The backyard...

My mom has been asking me to show her pictures of our newly finished backyard so I thought I'd post the pictures here on our blog for all to see... ENJOY!

Remember this ugly mess???

That is what our backyard looked like a year ago when we first bought our house... nothing but weeds, rocks and dirt!

Immediately upon moving in, we hired a crew to come and clear out all of the weeds...

You can't really tell by this picture, but our backyard had a downward slope to it... enough that we had to do something about it...

... So in March, we hired a contractor to build us a huge brick retaining wall... at it's highest point, the wall is nearly 4 feet high.
Sorry the following picture is a bit blurry--- I took the picture from inside the house looking through a window with a screen on it.  Anyhow, this was the beginning of the wall...

 

What a difference a day... or a month for that matter, makes... look at the gloom in the first two pictures compared to the bright gorgeous blue sky in this last picture... It wasn't supposed to take the builder more than a week to complete the wall but we had a ridiculously LONG, WET and COLD Spring, so the work on the retaining wall was delayed due to bad weather and the wall took much longer to build than we anticipated; the wall wasn't finished till the first week in May.

Once the wall was finished, it was beautiful... too bad we don't get to appreciate the masonry... we brought in TONS of dirt--- and by tons, I mean TONS--- we had 9 or 10? huge side loader semis dump fill dirt in the backyard so that we could level it out.

Below is what a portion of the wall looks like from our neighbors yard...

Then it rained some more--- who am I kidding, it rained A LOT more after we brought in all of our fill dirt, which wasn't such a bad thing because the rain helped the dirt settle, but I was beginning to get extremely impatient... I just wanted the yard to be DONE so I could send our boys out back to play!

As the dirt was settling and it rained and rained, we hired a land surveyor to come out and stake our property lines... a neighbor told us a year ago when we bought our home that she thought that a lot of owners property lines were way off due to carelessness... we wanted to make sure we knew WHERE our property lines were so that we wouldn't build onto anyone else land...  as it turns out, our property lines were way off and our two neighbors just to the south of us had built their backyards onto our property.  One neighbor was nearly 6 feet onto our land! Spencer toiled with the matter for quite some time- his concern was what he should do about the problem--- should he take the land back since it was rightfully his (that would
 only cost us more money because then we'd have to extend the retaining wall, bring in more dirt and build more fence), should we loan or sell the land out to our neighbors or just leave it as it was???  After giving it MUCH thought, and discussing it with officials from the city, he decided the BEST thing to do was to just have a contract written up that leased the land (at no cost) to both neighbors for 99 years... I know, I know, 99 years, WHAT?!  That's just legally how things had to be- at no cost and 99 years, if we didn't want to create a HUGE ,costly mess for us to figure out.  As it turns out, because our property line was WAY off, most of our other neighbors on our block, their property lines were WAY off too--- you'd think that when these people originally built their homes, 3, 4, 5 years ago, they would have been smart enough to hire land surveyors to come out and stake their property lines too- but they didn't!  What a mess!  Lesson learned:  Before you attempt to build anything--- get all the correct info, FIRST!

The workers dug out the hole for the in ground trampoline and lined the hole with steel and the same mason who built our retaining wall also built our sunken fire pit and patio.  It's also very beautiful.  We hired a couple of experts to come out and connect the fire pit to a gas line that connects to the house so with the turn of a special key, the ring would light and we wouldn't have to rely on getting it started with wood... we've already used the pit quite a bit for roasting marshmallows--- the boys absolutely LOVE it, and might I just insert here, thanks to whomever it was that decided to make and sell gluten free graham crackers--- we LOVE those--- Smores wouldn't be the same without graham crackers and oh yes, how about those HUGE marshmallows they sell in stores now?! I absolutely LOVE them!!!  They get perfectly toasted on the outside when roasting them but yet still stay ooey and gooey on the inside... YUM!  Anyhow, as I come to think of it, I better be careful... if we continue to roast marshmallows and make Smores out back as often as we have already, at this pace, 6 months from now I'll probably look like a marshmallow!

We LOVE our fire pit.  There's already enough built in seat for a dozen or so people, however we want to buy a nice chaise or two to put outside beside it too, and we've left enough room down in the fire pit area so eventually if we ever want to, we can add a little built in kitchen/barbecue.

B.T.W., that's red and black lava rock in the pit... we thought about using colored glass bits in the pit, like what you see on HGTV's backyard makeovers with fire pits, but that stuff is EXPENSIVE!!! I'm talking beaucoup bucks!!! Maybe one day we'll switch out the lava for glass, but probably not while our boys our young... they already like to take the lava rocks out of the pit and throw those at each other.

One more thing--- while I'm on the subject of the fire pit--- you ought to see how gorgeous the night sky is out here!!!  Since we're away from the city and on the west side of the lake, we don't have nearly as much pollution in the air or overhead lights to obscure the stars--- the view is SPECTACULAR and it's even better star gazing by the fire at night! Now if only we had a telescope....

Okay, moving on...
By the end of May, our top soil arrived... again--- we had to have 4 HUGE truck loads of top soil brought in... DIRT AIN'T CHEAP folks!

The first week in June, our fence was installed... It's trex- we LOVE it!  Our HOA requires that if we choose to put up fencing it has to be either cedar or Trex with only one choice of stain/color--- a grayish green. We decided to go with Trex and although it's a little bit more expensive than cedar, we won't ever have to stain or paint it AND it has a 25 year warranty so if any part of the fence gets damaged, it can be replaced for free.  We paid a little extra to have two side gates installed; the one on the right of the house is big enough for a truck to pass through, you know, just in case we ever need to back a truck into the backyard and we also paid to have a back gate installed along the back fence so that our neighbors behind us can just climb up a few steps, open the gate and join us in our backyard for a play date- they have a little boy named Elliot who is good friends with both Noah and Ian.

I LOVE the fact that we chose to put a fence in immediately... now I don't have to watch the boys like a hawk when they're outside!  This is the first time people that we've EVER had a yard with a fence!!!  The first time ever and we have 5 boys!!! I'm not bragging, I'm just saying! It was exhausting to keep watch over them every.second. they'd play outside--- it always felt like any time (which rarely EVER was the case) I turned my head, even just for a second, and took my eye off of the boys, one of them was walking into the street or in our neighbors yard...

I call our fence my little coral- our boys are the cattle.... we HAVE to have the fence to contain them otherwise they'll run amuck! You should have seen them the other day--- they were all outback playing (with the exception of Atticus of course) while I was working on the computer... I could hear them playing over at the side of the house, then I heard their little voices coming from the front of the house!  The FRONT!  Obviously the front of the house isn't gated in, so I ran out front just in the nick of time to see Noah and Ian playing on the front lawn with Cohen and Bentley tagging right along...  they're just like sheep I tell you!!!  Where one goes, the others all follow... Needless to say, the older two boys figured out how to open the side gate... those stinkers!  I guess we'll have to buy locks to put on them.

We'd like to have a nicer deck built--- preferably one that is larger (you know, big enough for dinner parties) and made out of Trex... we probably won't have the money to have it built until later in the fall or next spring... until then, we've decided to portion off a piece of the yard next to the house where the future deck will be.

We had to hire a guy from heating and air to come out and move one of our air conditioning units... it just so happened that the day he came to disconnect our unit that functioned as our cooling for the upstairs was also the first day it got HOT here in Utah--- I'm talking almost 100 degrees!!! He came in the evening, just as I was packing all our boys in the car and in a hurry to get down to Orem for some event; Spencer wasn't home, he was teaching and he NEVER told me anyone from heating and air was going to be stopping by to relocate the AC unit... I guess I was SUPPOSED to tell him where to move it but since I didn't know, I just told him he could unhook it and move it off to the side. He said he would come back the following day to connect it in it's new location, but for some reason or another, he didn't return for 6 days!!!  Those 6 days were scorchers!  And to make matters worse, remember that law of science we all learned in grade school--- hot air rises... well it was unbearably HOT upstairs in the bedrooms, so Spencer and I spent every night sleeping on the living room sofa with the babe--- the boys just toughed it out in their rooms, wearing only their undies at night with their windows wide open and with fans on full blast, but I just couldn't handle the heat.  Remember how I just had a baby--- well my body is STILL adjusting, and as if getting random heat flashes during the middle of the night isn't enough--- I didn't want to sleep in a room that was 89 degrees!

After our air conditioning unit was relocated, a company of men came and poured the cement for our basketball court.  This is Spencer's pride and joy!  The court is pretty large--- big enough to have a half court and then some to play ball on or ride bikes on.  The cement had to sit and cure for a week before the professionals Spencer hired could come and install his basketball hoop...  I have to admit, I'm not much of a fan when it comes to basketball by I really DO enjoy shooting hoops outside.  It's especially nice to play in the evening.  I'll tell you who else LOVES playing basketball--- Bentley!  It's the cutest thing you've ever seen! ---side note: While the 3 older boys were at my in laws this past Saturday, Spencer painted the basketball court; he painted the 3 point line and all those other lines that are on courts.  It was quite a chore--- he had to make sure that every line and marking was precise! I helped. Did I mention he decided to do it though at noon--- when it was 101 degrees outside?!  The gods must think we're cRaZy!

Our sod arrived on the 5TH of July...
(this is just a third of what arrived--- there were another 6 or 7 palettes of grass out in front of the house. It was A LOT of grass!)

Spencer pitched in and helped our landscapers lay the grass... It's gorgeous and lush--- some sort of Kentucky blue grass.  We've been watering it a LOT and the boys have had to try and  keep off of it this past month so it can root, tip toeing between the deck, the b-ball court and the trampoline...

Our yard looks HUGE now that it's finished!!! It's MUCH BIGGER than either Spencer or I ever imagined it was when we first bought our house. I LOVE that we have LOTS of grass space for the boys to run and play ball on. 

 

Eventually, next Spring we'll build planter boxes along the back side of our hose and plant fruits and veggies... I'd like to plant one or two fruit trees--- peach trees possibly but for now, we've just laid a black tarp covering the space so we don't get weeds growing up through there... that's the only pit about having a yard--- now that we have one, we have to take care of it!  I swear---- I weed my little heart out and the following day, NEW WEEDS are in place where the old weeds were once growing!!!  It's a pain in the butt!!! We plan on planting bushes along the north fence next to the basketball court to give us a little more privacy and protect our neighbors fence--- it's an older cedar fence that's already falling apart--- in another couple of year when it comes time for them to replace it we're definitely going to suggest Trex.

I think I've mentioned before in previous posts that one day I'd like to put an Endless Pool out on the south side of the house---  we're pretty fortunate that both of our side yards are BIG!  That part of the yard we don't really use and a little swimming pool would fit perfectly there... we'll see--- I could really use the extra 15-20K it costs to buy one!  Until then, I guess I'll just have to start saving my $$$, one penny at a time.

I'd also like to get the boys a Crooked House (as seen here)--- I like the pirate one as I'm sure the boys would too... again though--- it all comes down to money... Ahhh, blast it!  Anyone know which nursery sells Money Trees???  I'd like to plant a few in the backyard.

The boys ABSOLUTELY LOVE the backyard!!! 

This was a picture I took of the boys the very first morning they got to go out back and play...  they played ALL morning in just their diapers and undies- because they didn't want to come inside and get dressed!  The poor things played outside for so long that day they got little sunburns on parts of their bodies that normally NEVER EVER see sunlight---i.e. their tooshes and their thighs.

It's practically a little boys paradise--- trampoline, basketball, lawn to run and play on and a fire pit to roast marshmallows...  the 3 older boys can't wait to sleep out back with Spencer on the trampoline--- we would have done it this week but the weather's been bad... maybe next week??? We've had LOTS of play dates with their friends in the backyard and the decision is mutual--- even all of their friends LOVE the yard.... today they had a play date with 4 of their little friends and they played croquet back there, along with lacrosse and basketball, they jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler on underneath it (personally I feel that was the. BEST. decision we made installing a separate sprinkler under there for the kids to turn on and off) AND we even had the bounce house blown up for them to play on.

I LOVE the yard because the boys can all go out back to eat snacks and meals and burn their crazy energy off; they get sun--- you should see how nice and tan Ian and Cohen are now; Noah and Bentley's hair are both getting sun bleached blonde + it allows me to have a couple of quiet minutes during the day, inside the house, all to myself--- not A LOT; a couple.  You'd be AMAZED at how much the boys still NEED ME.  I'm needed for EVERYTHING! "Mom, can you help me fill up my water gun???", "Mom, can you come and jump with me on the tramp???", "Mom, can you help me catch a dragon fly???", "Mom, Cohen spilled his juice..."  AHHH!  They're lucky I love them!  Speaking of dragon flies... we have quite a few that fly around our backyard... those and butterflies...  the dragon flies are really beautiful... most of them have been black and turquoise, but the other day we had one that was totally crimson red come and visit!!!  I've never seen so many dragon flies else where.

'nough said about the yard--- we're LOVING it and we can't wait to host LOTS of barbecues back there--- which reminds me--- we need to buy another one since the nice one we owned was stolen from our previous house last summer!

The following is just a shot of the front of the house---- I thought my parents would like to see what the front looks like with the fence and gates installed.  Oh, and the patch of lawn on the right side of the house is brand new sod too...  we used to have lawn there before but with all the trucks and tractors going through to the backyard, it got totally torn up so we had to replace it... I LOVE the new lawn--- it's so lush and much greener than our previous lawn to the left of the house--- I wish we could replace that but then that would just cost more money and I still don't know WHERE we can buy a money tree!

Next spring/summer we'll be busy trying to re-vamp the front of the house... It needs it!  The drive way is chipping away and it needs to be resurfaced; the flower beds both need bushes and flowers; the pathetic tree that's half dead in the middle of our lawn needs to be replaced--- that or it seriously needs some Miracle Grow; we'd like to add more lighting and rod iron railing around the porch and stairs and does anyone know if it's possible to remove the tacky gridding that's in our front windows???  We were told by the company who installed our plantation shutters that the gridding inside the double windows is just decorative--- if that's truly the case, I'd like to have it removed!  It's just ugly.  However we don't want to replace any windows--- those are all in good condition and we don't want to pay an arm and a leg to have it removed. It would be nice to get rid of it--- I think it would improve our house curb appeal.  A.N.Y.H.O.W., we're beginning to learn that projects around the house NEVER end!  Just when we begin to think we're at the end of our "to do" list, something else we need to fix or we'd like to improve surfaces!


Spencer did a great job creating the backyard--- don't you think?