Life has, for now, returned to semi-normal. Harry went with my in-laws when they left on Sunday, and took his pup with him, so the house is a little emptier than usual. Kile has gone back to work after working hard day in and day out on the sprinkler system for our backyard. The schedule has righted itself. Peace (sorta) reigns once more.
Want to see some pictures of the finished projects (to date, more are planned!)? Too bad if you don’t because here they come anyhow….
Kile and my father in law putting the finishing touches on the swing set.
Beetoe watches the progress but is careful to not actually GO outside to do it.
The swingset, in all it’s glory. So far Liam’s favorite thing to do is climb up into the tower and send cars down the slide. We plan to get a toddler swing in a couple of weeks for Evie (and for Liam too since he’s sorta unsure about the “big boy” swing seats).
See how it has a little picnic bench on the back here? Harry has plans of eating lunches out here, right now Liam likes to pile rocks on it. And the small square in the middle of the base, we plan to build a little higher and put a liner in so we can pour sand in there. Clever, huh?
However lovely the swing set is, a swing set does not make a backyard a habitable place all on it’s own. We also need some trees, grass and a patio. This weekend also saw significant progress towards a sprinkler system though! Kile dug enormous trenches for the water lines, a feat which earns him a gold medal because we officially have the rockiest dirt on the face of the planet.
Yikes. Some of those are the size of a watermelon.
Trenchy goodness
More trenchy goodness
A few adjustments….
It works! Woot!
Next we need to lay some sod (or seed if we choose that route). Pick out some landscaping. I’m thinking of using sand with a little rock here and there for the edges of the yard. We’re thinking of putting rubber mulch under the swing set. The big question right now is the patio. What to do? There’s pavers, concrete, deck…. what would be the easiest/cheapest to do ourselves? Anyone have any experience with this and want to chime in with your two cents? I’m open to any and all inspiration here!
The important thing is… we’re MUCH closer to an actual backayrd. It only took FIVE YEARS.
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4 Responses to “End Result”
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It’s looking amazing. You guys have done a ton. As for the patio, I’m not an expert but we did one in pavers at our old house and helped my inlaws with brick. I think that would be the DIY way to go. I don’t think concrete is something that you want to do yourself and there is more chance of cracking and breakage than with pavers or brick.
xo
L
The backyard looks great! I love the swing set.
We did our first back yard ourselves, MOVED, and now have another yard to landscape. We moved almost four years ago and only got started on the yard in the past few months. My word of advice…..just get sod. It is INSTANT results. Grass seed is cheap but it will take three years to look as nice as sod. Can you keep the kids off the grass for three years? Sod is expensive but just do it, it’s totally worth it. Don’t got to the Depot, call the distributor and buy direct.
The swingset looks like fun. We really need one of those for our backyard.