Thursday, September 09, 2010

To Love is to Bury


It's been a few years since we've taken on a home project. Yes.........years!

Trust me, we've needed to do stuff, but since October 2008 with the economy going down deeper than Linda Lovelace on John Holmes, we were a little gun shy to spend cash on home improvements.

Our last big improvement was an outdoor one, which I'm sure I blogged about here, and I'd link you back there if I had the time and inclination, but more importantly, if my archived pictures were back up and running.

We put a lot of time, effort and $$$$ into the landscaping. The previous owners had crap for taste and took even less care of the planted crap. We had it ripped out and started over, basically.

For sure, it was expensive - more so than I think plants should ever cost. And granted the distance from the hose hook-up to the actual beds is a ridiculously long ways away.

So this year, after the one hundred umpteen days of 95 degrees and up heat this summer, all those 'spensive plantings started to perish. There were too many bushes, flowers and trees and not enough hoses or time in the day.

Rather than let everything die, we have opted to go one better: put in a sprinkler / irrigation system.

Oh, it will benefit the lawn as well.

I'd like to say that our lawn looks this way because of the work being done and the BobCat they drove around on it. But it's not. Normally, I'd be upset had workers ruined the yard this way, but this is actually kind of an improvement.

This part of the yard has been challenged our entire time here. Water can only make it better. ....and yes, we've aerated and seeded the lawn - several times.

Those thingies sticking up are the hoses that will become the sprinkler system.

More of the "front" lawn. Technically not the front, but it's too difficult to tell you how the house is arranged and where the lawns are situated. Back is front, front is side, side is back. It is all topsy-turvy.

Again, had big equipment been parked on the lawn on good grass, I'd be hopping mad. But I'm not. Right now, it's like parking on cement.

Allegedly, the work will be done on Friday, but that is in "contractor time". So far, they've been pretty reliable and on schedule. I'm a little psyched to get another project under the belt. But next time, we gotta do something on the inside. It cannot be all outside work. It just cannot.



Song by: the Cowboy Junkies

4 comments:

AJohnP said...

That's on our list of projects to undertake as well. Jim wants a sprinkler system SO badly.
This year was tree removal (SIX!) and the paving of the driveway, so hopfully the sprinkler system will be the next big thing.
We also want new windows, but that one will have to wait a while.
:-)

Birdie said...

As I sit here there is a backhoe in my front yard, redistributing soil after putting in a new drain line to the sewer. A good-looking yard is so far down my list of priorities that it's in 4 point font.

Our lawn looked better than it had in 28 years this spring. It was great while it lasted.

Wonder Man said...

that looks like a lot of work, reminds me of the yards in Tennessee

cb said...

Ooo, good luck! Sometimes having good lawns when surrounded by all those trees can be difficult.