Playing in the dirt

We have spent the last week preparing our yard for the driveway, sidewalk and sod! Let me show you some before and after pictures.

Here is our house with overgrown weeds. You can see the orange stakes that mark out the driveway and sidewalk. This is what the concrete guys used to give us a price for their work.


We rented a tiller to break up existing grass/weeds. You can see the front yard is about halfway done.

This is what the ground looks like after it’s tilled – very soft.


This is the tiller.


We brought in three loads of dirt on Friday and we were able to barrow a Bobcat from Adam’s cousin Rusty (thanks, Rusty!). Adam moved dirt around Friday and Saturday to get the grading right for our lawn (make water run away from the foundation).


Adam was inspired by his baseball days and hooked us this contraption to smooth out the dirt. It worked pretty well.


The concrete guys put up the form boards on Monday. It’s really great to be able to define the yard and see what the finished product is going to look like.


The form boards up close. We had hoped to get concrete today, but ran into some problems with permitting, bonds, etc with the county. We are getting everything worked out and should have concrete (and sod for that matter) this week. We’re very excited!


As for the inside of the house, we got the baseboards in the areas with carpet the weekend before last. Here is the guest room.


This is what our window sills look like with the base.


We also received the rest of our kitchen appliances. Here is the refrigerator. We love it – much more high-tech than what we would typically buy, but we got it on sale – yay!


The microwave and range. Just so you know, I did everything to install the microwave myself (while Adam was moving dirt). I did have to get Adam’s assistance to lift it in place, but the rest was all me.

We passed our electrical and plumbing finals. Like I said before, we should get concrete and sod this week and hope to get the landscaping plants/trees in this weekend. Then, we just need to finish up flooring and trim. We are getting SO CLOSE!!