Project No. 2, 3, & 4

This post is long overdue. School is making my life just a tad more complicated and I am finding less and less time to blog, even though there have been many things I have wanted to blog about. Oh, and be prepared, this is a long one...

This year, our summer has been full of projects to improve our backyard. Most of these projects were due to my "visions" and they all required quite a bit of manual labor, meaning that Brian was going to be busy! Brian took this all in stride, got to work, and has done an amazing job! I wish I could say that our yard is complete, but believe me, I have more things planned for Brian to do next year!

Our first project was the fire pit patio that I previously posted. Our next three projects were all about making our backyard more kid-friendly.

Me: Hey Brian, I want to put a play area in the backyard for Ashlyn.
Brian: Okay, where?
Me: In the back corner of the yard...you know, where the shed is.
Brian: Where is the shed going to go?
Me: To the side of the house.
Brian: That's not a bad idea, but how am I going to move the shed?
Me: I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Here is what the back corner of the yard looked like before:

I wanted the play area to go here for a couple reasons. First, this is the view right outside our back door and the shed is ugly. Second, since this is the view right outside our back door, I figured it would be a great spot for a play area because I could keep an eye on Ashlyn.

This is where the shed needed to be moved to:

This is by the side of the house and the area is pretty hidden, making it empty and wasted space. We never used the area, it was just a space that collected leaves, snails, and dog poop. So, how was Brian going to move the shed? He came up with a brilliant plan to jack up the shed, put large pipes underneath, and then roll it across the lawn.

Sounds easy, right? That what Brian said, but I didn't think so. I imagined the process taking at least all of one day, maybe two. But I was wrong and Brian was right (that never happens!). With the help of my dad, Aaron, Jake, and Steve, the whole process took less than one hour! I think the hardest part of the big move, was finding the pipes, which we ended up borrowing from my dad's employer. Actually, I guess the hardest part was probably prepping the new shed area. Brian had to clear everything out and haul in some gravel.

Once the area was ready, the rest of the process was a breeze. I can say that because I just had to stand around and take the pictures :)

After the shed was in it's new home, Brian got to work on the new play area. One good thing about the new play area was that it already had a nice boarder in place. The bad thing was that since we planned on putting in a few inches of wood chips, Brian had to dig and haul out a bunch of dirt.

I wish I had taken a picture of the mountain of dirt we had in our driveway. Brian placed an ad for "free dirt" and we had three trucks come and fill up their beds with our dirt, but there is still more in our driveway! So, if you need any dirt, you know where to find it. Then Brian put down a plastic barrier to keep the play area weed-free. We got that brilliant idea from my dad.

Then Brian assembled Ashlyn's new play house and put it in place on top of pavers.

Brian also built Ashlyn a sand box and I found a couple of slides on ksl for killer deals. Here is "Ashlyn's Play Land":

The final project was getting rid of a kidney-shaped flower bed in the middle of the yard. It was too much maintainance, plus Ashlyn liked to play in it and get all muddy, and it really was just right in the middle of the yard and we wanted the kids to have more runnin' around room.

This project was actually Brian's idea and it ended up being more work than he bargained for. There were rocks lining the bed which were embedded into the ground at least 8 inches. We had no idea they were so large!

Brian dug them all out, filled in the holes, leveled the ground, did some transplanting, and laid some sod. Getting rid of the kidney really opened up the back yard - it seems so much bigger now.

Since summer is officially over, I guess that is all for this year. Don't tell Brian, but I have lots of indoor projects to keep him busy this winter!