All dressed up.... Part 1.

Hi friends and followers!
It's been too long since I posted. Life is busy! We've been overwhelmed with getting all the gravel laid down, leveled out, moving things back to where they were, and adding some new plants to our yard (and continuing to fight the weeds!). I've been wanting to give an update on our yard/gravel progress and she finally has her new clothes on and is ready to show off a bit!

So here goes. I'm going to post pictures (alot) and try to keep the words to a minimum! Grab your coffee or tea, as this is a LONG.G.G.G. post!

Some "befores"........ (what can I say? They are all pretty self-explanatory! It was a big mess and lots of weeds!)........

This is supposed to be our "patio" area!

Tearing down the old white hutch - I really loved it but it had weathered badly.

Our early spring yard didn't look too bad. The weeds  hadn't taken over yet.

Junk everywhere (that we had moved from other places in the yard.

Digging the trench where rain always comes off the roof (even with gutters) and floods that area. P.S. How do you like our gutter clamps?? (duct tape!)

We moved this VERY  heavy reloading bench from our garage - just to the two of us. Did I say it was VERY HEAVY??? It will become my new potting bench (and a kitty bed on the bottom).

The old white hutch.... now gone.

We call this "our back 40" although is a small area. It will be turned into all gravel. We can't keep the weeds out.. so will hopefully have raised garden beds there and a couple of fruit trees.

"Back 40" is home to the weeds.

"Back 40" - weeds be gone!!! Soon.... very soon.........

THE WORK BEGINS - IN PREPARATION FOR THE GRAVEL:

This will be our patio area - redone - cleaned up and all the dirt covered up! and hopefully weeds won't grow here for at least a couple of years!

Stapling down the tarp - everywhere - hard on the knees.

Trench to catch gully washer rains - moved all this river rock from the other side of our house!

This is part of our "back 40"  where all those  yellow weeds were! Removed them all mostly by hand digging.. and smoothed it all out (all by hand... just the two of us old folks!

Digging another trench at the back of the house... to catch run-off from the "back 40".

Using a long 2x4 to smooth and level the dirt.

"Back 40" done and smooth.. and hubby dug us a new flower bed down the middle. We plan to put a white picket fence on the side where the rocks are... with an arbor in the middle..... shrubs, flowers, climbing roses... sigh.....

Hubby taking a rest in the shade. Thank goodness we did most of this work in May when it wasn't so hot.

Transplanted our Golden Chain tree, but I don't think it has survived the move. Note: I'm sure you're thinking.. why don't they just plant grass there? Well.. we've TRIED every year to plant grass.. raked, dug, pulled weeds, seeded, reseeded, watered, reseeded some more..... and the weeds just take over, no matter what we do! We gave up on a lawn there. The soil is very shallow, only about 2-3 inches before you hit the hardpan, so grass just won't grow (but the weeds sure love it!).

Ready for the gravel! Tarp laid by us and stapled down everywhere - as this time of year (May) it gets VERY windy.

TIRED feet!

AND THE RAINS CAME..........(and hail... and 75 mph winds.........

Anchored everything down with tools, wood, rocks so the wind couldn't come underneath and blow it away like a big balloon.

Flooding in lower right corner, right next to our garage. Guess that trench didn't work!

Our garage door was still off it's hinges, as we had to take off the door to get that big huge reloading bench to the outside. So we stood there holding the door up as best we could, as the gully washer rains poured off the roof - that trench was useless unfortunately. Since then, we have had gutters installed in that area, but the guy said even with these "gully washer" type rains, gutters don't work either. At least the door is back on so the water won't run into the garage!

AND THE GRAVELING BEGINS.............

12 yards delivered on May 8th.

I laid string so I could keep the gravel to an even 4" deep.

Little by little - wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow - back breaking work.

This is as far as we got doing it by hand ourselves. After this, we got some help!

At this point, we had our gutters installed, and in talking to the owner of the gutter company, I think he felt worry for us seeing all the work we had been doing, so he offered to bring over his little loader and haul the rest to the back yard for us! Boy was that ever a Godsend.

Stop and smell the roses.........

AND THE WORK CONTINUES... WITH SOME HELP!

He could just fit along the "alley" by our garage, and just get by our little catio!

Our "back 40" gets all dressed up! No more weeds for awhile anyway.

He dumped into piles.. we had to rake it all and smooth it out.

What's left of our poor "lawn" (if you can call it that) gets ruined.

He got the "back 40" all done, and only had one load left to dump in out "patio" area. We'll have to ordered more gravel.

Almost gone!

Yay! Gravel all gone, moved, dumped....... and driveway back to normal! We had to park our car and van on the street for two weeks, and move one every day in the morning so the mailman would deliver our mail. Pain in the neck for sure.

Stop and smell the roses again!  These gorgeous apricot roses have been giving us a real show in our front yard this year.

NOW... FOR THE REVEAL!  Coming in Part 2 in a few days! Sorry, but my post already is too photo heavy and I'm afraid I'll crash it if I add all of the "after" photos. So sorry... please don't "boo" me too much!

Well OK.. here's a sneak peek.....

I'll put up the "reveal" post in the next couple of days!

Hugs to all... I'm off to rest..........

~Marilyn~