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5/17/2014

Lost in Transition

 
I have been missing in action due to the weather greatly improving, having our oldest daughter and her hubby visiting and landscaping our back yard. Phew!
 
As you know we put in our in ground pool last fall and the back yard was left without a lot of grass in those areas around it.
 
One of the pool workers recommended a great landscaper so we called, he came out, looked around and gave us the bad news.  Ten thousand dollars... .. YES read that correctly.....  Again, TEN THOUSAND dollars would NOT even touch our back yard.  GULP.
We thought about it all of five minutes and said, "Forget that. We can do it ourselves for a lot less than that."
 

 We called and visited landscape places and nurseries, made up our own plan and found a wonderful family run landscaping business.  For some reason they really liked us and offered us contract prices on all the supplies we bought from them.  Basin and Sod Landscaping is the best around town!
 
 

 They delivered all the materials we needed for the main phase and dropped them off out front.
 
 

 We added arbor vitae shrubs from Costco--the cheapest in town besides Lowe's.  Our little pickup made 5 trips to haul 42 of them over a few weeks time.
 
                                 
 This is the end of the pool and how it was over the winter.
 
                        
  John prepped it  and the far side of the pool for rainbow rock.
 
 
 
 
 
We originally espied this huge flat rock perfect for lounging on.  It would not fit through our gate by 6".  They offered us this fountain for the same price so we took it! This corner is perfect.
 
 
 
The rock is all in and this plow/shovel was on the front of an old truck my dad owned years ago. He eventually made it into this planter in their yard.  My Mom sold the house after he died and we inherited it.  I will fill it with flowers soon.

This is looking at the side of the back yard  it used to be all grass. You can see the arbor vitae along this side of the fence.
 
 

 New sod put in. John is amazing and worked hours and hours every day but we still hired two helpers from the landscaping company to get this all done.
 
 
 


This is the far side of the yard looking where all the sod was laid and the shrubs down the left side.
Phase 2 coming next.
 
Of course I couldn't do any of the physical labor...I am still rehabbing my left ankle.....BUT hey I can supervise with the best of  'em!  (of course I had the final say in what went where and made sure they all kept well hydrated in the heat.)
Can't wait to show you what I have been doing with bright paint!

6 comments:

kath001 said...

It looks GREAT! Way to save some big bucks. :)

Art and Sand said...

WOW! You have been busy. It's great that you were able to save the money by doing the work yourself.

Is it pool weather yet?

Karen said...

My son has been in the landscape/tree business for 10 years, so I know what a huge amount of work you've accomplished already! Looks great!

My Garden Diaries said...

It looks absolutely amazing!!!!! Pure beautiful! Congrats on doing it yourself....now it is time to enjoy!!!!

Ida said...

Looks like it's all coming together quite nicely.

Art and Sand said...

Just checking in since it has been awhile since you posted.

Hope everything is good!