Lawn Project: Complete!

I have been a little slow on posting the grand finale pictures of our lawn project.  You would think that I would have been so excited to show it off that I would have posted immediately - but we must be busy or something because I haven't sat in front of the computer (at home) in forever.  So here are the pictures of the completed project!  All that is left to do is grow some grass in the back yard...which we are working on.  For some "before and after" shots, check out the "picture time" page.

Front Yard!

Oh to have grass...

 Those first two pictures were taken a few days before they came to spray down the hydro-seed in the back yard.  It was so satisfying to see the front yard completed.  Over the weekend, the hydro-seeding happened which looked something like this:

Spraying down the hydro-seed

 And when all was said and done, the neon green color calmed down a bit and we ended up with something a little less in your face:

Hydro-seeded

So that is busy growing away out there - we are still working with the sprinklers a bit - there is a region that gets hit by about 5 sprinklers and it looks like the grass is having a hard time coming in due to all the water.  Let's be honest, these are first-world problems and we will probably make it through.  To wrap it up, here are the "afters" of everything.  The light was getting a little low towards the end of my photo session so the resolution isn't as great...but you get the idea.  Thanks for checking in!

Mulch and a new faucet

The title of this post doesn't leave much to the imagination...we have mulch!  The front is looking awesome, all ready for sod:

Where's Waldo? Don't mind all the crud on the driveway...focus on the MULCH!

Looking East from the driveway

Looking southeast from the sidewalk

Another southeast view

I haven't taken any pictures of the garden area behind the mailbox yet because that is still a storage area for rock/mulch that hasn't been put in place yet.  It also isn't totally cleaned out so still has a little work to be done on it.  Looking good though, right?  In the back yard they filled in around the rocks on the patio:

We got our new pine tree in the back yard and they tilled/composted/and raked the future lawn area:

New tree - looking east

 And I really just love this view...as you walk into the back yard from the side gate on the west side of the house:
 

We also have the sprinkler system and timer all hooked up in the garage and I am hoping that we will get to talk over everything with Steve in the morning. 

In non-yard related news, Flick replaced the faucet in the kitchen sink last night.  It went really well and we are excited about having a fully operational sink...and it is even raised up a little higher than our last one, giving us some clearance when doing dishes...it may be just an inch but I am positive my dad is going to be excited about it.

That's all for now, happy hump day everyone!

Edging...and a little unexpected project

Who knew a little edging could make such a difference?  The guys were back in force today.  When we left they were shoveling excess rock into the truck and when we came back, we had the entire back-ground "edged" (not sure if that is a technical landscaping word, but we're using it).  It really defines the space where the grass will eventually reside and made us super excited for our project.  Here are some pictures with the really cool sunset lighting we had today:

Panoramic View of the back yard from the deck...kind of skews it a bit

On the deck looking to the right (southwest)

On the deck looking straight ahead, due south

On the deck looking left, southeast

On the deck looking far left, due east

As weird and fun-house-mirror-ish as the panoramic picture looks, I think it makes me the most excited for the final product.  They also did some work on the sprinkler system today.  The sprinkler heads are all in place and they are working on the control valves, etc.  I say "etc." because I have no idea what else they are doing.  We do have this nifty looking contraption going in by the deck.  In the end, we will be able to control the timers and everything from a control panel in the garage, but I am not really too sure how we get from where we are today to that point.

Some important looking sprinkler parts, probably good to know where these are located...

I think I must have jinxed us with what I thought to be the clever naming of this blog.  Our kitchen faucet bit the dust this evening.  Water won't come out of the faucet piece, only the spray hose (which is like trying to do dishes with a fire hose since our water pressure is so ridiculous), so that is fun.  Try not to judge our sense of style on the condition of our kitchen sink (and that backsplash/row of tile...yikes).  We have big plans for our kitchen and they do not include the dated gold sink and corresponding Moen faucet.  I believe the Moen slogan is "Buy it for looks, buy it for life"...well this faucet has worn out both its looks and its life so I am hoping it is time to bid it adieu.

I am going to spare you the details of any larger of a photo than the one above.  So just trust me when I say, we can do better.  Flick is going to see if he can replace the offending piece (some sort of a valve that opens and closes a flap based on water pressure and holding down the trigger on the hose...), financially, that would be the best option for us but he is going to pick up a new faucet as well.  Just in case.  Our time is worth something too (especially because Flick is in finals week and has a few projects due for school)!  Plus, we go to Home Depot or Lowes every weekend as it is so we'll be able to make a return without too much extra effort.  We'll hopefully have this situation rectified by the weekend but only time will tell.  Maybe we'll get a whole new sink out of the deal? HA!

Hydration

The guys were here nice and early this morning to continue forth with laying the stone for the patio and installing the sprinkler system.  All the stones appear to be in place for the patio - still need to clean up the areas around them and fill the spaces between each rock but it is looking much better than before!  Our "au-natural" patio:

In the front of the house, they added rock, edging (for where the rock/mulch will meet the grass) and installed the drip-line and sprinkler system.  I believe that everywhere that has drip-line will be mulched...but we'll find out soon enough!

Here is a larger scale shot from the window in our living room.  Just off to the right of this picture is a new pine tree.  It won't get huge but should offer us some more privacy for our bedroom windows without obscuring the mountain view.  We think it is looking pretty good!

Finally a shot of the back yard...you can see some of the hose for the sprinkler system sticking up around the edges (at the ends of the sections of tilled up dirt).  The sprinkler heads will go on the ends of those hoses and will provide the much needed hydration for our grass.  We are having a drought tolerant, low water usage grass seed sprayed down, but we can go weeks without rain and no matter how drought tolerant your grass is, you need to give it a little assistance in that hot weather.  We are well aware that big, cool, emerald green yards are not natural here in Colorado, so we are trying to compromise with a lawn that will be fun to play in without requiring obscene amounts of water (once it is established).  We'll see how that plays out!

Quick Catch-up

It was pretty rainy here this morning so the workers didn't come through today...darn!  As you can tell from the pictures I am about to post, it was a gorgeous afternoon though so we took a spin around the yard to get some pictures of the previously undocumented sections.  For your viewing pleasure:

Dozer modeling the new walkway out the back gate

New walkway out to the sidewalk

Rocked Bronco area

Some of the new boulders...Ellie was practicing her lawn mowing

Another boulder

Our little rock-climber

She loves playing in the dirt!

Water Works

Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend!  We enjoyed some beautiful weather out here in Boulder and the lawn guys had 4 days off so there isn't a ton of new progress to report.  I just realized that I forgot to take pictures of the new walkway out the back gate and of the newly "rocked" Bronco parking area so I'll try and get a few shots tomorrow for a little update.  Today, most of the work was done on the sprinkler system - installing/sweating the pipes and getting the back-flow preventer hooked up.  This required drilling a hole in the side of the house and running some copper pipes in through the laundry area to the water tank.  Fun stuff.

The other area that they worked on was the patio behind the garage and at the bottom of the deck, here are some pictures of the initial work:

 

That is all we have for right now, I will work on getting some more from the back walkway and the bronco parking area...and we'll see if there is any other visual progress tomorrow!