as well as the gigantic mounds of dirt to conquer
and slide down...

and ditches to throw dirt clods from


Noah loved the digger.

He was all about sitting on it. As soon as I got him up on it he just took to the gears like a natural. No wonder he loved to watch the guys work...he was studying.


I felt so responsible for the digger when it was here. When rain storms came....and they came REGULARLY during the project...I wrapped it up.


I unwrapped it one morning and found that a cat had sought refuge from the weather in my wrapped up digger for the night.

The next day Matt was here the rest of the trench was dug to depth and then he went after the concrete. It was amazing to watch. At first I didn't realize what was happening. I was feeding Noah and saw the back hoe lifting off the ground out of the corner of my eye. He was lifting the corner of the concrete and the whole section lifted off the ground then when he dropped it, it broke. I couldn't stop watching it. It was amazing. I got way too many videos of it.

The next day when they came to haul off the pieces of concrete Noah could not be contained. He had to be out there with them.

They even let him help them. He was beyond thrilled.


Then we waited for the rock to arrive. And the rain and wind to pass.

One consideration in our landscape plan was the pear tree. I wanted the retaining wall around 4 to 5 feet from the fence line and the pear tree was around 7 feet from the fence line. I knew we'd probably have to move either it or the wall. When I went out to prune it this year I noticed this


and this


and knew if we did keep it the tree would have to be much shorter down the road at best. After weeks of vacillating we decided to reluctantly get a new tree and forgo two years of harvest. I told Matt that he could take it to his house and plant it if he wanted...I like to think that's what he did. ( Just a side note: only stake your trees if you have to and only for a year max when you do...thank you)

On April 21st the rock arrived.


The next day they got to work on the footings, leveling again and again. This little machine made sure that our wall and yard was level. Can't tell you how many times they checked it...countless.



So after all the leveling and the gravel and sand and more leveling they ran a level line and started laying the rock and leveled a bit more and put more rock down.





Then they started to level the ground in front of the wall and we started to see what a level backyard looks like.

The next day they were here the wall flew up.

Derek got home as they were putting up the last pieces of rock. He wanted to get out there and help but didn't want to get in their way. They were putting the cap stones on when the rain began to fall again. Then he couldn't just watch from the house he had to go out and help them finish.
Just as the last capstones were put on the rain stopped and the sun came out.



Do you see the rainbow? It was just for us you know. :)

It was crazy how different the wall made our backyard look, more defined. It strangely looked bigger too.

The next time Matt came he brought PVC pipe.

He thought that there'd be a connection to the water from the back for the sprinklers but found there wasn't. He had to run a line from the main, which meant digging up a little grass.

So getting to actually laying the pipe took longer than he expected.

As he was digging trenches and laying pipe he asked me what we had planned for the flower bed area and if I wanted to have sprinklers hit that area or run a drip line of some kind. Hadn't even thought of that. He also asked me if we wanted to move the linden tree we had near the center of the back yard and suggested moving it to the opposite end of the yard. Another thing I hadn't even considered. It was amazing to me how fast and easy he moved trees around. It hadn't even occurred to me to move the tree because I thought it would be very difficult if not impossible. As it turned out the tree looks so much better in it's current location It was in the process of leafing out and it didn't skip a beat. You'd never know it had been moved.

The next day they came was a whirlwind. The sprinklers were finished and the cement was poured

then we waited for the sod to come. And come it did.


It wasn't all for us...I think we only took two or three pallets.

After that was four guys laying down sod faster than I'd ever seen it laid.

We laid probably 200 sq feet of sod in our front yard last year and it took us...ALL DAY practically. These guys laid more than 2000 sq feet in a matter of an hour or two. It looked AMAZING! After adjusting the sprinklers and moving our sprinkler control ( which we had to run an extension cord to in order to run it previously) they were off leaving us with a beautiful backyard.

I tried to take a video after every phase. Here's the rapid fire progress and the final result.








And comparative pictures ( before first then after second...as if you won't be able to tell )

South end

Middle


North end


Isn't it BEAUTIFUL? They did SUCH a good job. As soon as the boys hit the backyard they BOTH made a beeline to the wall and climbed up. Stay tuned for broken arms, legs and scraped up appendages and heads.

Can't wait to plant my GARDEN!!!


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7 comments:

    Brei said...

    It looks FABULOUS! I'm jealous-wish we could figure out what to do with our yard...maybe we'll borrow Matt sometime. :) Are you planting your garden behind the new wall? I'll bet you're loving it-can't wait to see it in person one of these days!

  1. ... on May 22, 2011 at 8:42 AM  
  2. Dave said...

    one word - "WONDERFULL!"

  3. ... on May 22, 2011 at 5:29 PM  
  4. The Dalton's said...

    What a project!! It looks wonderful!!

  5. ... on May 22, 2011 at 9:47 PM  
  6. Nikki said...

    Wow wow wow. It looks great. Really does look different- and bigger- definitely much more practical! Love it. So the front is a little different now too? I think you can throw out or donate your found bricks. You're all set!

  7. ... on May 22, 2011 at 11:14 PM  
  8. Gabrielle said...

    Wow!! Fantastic! It looks great! And gives me some great ideas about our own slanty yard!

  9. ... on May 23, 2011 at 5:53 PM  
  10. Kyle and Amy Brinkerhoff said...

    I can't believe how much bigger it looks. Addy will have lots of fun playing there with the boys.

  11. ... on May 23, 2011 at 9:27 PM  
  12. Pam said...

    Thanks for showing us the progression. What a huge change! It's like adding an addition on to the house. I bet the boys are having a great time back there. Yea! And tomoatoes should be easy to pick. :)

  13. ... on May 25, 2011 at 9:39 PM