{"id":1822,"date":"2011-05-09T06:18:07","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2011-05-09T06:23:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T11:23:21","slug":"backyard-face-lift-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=1822","title":{"rendered":"Backyard Face-Lift, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: \u00a0Spring<\/em><\/h3>\n

When we \u00a0bought our house, we felt as if we got a great deal, and we think one of the reasons was the backyard. \u00a0The backyard didn’t have grass anywhere. \u00a0It was what you would call a nightmare. \u00a0 The previous owner had taken out all the grass and put down little pebble stones and some circle zen gardens (use that term loosely). \u00a0I used \u00a0some of the rocks for a wet-shoes project you can read about here<\/a><\/strong>. While I am sure the previous owner loved his yard, it wasn’t going to work for us. \u00a0We wanted to have grass for our puppy, and I just love the look of green in the yard. \u00a0I am from Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, and we like our grass. \u00a0The previous owner had a weird patio right in the middle of the yard, and it visually interupted the view and really made the backyard seem smaller than it is. \u00a0It had to go.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Mr. Spring and I decided we needed to make a change to make it ours. \u00a0 We knew it \u00a0would be a lot of hard work, but the payoff would be great. \u00a0We both keep thinking about grilling out on our new patio, having a summer cocktail, and playing with our new puppy, who arrives next week-end. \u00a0 But the dreams have to be put on the back burner for now, because we have a lot of work to do. \u00a0Here are some of the before pictures:<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

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Here you can see one of the zen gardens covered with snow. \u00a0That was a common site for us this winter since we had one of the worst winters on record. \u00a0We sold the picnic table you see there that the owner left, and we decided we will buy new patio furniture.<\/h3>\n

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We were so excited to get started. \u00a0Before we took this photo, we moved some things around and cut down stray branches. \u00a0Here \u00a0you can see the rocks and part of one of the zen gardens.<\/h3>\n

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We brought out the fire pit to help keep us warm because when we started removing rocks, it was still very cold outside. \u00a0We knew the project was going to take many hours, so, when we had some time, we shoveled away and moved the huge rocks that were around the zen gardens.<\/h3>\n

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We decided to move some of the large rocks around some of the trees in the backyard. \u00a0We used the small stones to fill in around the perimeter of the yard. \u00a0This was a way to help get rid of some of them and help with drainage around the garages that surround us. \u00a0In the future, we plan to add a higher wall to keep the rocks in and then add dirt and plant flowers to create a flower bed. \u00a0I don’t think that will be happening this summer, though.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

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The large zen garden by the house is where we want to put the patio. \u00a0We decided to tackle the patio first and focus on this area. \u00a0We removed the rocks, and the next step was to remove the dirt. <\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

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We filled many wheelbarrows full, and then we put them in a portable dumpster called “the bagster”. \u00a0To date we have filled 2.5 bagsters full of rocks. That is about seven cubic yards. \u00a0We found some people on Craigslist who were happy to take these rocks from us.<\/h3>\n

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Here I am finally taking up the yard fabric where the patio will be. \u00a0I was so happy because we were finally getting to the dirt and the blank slate that we wanted. \u00a0 We made a plan, but it seems to be changing. \u00a0 Stay tuned for progress.<\/h3>\n

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Are you doing anything to your backyard?<\/h3>\n

Cheers!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: \u00a0Spring When we \u00a0bought our house, we felt as if we got a great deal, and we think one of the reasons was the backyard. \u00a0The backyard didn’t have grass anywhere. \u00a0It was what you would call a nightmare. \u00a0 The previous owner had taken out all the grass and put down little pebble […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[3,13,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1955,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions\/1955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}