Ta-Da!

Now, I know that all of you reading this share my excitement for dump trucks, bobcats, and fescue... and thus you have been on pins and needles waiting for my play-by-play of the front yard saga... yeah, I know, it's sad that these things really are eventful for us!!


But we really are excited about our yard re-do, since it is one of the first major things we have done to improve our house. It was prefaced by lots of discussions (not fights, surely..), saving $, and wishing. It is a very visible change and we are so excited to actually be doing something!

A quick reminder of the scary Before:

And the fabulous After:

It may not look like much in the pictures, but in real life it makes a huge difference! Our yard looks ten times bigger, and you can actually tell that a house is back there.

It's impressive how quickly they demo-ed the whole yard - two guys did it in about 8 hours (including their innumerable smoke breaks):

Giant pile of stuff (and that was just the first ten minutes worth):

Stump grinding - fun for all:

Bobcat!

The dogs had an eventful day watching!

Next they brought in 3 truckloads of dirt - I don't think they were expecting to need so much - even they were fooled by the ivy!

Hopefully the layer of dirt will smother any of the ivy they didn't manage to dig out - unlikely, since that stuff is ridiculously resourceful... but oh well!

So there you have it! It took us a 16 months, but we finally have a blank slate to work with. Seeding comes next (after raking the tire tracks out of the dirt!) and we now have the freedom to plant what we want! And I can promise you this - I will never, ever, ever, plant ivy in this yard, or any others!