Sunday, November 8, 2009

Before/After

I've had requests for a blog about our new lawn (I love it...it makes me extremely happy) It's taken so long because so much else has been happening and I wanted to give it it's due. So, I'm expecting lots of comments all you people. Here is an overview of the process of our getting a new lawn. This is a picture of what it looked like when we bought the house.

Nice, eh. Mostly weeds, and the pokey kind too. The kids wouldn't play on the grass at all. What is the point of having a lawn if your kids won't play on it? Anyway...so the next project was to fix the extremely ugly tree in the front of our house. I don't love it, but we only chopped half of it off because that is the only shade we get so it needed to stay for a while. It looks loads better now that it's half it's size.Then we tackled ugly bushes lining our driveway. Granted, we haven't done anything with this area, but that is because we are going to extend our driveway to make a two-car garage. So, it's still ugly, but the ugly bushes are gone as well.Next, we killed our lawn. Yes, this was on purpose. I don't have a great picture of it, but we didn't need one. Dead brown grass is dead brown grass. Although it was surprisingly hard to kill. Even after we thought we killed it all it kept coming back. Never use Bermuda grass. It's actually a weed, and illegal to plant anywhere in Utah, except St George. Anyway, dead ugly grass. Rather pokey too.Next, we tilled and pulled up the dead ugly grass. This step would not have gotten done if it wasn't for Scott, Carol Lee, and G&G C. Whew...it helped us soooo much. Thanks.Dirt. The kids loved it. Really loved it. This stage lasted awhile because of time constraints. But after much raking, more killing of the noxious weed, leveling (which never really leveled), more raking (thanks Grandpa C), messing with, changing, and breaking multiple sprinklers, laying electrical lines for lighting, etc. it was time to lay the sod! Can I just tell you how wonderful it is to live on the street we do. The sod got delievered Friday afternoonish. Around 4:30 there is a knock on my door and it's my neighbor wondering if we are laying sod that night. I tell him that we are going to make a small start, but really hit it the next day when family gets there to help. He says that he and his family are ready to help and will be working on their yard until Dan gets home. Holy cow. He and his family come over, more neighbors come over and two hours later (quite possibly less) my front lawn is done. I would also like to take this time to mention what a whimp I am. His wife was hauling and dumping and laying sod and I felt rather foolish not helping (although in my defense I did have the kids, and I was making Cole's B-day cake) so I picked up some sod to take to Dan, and dropped it. Yep, couldn't even lift it. Muscles, I don't have. Anyway, it was awesome. I had planted flowers a day or two before, and it just looks great. My sister called after I planted the flowers and wondered why I was planting flowers in October. Well, it was 80 degrees. Why not? We just barely started the Fall season here. Plus the flowers were way cheap at Wal-Mart, and if I had new grass I wanted the rest to look nice as well. And so here (drum roll please) is the finished result.

And here is the finished result with the lighting that Dan worked really hard on.

17 comments:

Kirsten said...

Wow, it all looks very nice!

Loni said...

Nice! Dan is certain;y talented. I didn't know he could do electricity. The yard looks wonderful and maybe those flowers will come back next season.

Karen said...

Wow that's really impressive. Looks great. Yards are a lot of hard work. We still have so much to do to ours to get it where we want it.

Unknown said...

Absolutely Beautiful!! You know, this makes me so excited to grow up and move on:) Seriously though, I LOVE before and after pictures and that was a great dramatic result!! I love the lighting. And it snowed here yesterday. I want to be planting flowers...

Kate Clayton said...

Wow. What a beautiful house and yard. I can't imagine ever owning a home. You give me hope! We miss you guys!

Ma & Pa J. said...

Before and after certainly shows a lot of hard work! I cannot believe it is the same house that you moved into. You guys have only lived there for 6 months and the changes and turnabout of the house are dramatic. Hurrah for you! It is beautiful.

Unknown said...

It is an awesome looking lawn. And I totally agree, what's the point of having grass (or even a yard at all) if the kids can't play in it? That's why we got rid of our horrible poky grass and the dumb rocks in the back and hope to do the same in the front.
Yay for good grass!

Um, the lawn kind, not the other kind.

Beth said...

whoa, I really love the lighting. When it comes time to build the garage, give us a call, I now have an expert in the "what we'll do next time"department. I do plan on calling you back, but we've been sick at my house and its no fun to have to hang up quick to clean up sickness. i miss you so much though.

michelle said...

Very nice!!! Horray for good neighbors. We had some help us haul dirt to our garden plot in Minnesota while I was morning sick. Good neighbors with strong boys were such a help to Collin as I sat in my chair and watched:)

Trista said...

WOWZA!!! Your house reminds me of ours...we've put a crapload of work into it though and now I'm pretty happy with the inside...the outside....yeeeeeahhhhh...

I'm currently painting the trim, but hope to move on to some landscaping soon...maybe, lol. But we have grass similar to yours and have debated what to do with it. Seeing your end result is pushing me closer to giving Russ the go-ahead on tilling it under--we'll definitely be adding the lighting and plumbing after seeing this!!

Morley Fam said...

Tarah that looks great! How fun! You guys worked really hard and its payed off. Are the kids loving it now? I bet.Spencer says to tell Kember hi.

* Nancy * said...

I love it! I have been meaning to tell you since we were in your neighborhood on Halloween night! The lighting is awesome! It honestly looks GREAT!

Andrea said...

Look at all these comments. I think it's time for a new post. :)

Actually, I'm not sure why I didn't notice your update until today.

Anyway, great pictures (except you forgot the part about your family driving all the way down there to help-even though it was only with the back yard). ;)

Emi Sue said...

Holy cow girly, your house looks wonderful.

Tu Cute said...

It looks great. This is also the first pictures I have seen of the house- very nice!!

Jessica from Daisydotdesign.blogspot.com said...

Awesome I love it. Sounds like you have amazing neighbors too. Hope you are loving it down there. We miss you in Pullman

Jennie said...

Wow! That looks amazing. Isn't it great when you get things looking the way you want it too. Maybe the neighbors were as excited as you were to have a nice yard to look at. I know I prefer the end result!