Before, During & After ... The Glorious After

Remember back in October of last year, I posted about the "renovations" at our house?  The complete and utter destruction to our front yard in order to replace the lateral sewer line??  I showed you a Before photo?  

Let me visually walk you through the Harvest Moon House transformation...





  This photo shows some of our landscaping and all of our sidewalks which we had replaced several years prior (using a 50/50 cost-share program with our City) and the mulch we bought by a truckload.

Prepare yourself....here are 3 shots of the devastation we came home to one nite in October, after work & the gym.



This is the same angle as the Before photo!!!



Where is the grass, the plants, the SIDEWALK??

Wonder how the mail carrier is gonna get to our mailbox on the front porch?

Can you imagine??!!  So, for several days, we had this mess plus big construction equipment as lawn ornaments!  Eventually, dirt was spread and the sidewalk replaced.  It was then a long, cold winter of a dirt-filled "lawn", that, at times, sunk in due to settling from the melting snow.  We had some pretty big gaps next to the sidewalk.  On New Year's Eve day, after rains that melted the snow, we had this long rut/valley that started near the front of the house and ran to and along the sidewalk!  This remained until about March!!!

When spring began to arrive, the construction company would surprise us by laying down some good black dirt and, finally, they threw down some grass seed.  (I had hoped for a better re-seeding of our lawn b/c we were told our yard would be brought back to its original condition!!!)

We have spent our time laying various grass seeds/mixtures and Chris has gone beyond my expectations of transplanting from our back yard.  (He is the green-thumb of this duo!!)  So, without further ado...









AFTER!!!! 





Since these photos were taken, Chris has

1) made a "rock garden"/patio under the big tree (using the rocks in the photo above) where we have our bistro table

2) created a new half-moon shaped area on the easement where he planted ornamental grass, black-eyed Susans, Rose of Sharon, spirea, ivy ground cover, hostas and daylilies (which we mulched)

3) added a stone foot path from our driveway to the front door with 8 stepping stones (we have dubbed it "Caesar's Path" in memory of our boy).

The work NEVER ends, but the end result is glorious!!!  Wouldn't you agree??? 

And with the intense heat we are getting this week, we just need to make sure we water, water, water!  Don't want our hardwork to have been in vain ~~ and I sure as hell don't want to be out there doing it all over again!!!!  Maintenance is more than enough to keep us busy all summer, into fall!