Surprise Yard Work

Tyler has been out of town all week for work - and so, as usual, I always do some home improvement project while he's away. Normally they are inside projects - I paint a whole room or redecorate or something along those lines. This time I decided the time had come to get our yard in better condition. 

Tyler and I are definitely not yard people. Neither of us enjoys doing any type of yard work or gardening. BUT, we both enjoy having projects completed and since the weather had started to cool down a bit I figured it was now or never. 

My main objective was to tackle underneath the trampoline. For whatever reason, our trampoline kills our grass. So we've opted for only keeping it in one spot in our yard - on the side of the house. But because of this the weeds and grass behind the trampoline have gone unchecked and un-mowed all summer. We had talked about just putting rock underneath the trampoline, but that would require ripping up the grass, installing weed barrier, and hauling two yards of rock into that area. 

Well, after months and months of just talking about it, I finally decided it was time to just do it. And, for some reason, I figured it would be the best time to do it when Tyler was out of town, and therefore I'd do the whole thing by myself as well as watching our boys. Yeah, sometimes I don't think things through. 

After no less than 6 trips to Home Depot during the week, and four truck loads of rock, the trampoline area was complete. And I managed to keep it a surprise for Tyler. 

BEFORE

DURING

 

 Harrison was my "helper" while Weston was at preschool one morning. He loved playing with the rocks and I was thrilled that he stayed in the backyard and didn't run into the street like he normally does.

 AFTER

It was a lot of work, but I'm so glad it's done. And instead of satiating me desire for backyard projects, it has made me want to start ripping out more grass along the back fence to put in a back planter. But that will just have to wait, I guess.