Our Newest Purchase

One of our winter season projects is to finish out the office in hopes that we might finally start to unpack some of our boxes.  In working towards that goal, our first purchase was this desk.  It needs a little touch-up here and there, but we are pretty proud of our (very heavy) new purchase.

The next step will be cabinets along the back wall, but we are still waiting on some cabinet samples to find the door style and color that we like best.

Grass!

It all started on Thursday, September 29th, when we rented this machine to dig the trenches and pull the pipe for our sprinkler system.

After we trenched about 20 holes, the machine broke.  The chain came off and the whole gear assembly for the trencher was extremely loose.  We weren't doing anything wrong; I think the machine was just old and beat up.  So, the rental place came out to pick up that machine and bring us a new one with 2 attachments - a trencher and a pipe puller.  Travis was so much happier with this machine as shown by the huge smile on his face.  It made digging the trenches go so much faster.  We were able to get all the trenches dug for our sprinklers and pull about 3000 feet of 1 inch poly pipe for our sprinkler lines in just that one (long) day.

We put in a lot of nights and weekends installing all the sprinklers and getting the whole sprinkler system hooked up.  We had a total of 15 zones and to reduce the distance that the water would have to run, we installed about 10 valve and manifold boxes.  Unfortunately, we had to run electrical wire to all of those boxes.  In hindsight, we would have liked to trench the feeder pipe rather than pull it because we had to hand dig almost 900 feet of dirt so we could bury the electrical wire.  We were really nervous as to whether we would have enough water pressure to run 6 sprinklers at a time and one of the runs was over 300 feet long.  We were able to test it on Saturday and after a little trial and error with the sprinkler control boxes, we got the sprinklers to work.  We only had to replace one faulty valve, one small section of pipe that was clogged with dirt, and one nozzle in a sprinkler, so we felt we did pretty good.  There was still quite a bit of work to be done before we actually layed sod on Monday and the first load (10,000 square feet) was delivered on Saturday.  I'm really glad the sod place didn't tell me that we weren't even close to ready on Saturday because I was already stressed to the max!  There are a few pallets on the other side of the driveway, but here was the delivery from Saturday...

We had 13 people help lay sod on Monday and it took about 2 1/2 hours to lay the first 10,000 square feet.  We were very fortunate that the weather cooperated because it had been so rainy, windy, and muddy just a couple of days before.

After a delicious lunch of steaks, brats, and salads, we got our second load of sod - another 10,000 square feet and it was all laid by 3:30!

Mocha was so happy with all of her grass and Travis and I feel so much relief because everything feels so much more finished.  We have been waiting and working towards this milestone all summer and we finally did it.  We can't thank our helpers enough for all their hard work.  I never would have imagined the sod would go down that quick.  Here's hoping for another couple weeks of nice weather so our sod can look this good come spring!

Moving Dirt

We hired a contractor to come in and remove all the rocks, weeds, and level the dirt for us.  He worked Thursday through Saturday, and I hardly recognize our lot now.  It's amazing how much different it looks to us.  Even after the first day, I was so overwhelmed by all the changes that it took me a while to realize he leveled all the dirt piles!  The money for the contractor was some of the best money we have spent. 

We are going to be laying out our sprinkler system tomorrow and hopefully will start pulling pipe on Thursday.  I'm afraid to voice this for fear of the weather changing, but we may actually get some grass in before winter hits!  There is an end in sight...

Plants!

On Monday, we purchased 23 plants for our flower bed and then 3 garden mums as an impulse buy for some additional color.  We weren't sure how many plants we would need and it was hard because they are small now, but will be getting a lot bigger.  We think the area to the left in the picture below will mainly be a flower garden, so our mums get to hang out there for now.  Off to the right we will plant some more flowers and maybe some taller bushes for some "height integration".  Can you tell with my sophisticated terminology that we visited a couple nurseries?

We got 10 of the plants in the ground last night and the remaining 13 tonight.  Fall is definitely on its way because it is getting darker earlier and we are running short on time!  We also installed a drip system that waters each plant individually.  Right now it is just hooked up to the outdoor faucet, but when we get our sprinkler system installed, we will have it run on a timer. 

Travis got more work done on his column and it looks great from the road.  He just has a couple more sides to do above the deck, but we need to get the railing installed on that side first.  We are hoping to get the railing up tomorrow.

We got a variety of plants that are a range of heights.  I am definitely a person who likes to see results right away, so I'm very anxious to see these plants in a more mature state.  I guess we'll just let the waiting game begin...

Flower beds

Last week, I had basically finished with the rock walls and Travis finished the rock on one of the columns on the deck.  Trav also picked up 5 truck loads of top soil and dumped them in our flower bed so that I would have plenty to do this weekend.  We worked hard and moved a lot of dirt to get the slope that we wanted in the flower bed.  On Friday, we also had 10 yards of bark and 3 yards of red lava rock delivered.  After laying down some weed control fabric, we moved the bark to the flower bed.  Even though it took a ton of wheelbarrow loads, I actually enjoyed moving the bark because it was a lot lighter and easier to move than dirt and it also makes that part of the yard look so much more finished!  The color of the bark makes the colors in the rock stand out more, so I can only imagine how nice it will look when we have plants in there, which we are hoping to pick up on Monday!

 You can see a little bit of the red lava rock off to the right hand side in the following picture.  After we get the path leveled the way we want, we will put that rock on the path, which I think will make all the colors "pop" even more:)

Visions of Landscaping

The rock again has been progressing quite a bit in the past week as you can see in the picture of the columns below.  For those of you that are very observant, you will also notice that we put up another section of railing on the deck.

We also had a neighbor come in with his bobcat and move some dirt for us so that I would have an easier time with the next rock retaining wall.  If you look at previous pictures, you will see that there were big dirt piles on the right hand side.  Well, those piles now went up above to rock retaining wall on the right hand side so that there is a nice slope away from the house.  It was amazing how fast that bobcat moved the dirt.  If Trav and I did it by shovel and wheelbarrow, we would probably be working on it for 2 weeks or more!

It's amazing how much of a difference it made to have that dirt moved.  We could really start to picture how our landscaping would come together.  The neighbors were interested too - I think almost all of them drove by at one time or another to check it out.

The following picture gives a little perspective for the height of the wall and is the token Mocha picture for this post:)  I did get a start on the next wall and hope to have it completed by the next week.  Stay tuned as we put in another week of hard work!

Still More Rock

Another week of hard work and help from Trav's parents have brought us to this point in our progress on the rock wall and columns...

Still Rocking...

Another full week of rock done and lots more progress to show for it.  I have basically finished the rock wall on the north side of the house.  I still have to backfill a little more and have the bottom wall extend a little further, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Travis had started on the wall on the other side a while back, and with the help of my parents we made a lot more progress on it.  When you are working on the wall, you feel so exhausted and don't see any progress.  Looking back, we knew we did a lot because the dirt piles were getting smaller and we were having to lift the shovels of dirt above our waists to backfill.  Thanks to my parents for the help and the company!

Travis also made a lot of progress on the rock on the house and is almost done on the back side of the house.  Still have the capstones, columns, and rock on the side of the garage, but it looks amazing!  We really like how the rock from the rock wall matches with the rock on the house.

More Rocks

In the last post, I said the rocks were going to be delivered on a Friday.  Well it ended up being almost a whole week later than that Friday, but either way, we have been working hard on making the walls.  Travis has also found some time to work on the rock on the house too.  This picture was from Saturday night, but you can see how much progress Trav is making on the house.

We had 3 dump trucks of rock delivered; 2 of which were on the south side where we are going to make a path/stairway.  Travis started on one of the walls on the south side.  I wanted to show his progress, but the picture didn't turn out very good because it was getting late.

This picture shows the rock wall progress as of Sunday night.  With the help of Travis' parents, we made quite a bit of progress on the north wall and the windows look a lot cleaner!

We are getting close to having the wall to the height that we want it.  It's very labor intensive work and backfilling with dirt one shovel at a time takes forever, so we really appreciated the help this weekend.

Rock Update

I'd like to say that I've been busy working away on the rock wall, but I can't.  We went through the 10 yards of rock by early last week and called to order two more loads.  Unfortunately, more rock won't be delivered until Friday.  It is somewhat hard to see in the picture, but there are two rock walls.  The front wall is about 3 feet high and we are just getting started on the back wall on both ends. 

Travis has been more productive than I, except we always seem to have rainy weather on his days off.  He got to the french door and started working on the other side early this week. 

I don't think any picture does the rock work justice.  I drove by the back of the house the other night and was amazed at how nice the one side looked with all the rock finished. 

Rock Retaining Walls

As promised, they delivered 10 yards of rock to our house yesterday...

We used gravity to our advantage and rolled some down the hill to get started on the retaining wall.  We didn't get a whole lot done because it was windy and I got more dirt in my eyes than rocks on the wall.

In this picture, you can see that Travis also started on the wall next to the french doors.  Trav is definitely making progress!

Today was day 2 on the rock wall.  It was real windy again until about 8:30, so we only got an hour of rock in, but managed to get a fair amount done in that short time. 

Got Dirt?!?!

Once again Travis was up early putting up rock before going to work.  It's hard to see in this picture, so why on earth did I post it?  Was it because I wanted to show how tall and green our weeds are getting?  Nope...I wanted to show the giant piles of dirt on the sides of our house!  Our neighbors are probably wondering what the heck we are doing now and don't see the beauty (yet!), but we are sure excited!  We had the excavator come in today and dig out some of our land so that we could make rock retaining walls.  We got 10 yards of rock being delivered to the house tomorrow, so there isn't any shortage of work in our future.  I also like this picture because seeing the rock getting completed on the left side of the house helps me imagine how nice it will look when it is all done. 

On the left side, we were going to build a firepit and little sitting area.  I know what we want it to look like, but it is hard to picture because all I see are big dirt piles.

On this side of the house, we are going to have two areas of plants and flowers separated by rock retaining walls and stairs.  They cut in the stairs, but it is hard to see in the pictures.

I also wanted to show Trav's progress on the rock through today and Mocha hasn't made an appearance in any posts lately.  They are both a little hard to see because of shadows, but you get the idea:)

Rockin' Away

After we finished the siding, the next step has been the rock on the back of the house.  Travis has had late shifts for work lately, which allows him to get a lot of rock done each morning.  I'm amazed at how much progress he makes each day, especially after I attempted to help the other day.  I think it took me an hour and all I did was put up 3 tiny rocks!  He joked with me that he wasn't sure if he wanted me to help because everyone always comments on the tile, so he didn't want to have to give me credit for the rock too.  Don't worry Trav, based on my productivity, I think you are safe:)

Trav started putting in long days on Thursday.  You can see his initial progress from the previous siding pictures and the next picture is just after one day...

Outside of the three rocks that I did put up, I also put tar paper and the wire lathe around the columns so that Trav could continue rocking away.  This is also the progress after Tuesday - he is almost finished up with three sides!

Even the antelope are coming to check out the progress...In the past week, I have woke up to a deer or antelope in our yard at least four times!