August 14, 2008 Our landscaping begins tomorrow!
August 16, 2008 They came in yesterday and dug a whole bunch of trenches. They'll be putting in a high voltage line from the East side to the west so that they can use it for the landscape lighting. It means we'll have another outside outlet, which is very good.
August 18, 2008 I'm not going to put up new pictures today, because it's more of the same, just a bunch more trenches and digging. We found out one funny thing today. There were two blue pipes sticking up from the foundation, indicating the place where the water would be piped out from inside. The only thing is, only one of them was actually real. When they turned the water on to "blow it out" today, the water came through the front pipe, but not the back. I heard them talk about maybe it's kinked, and they dug down, only to find the other end of the blue pipe not connected to anything. Funny. They only need one pipe, so all is well.
August 20, 2008 Today we have a lot of pipe in those trenches, white PVC pipe attached to valves, with some black tubing at the ends where the heads will go. It's looking more and more exciting! Here's a picture of the back yard. (See our great view). They warned us it would look like a war zone, and they were right.
August 21, 2008 When I was gone Visiting Teaching today, the flagstone arrived. It will be for the path that goes from the driveway around the east side of the house to the side door of the garage and then to the back patio. After lunch today, they started filling in the trenches. How exciting!
Friday, August 22, 2008 They've been at it now for a whole week, and good progress is being made. Today they finished filling in trenches and did some grading up close to the house. A dump truck pulling a big trailer arrived and unloaded a beautiful pile of topsoil on the road. They used their skid steer to place it where it needed to go. They got most of the front done, but still have quite a bit of soil to place. I don't know how they measure "loads" but we're supposed to have 15 coming. The workers today spoke Spanish to each other. It was a different group than the ones who've been doing the sprinklers. They also installed some metal edging as they worked with the top soil. You can see it in this picture. The back yard doesn't have top soil yet, except right next to the house, but the trenches are filled in. If you look carefully, at the back yard picture, you can see the funny pipe that is sticking up, awaiting sprinkler heads.
Monday, August 25, 2008 I took this picture today. This is how they're bringing in the soil. The dump truck pours it out, and it has a trailer of equal size that they also empty. They're putting it on the road below and then moving it with their skid steer.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 We went to Salt Lake City Monday night and came back yesterday (Tuesday). Monday they were still putting in more top soil, sprinkler heads and metal edging. It was changing, but not in big ways. When we got home last night, we had a flagstone path! They're working on it this morning, finishing up, but it was mostly done last night. It really looks nice, and of course last night we had to take a stroll down the path. Sara came over and walked it in the dark. She said she was "following the yellow brick road." This is so exciting! The temperature has dropped today, so I'm sure the workers will appreciate that. It will only reach the 80's instead of 90's today.
Now it's evening. They finished the path today, and started digging trenches (more trenches!) for the wiring that will go to our landscape lighting. I spoke with one of the foremen this evening. He came by after all the others had left and did some marking. He told me that they would put the lights in tomorrow. Don't you think this is a beautiful path? The places where it goes into a circle with a hole are tree spots. Grass will grow between the flagstones.
Thursday, August 28, 2008 Green! Today they brought life to our yard in the form of bushes, trees and ornamental grasses. This was the biggest change so far. It's amazing how a bit of color changes things. The maple tree just outside our bedroom window will be gorgeous, and we have three forsythia bushes and two dwarf lilacs. Spring time - you'll be gorgeous! I can hardly wait for the sod. They didn't say when that was coming, but Monday is supposed to be a wet and cool day, perfect for acclimating new sod to the terrain. It would be great if that was the next step. I don't think it is, because I think they're putting in lights tomorrow. I thought it would be lights today, but it ended up being bushes, trees, and emitters to water them with.
Friday, August 29, 2008 Today they put lights into the ground and brought in the mulch for the areas that will not be lawn. The lights are not hooked up yet, that will be done by the electrician next week. The mulch smelled wonderful as they brought it in and spread it out. They did mess up a bit though - they mulched my vegetable garden! We'll see how that one is handled. I think most of the sprinkler heads are installed now also. We're seeing heads and not funny pipe sticking out of the ground.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008 Not much change today, so I won't put up any pictures. They came in, did some raking, and worked on the sprinkler heads. There were two guys here and only about two hours. I did get an answer about the mulch in my garden though, Mike says that it's "soil prep" and can be tilled in. We'll just add some compost and manure and till it all together. It should work fine.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 The sod arrived this morning, just before noon. A big truck stopped at the top of the hill and the driver used a special forklift to carry the pallets down the hill and place them around the yard. After lunch, the workers came to install it. It's beginning to green up out there!
Here's the truck at the top of the hill and a pallet of sod.
Here they are beginning to lay it out.
September 5, 2008 The sod is all in and looks beautiful and green. Now the trick is to keep it that way. Unfortunately, our water pressure is quite low here. The sprinkler heads are not performing very well. The landscape guys are on it though, and promise me they'll figure out what's wrong. I just hope it's not an expensive problem. But, I love our green grass! We have to baby it for a couple of weeks now and not get on it too much. I also bought a bag of 75 daffodil bulbs. Deer don't eat them, I understand. They'll be gorgeous in the spring!
September 7, 2008 They worked yesterday on the lights, but we still don't have power to them. I'm excited to see how they'll turn out. They also tweaked the water pressure and have ordered a new valve. It's losing 20 pounds of pressure from the "in" to the "out." There's still a big green sewer pipe sticking out of the ground in front. That will be cut off and lowered. Still, we're getting close to being finished with their part, then it will be up to us to maintain.
Now here are the update pictures. There are four sets, all taken from a particular spot. Then I've dated them so you can see the changes:
Looking at Pebble Creek Court from the deck in back - side yard on the West.
August 14
August 16
August 21
August 22
August 26
August 27
August 28
August 29
September 3
Looking east at the back yard from the deck:
August 14
August 16
August 21
August 22
August 26
August 27
August 28
August 29
September 3
Looking at the front of the house from the driveway:
August 14
August 16
August 21
August 22
August 26
August 27
August 28
August 29
September 3
East side of the house from the front:
August 14
August 16
August 21
August 22
August 26
August 27
August 28
August 29
September 3
10 comments:
Loved all your posts. It has been a while since I checked the blog scene. I was drooling with your fruit displays!! Yumo!! And, were they playing chicken in those small dump truck thingys?? Crazy!!
Ah mountians in sight -lucky ducks. Miss ya
I LOVE the flagstone path!!
Those bushes and trees really do make a difference--it looks like you're landscaping now, not playing in the sandbox.
Ahh I love your flagstone path...it makes my heart go pitter patter! It's nice to see the bones of a lovely landscape going in.
Looks great!
Hooray for grass! Have you noticed a decrease in the dust yet? I need to come up and see the lawn all done now.
Wow! It looks fantastic! You're like an oasis up there on the mountain side ;). I love that they even filled in the cracks along the flagstone path.
I had this crazy landscaping dream last night. I dreamt that I was at a store like Lowe's or something and I saw packages of White Coral Bells that were bulbs (I don't even know if White Coral Bells are bulbs?) So, I bought 2 packages of them for you to put around your garden walk. They were sure pretty, even though I don't recall ever seeing real white coral bells in my entire life.
Wahoo! It's beautiful! Wish I could come see it in person.
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