Before's and After's (LOTS OF PICTURES)

We've been through a lot with this house of ours....and it's only been 2 1/2 years.  After all the time, work and money we've put into this place Parker often says we should've picked a different place.  Hindsight.  Only, my argument is that another place may not have had the same problems, but there would still be things we would have wanted to do.  I like my house.  And we've done so much to make it "ours".....the more we do to it, the more I like it.  This post is kinda a pictoral journey over the last 2 1/2 years of......JUST the outside.  Below is the realator picture before we even bought it.  Blue door, patchy grass, and lace curtains hanging in the front window.

The next few pictures were taken after we FIRST mowed the WEEDS during our first spring (after Angie was born in 2010).  It was still so early in the spring, that the mowed weeds give the illusion of grass.  There were times when we thought if we just kept it mowed and sprinkled some grass seed that we could nurse the back yard back to health.

Then summer hit, and the green turned brown.  There WAS NO GRASS.  There was no nursing this patch back to health.  There was no health to begin with.

The previous owners had a garden, and we got a few volunteer veggies that first summer.  Below is the onions.  The garden had ONE benefit for us.  Now looking back, and noticing my new lawn in the back.  I don't have weeds where the garden once was.  Because they kept the soil loose, the weeds aren't as strong and don't pop through our new grass in that area.  In the places where there was NOT a garden, we are battling thistles in our grass.

This next picture KILLS me!  This is the crab-apple tree in our front yard.  We now have a rock island around this tree.  I had forgotten how patchy and TERRIBLE the grass was in the front yard.  It's a blanket of green now.  But taking a peek at how things looked back at square one helps me to see just exactly how far we've come.

This picture must have been taken right after we put the rock in around our front path.  The bushes are so much bigger now.  I was thinking that they hadn't really grown.....but now I see just how small they were.  The green border between the rock and grass is still there.  We will be putting paving stones in that spot in the future.  We don't like the green border.  And we've done paving stones everywhere else, so someday it'll all match.

The next 2 pictures were taken after we rota-tilled the yard the first time.  October 2010 is the date on the picture.  We made it ALL THE WAY through 2011 and did nothing else.  We rota-tilled maybe 1 or 2 more times, but the back yard didn't get done in 2011 because we decided to work on a different project....

Our 2011 project was the front porch.  Parker built it out of TREX deck (or the knock-off but same product).  The back yard was worth waiting for....because I love my front porch.

 The next 2 pictures were taken this spring 1 week before we laid the sod in the back.  We'd had several yards of dirt removed from the back in order to make the ground level.  These pictures were taken after a very long day.  Parker and his parents were out there ALL DAY.  They started with the rota-tiller, and then pushed some more dirt around with the 4-wheelers.  Then they spent a few hours fixing sprinkler lines.  And lets not forget....it was almost 90 degrees outside that day (check the date on the pictures...April 22nd....yeah too hot too early if you ask me).

 And last are the pictures of the finished back yard and garden.  These were taken after we'd mowed and trimmed the back yard for the first time.  The only thing different now is that I've planted some flowers around that apple tree that's in the garden.

Isn't it so lovely?  By the way....I'm a BIG believer in sod.  :)  You see we still have SOME work to do.  We have weeds on the east side of the yard.  That area will be turned into a gravel parking area for other vehicles, or a trailer, or....maybe just Travis's boat.  We also want to put a utility shed in the corner.  It'll be kinda a storage/man cave building for Parker.  Hopefully our garage won't feel so crowded once we get that project done.  And hopefully I'll finally have a place for all these hand-me-down baby clothes that my sisters keep sending to me!

I am so grateful to Parker for all the work he's done this year.  It's not like he did it all for me, I mean it is OUR home.  But I can't express the relief that I feel knowing that the hard part is done.  And that when baby #3 arrives, my older 2 children will be able to go play out back.