Oasis

It started out like this.. crumbly, muddy, hard on the feet.. ugly. The house was built on a mound of hard packed gravel, and that's what the yard is... grass seed sprinkled on top of hard packed gravel. No drainage means a muddy swamp half the time, and no soil, at ALL, means the grass really doesn't grow.

We popped a pergola in over the porch to make the outside room feel more intentional.

Matt managed to single-handedly move that giant play structure over to the corner of the yard where it helped camouflage the water access pipe we have to keep handy for the city. The yard was tilled up ( and my sprinkler system with it) in preparation for all the healthy nutrient rich top soil that was to come.

Smoothed out, the side yard is separated off and leveled out with gravel, and the play structure corner is separated off and filled with round river rock. Sprinkler system is re-placed and replaced.

And then he hauled in the sod....

We. LOVE. It. We've got a few more days till we can really enjoy it as the sod takes firm root, but we are just in complete LUST with how this has turned out. We've also decided the pergola isn't quite finished. We'll top it off with some lattice and some plexiglass to make it weather proof so we can enjoy sitting outside even if it's raining. I can NOT wait for more warm spring and summer days!