This is the vacant lot we set our goals for in the fall of 2010.

Front yard just after we put the sod down.

Plenty of visits from our friends of the woods. We have seen just about everything out here from the deer, rabbits, fox, squirrels, owls, doves, tweety birds, upland game birds, owls and only one of my favorites-a damn snake of the unfavorable kind.

Which resulted in this!

The scrub oak is actually very hardy and nice FREE trees that are easily cleaned up.

Barb and I spent most of 2011 planning the rest of the back yard and keeping the weeds out.

The beginning of the ZEN garden and some of the plants we chose that require little water and little maintenance.

More plants and the drip irrigation that we installed before the rest of the landscaping.

Barb carpeted the whole area with landscape fabric to keep the weeds down. We bought two molds and 60 80 lb. bags of concrete mix. It took us most of the summer to mix the cement and make the 110' of stone paths.

The vinyl planter boxes are something we found at the local home and garden show and work great for raised planter boxes so we can grow some veges and herbs.

We decided to design our own Bubble Rock water feature for the ZEN Garden. The big rock actually came from the hole when they dug the foundation. It had a perfect area to provide the water pool for the bubble effect and was pretty flat on the bottom. We rented a rotary hammer drill and drilled a 3/4" hole through the rock. The rest of the rocks came from the hole as we dug it. The hole is approximately 4' x 4' and about 24" deep.

We bought the pond liner and other components from Lowe's and made the support for the rock from these cement blocks.

Hmmmm? How would the Egyptians get a 300 lb rock from A to B without dropping it in the hole C. Answer, utilize some wood products and a full barage of swear words.

Add an 18" perferated ABC pipe, some tubing, pump, water and electricity.

Bubbling Bubble Rock with some of the rock balast.

Finished.

Our Bridge over the River Rock. The dude that put our irrigation in for us when they hard scaped the lot put the valve boxes smack dab in the middle of where the path needed to go. We fixed that problem by building a bridge completely out of TREX. We covered the whole area with a 1" crushed rock called Raisen Grey-7 yards (thanks Tyson, Zack and Kirsten for helping us haul and spread it out.

We added some low voltage lighting to give it some ambience at night.

We spent a lot of time with paper and ruler planning out how everything would fit. I have no idea how much time Barb spent researching plants and shrubs finding varities that would work with different lighting, be drought and deer resistant and work with everything else for both the front and back yards.

Our next project will be in 70 degree weather, no mud and no broiling sunshine. And we won't have to dig out any rocks. :-)

Back to the paper, ruler and lot's of planning.

A bunch has happened since the last post mid April. We had just moved in and started working on the landscaping. We had the same guy that built the retaining wall in the back build some more rock cutouts for us in the front. 

At first it was hard to fully invision what the guy was doing with the rocks. But when he was finished it was almost like he took a firehose and washed the dirt away from the rocks and the following pictures show what was left.

It's also amazing what 5-6 truckloads of topsoil will do for the looks of a place. We had the guy do the rock walls, irrigation, Burgandy rubble in the park strips and topsoil.  

Zach and Barb dug the holes for the trees and shrubs. It's confirmed to be true that we have a 4" rock every 3" in this lot. Zach said something about take the rock out and put the tree in.  

The Japanese Maple and the Dwarf Boxwood will eventually hide the irrigation back flow preventer.

We decided to save some of the Scrub Oak in the back. Free trees-well, give or take the price of the lot. We got a bunch of rocks as well not forgetting the Prickly Pear Cactus. 

A couple of the neighbors dropped by to check out the work.

One of the other rock cutouts we had the guy build in the back to soften the slope. It took some doing but we got the sod delivery guy to place some pallets of sod in the back so we wouldn't have to haul it so far. There is 600 square feet on each pallet. We had 10 1/2 pallets delivered. Bobby apparently didn't pay attention in geometry class because with all the angles and curves in the yard we ended up with a pallet and half left over. Ugh! :-( 

The two green boxes in the bottom part are where four of the seven valves for the irrigation are located. The other three valves are in the front with the timer located in the garage.

We had the delivery guy place 4 pallets and the partial in the back and the rest in the front. The rolls are 2 feet wide and five feet long weighing about 25-30 pounds each. The sod is called Bio Grass and is a seven seed Kentucky Blue Grass mix that comes from Vernon Utah. They had cut it the night before or early morning and delivered it around 10 AM on Friday the 13th. They recommend having it down and well watered within 24 hours of receiving it.   

Can't afford real curbing yet so we have make believe curbing.

After several hours of fun in the sun-two days in a row, back muscles that won't be talking to us anytime soon and a barrel of water each-we have instant lawn. Thank you Tyson, Bill, Barb from one well meaning supervisor. I won't take any of your gestures personally. :-)

One of three Purple Leaf Plumb trees in the park strip. We also planted a Shademaster Honeylocust in the other cutout, Dwarf Barberries, Ornamental Grass and a Dappled Willow.

Hopefully towards the end of summer, early fall, we will have a fence built around the back yard and most of the shrubs put in the bottom part around the back and sides of the house before snow flies next fall. The spot on the west-side of the garage will be home to some raised planting beds for vegetables and herbs next spring.  

We've been in our new home for two weeks now. We've spent nearly the whole time unpacking and getting settled in. The blinds are in, the water softener is in, pictures are hung and the handles and knobs are on the cabinets. The next step is the front and side yard landscaping. The same contractor who built the rock wall in back will be helping us with the hardscape and the irrigation trenches as we've determined we have a 4 inch rock every three inches with various size boulders every now and then to break up the fun.

OUR NEW HOME

Our new home. The day finally arrived. We sold the town house and closed on our new home all in the same day. The builder told us it took him 100 days from the time he marked the lot for the foundation until the final inspection passed. He's never built one that fast and certainly never in the middle of the winter. The final inspection passed the first time.

The next thing for us is getting the front and side yards landscaped before June 1st-city ordinance. :-)

The new house is almost finished. The plastering on the foundation, a little landscaping in the front and the final coat of paint on the exterior doors to match the green garage doors and the outside is complete. 

 

This is a good picture of the stucco. When the snow finally leaves, the 12 x 16 patio will be poured

 

The Beagle was having a good time checking out the new surroundings for the first time. She had a lot of fun running through the new house and exploring the basement.

This is the Knotty Alder cabinets with black glaze and the Santa Cecilia counter tops.

This is the garden tub and vanity in the master bath.

Fireplace with the mantle installed and the carpet.

The inside needs a few touchups to the paint and the finish hardware. The house will be completed as promised by the builder on March 18th. He told us that he as never built a home this fast before even during the summer months.