It's A Windy View: We Rock

I spent every waking moment of every weekend in the last year wondering the sprinkler and landscaping isles of every home improvement store with in a 100 mile radius of our new home praying that Ahmed Hassan or Matt Blashaw would find me and offer to crash our yard. Alas, my dream of a free backyard never found me. So, Handy man and I were forced to crash our own yard, DIY style.

Although it took a little over a year, I must say we did one hell of an awesome job! Here was the before picture of our back yard.

Although private, the wood fence cut off the entire view of the yard from the walk out basement. The bushes, although beautiful in the spring, were overgrown and rouge.

Project number one was to rip out that old fence and sadly those bushes too.

We had big ideas of a water feature that "Wowed". Handy Man climbed aboard the old tractor and painted his vision with the bucket. Moving dirt and digging holes. I still have no idea how he managed to a) not hit the septic line, b) accidentally take out the deck, or c) hit at least one utility line in the process - because of course we did not call for location. That's how DIY'ers roll.

I figured if Yard Crashers couldn't find me, I knew how to find Disaster DIY.

After successfully shredding our lawn by tractor tires, a few "nicks" in the deck and a few branch casualties, Handy Man's river and pond was taking shape. I added: Sod or re-seed lawn to our landscaping to do list...

We used discontinued roofing liner as a cheaper alternative to a conventional pond liner. We were either brilliant in budget friendly improvisation - I knew a guy with the hook up - or we would find out the hard way that DIY corner cutting is a DIY disaster.

Bucket load after bucket load, Hand Man fed me tons of river rock in which I strategically hand placed each rock in order to create our perfect water feature.

We added a few decorative rocks and petrified wood pieces for character.

Once we had it just like we wanted the real test was - Would she hold water?!?Did we make a back breaking mistake by using roofing liner?

Once the water level was just right, we turned on the pump and our water feature was a success! A babbling stream flowing into a tranquil pond.

These two cuties grabbed their lawn chairs and settled in down by the pond to watch the water flow that first night. They gave me an idea for the master design plan!

I wanted to create a little tranquil place down by the pond where I could sit and read while the birds chirped and the sound of the gentle rolling water filled the air around me. I told Handy Man he had to recalculate the rock and mulch order because I had an idea!!

Handy Man rolled his eyes and said if I intended to create a flagstone patio down by the pond, I was creating a flagstone patio down by the pond. If he had it his way, he would just rock and mulch it all and move on.

I batted my eyes and we scaled back the rock order and proceeded with our DIY project.

Do you know how awesome it is to prep an area for fabric and rock? (insert sarcasm) Hand shoveling, raking, smoothing... it's hard work and takes a lot of ~~Handy Man~~ man power.

It's even more work when you have guys like this slacking on the job.

We ordered a LOT of mulch.

There it is, just to the right of the aspen trees... mommy's quiet tranquil spot.

I love the way fresh mulch looks and smells!

We filled in the rest of the upper hillside with smaller rock.

I then added some plants here and there to compliment the space - I am trying to sound like I knew what I was doing. I pretty much went to the plant store, picked out plants that I thought looked pretty and said "Perennial", brought them home and grabbed one at a time and said something to the effect of, "Yep that one looks okay there."
I am far from a Master Gardener but I think it turned out okay.

You will notice that the pond is empty all of a sudden...

Well, we learned that untreated pond water looks like this after a few weeks...

a green, mossy, slimy, mosquito breeding environment. We ordered pond treatment supplies and I started brainstorming my flagstone patio!

30 minutes here, and hour there, I leveled sand and carried pieces of flagstone one by one and pieced them together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

All by myself I was building this beautiful tranquil patio space. I was even planning to build a little bench out of cinder blocks we had laying around I had seen on Pinterest.

Can you see it? Can't you envision my patio!?!?!

Once done this was going to be the coolest patio ever! I was even planning to build and incorporate a fire pit adjacent to the pond. I was dreaming of inviting friends and family over, hanging out by the pond in the evenings around a fire pit while we sipped on beverages and the kids roasted marshmallows...

Then life happened and the rest of summer slipped away. Fall and winter too. Before I knew it I was standing outside on my "all most finished" flagstone patio and I was hating it! Weeds were growing up between the rocks, pine needles and old fall leaves were everywhere. The leveling sand washed away by rain and melting snow. Uggg I hated everything about it. It looked like crap! How was I ever going to revive this patio in order to finish this project?

So late this spring, I had my loving husband rip it all out for me!

I decided to put in a breeze (finely crushed rock like you see on park trails) patio instead.

Once again Handy Man jumped on the tractor to remove the flagstone pieced and level the space. There is no room for error with breeze. Every imperfection can be seen.

Squirrel!

Smack dab in the middle of leveling Handy Man went off on a tangent about the fact that there is 3 feet of dirt and rock now on top of our septic tank lids. Yes, I know this. He began discussing how we should have added risers to the tank lids back when we bought the house - and the seller was willing to split the cost of such risers with us... Yes, I know this. He said someday when we need to pump the tanks or we move and have to have them inspected it will really, really such to have to hand dig all way down to the lids. Yes, I know this. He said we should probably stop where we are and install the risers. Of course you do NOW my dear.

Back to digging out the lids while I ordered the risers.

Risers were delivered, Handy Man and I installed them (we spared you those photos.) And while we were adding the risers we talked about adding some sort of retaining wall to keep the dirt and rocks off the breeze patio.

Back to the store for more concrete and we were DIY stone masons!

Mr Blue Eyes loves watching Daddy Build things. So do I kid, I just wish the patio was in already and I could be watching him with a drink in my hand.

24 hours later and the mortar had set. My little space was all coming together. I was getting really excited now!

Note there is not a fire pit by the pond in this space below. We just couldn't figure out how to make it work especially considering our new septic riders were PVC plastic and barely under an inch of rock right there as well. We agreed (to disagree) about the need for a fire pit. I will be purchasing a little fire pit. This is actually a better idea because then it is mobile and we can roast marshmallows anywhere - front yard, back yard, on the deck... you name it we can sit by the fire and relax with friends.

Of course Handy Man said I had to wait to buy one until I actually was planning to have a party... and I actually intend to use it. Whatever...

Almost finished!

We got the area all leveled, laid down the weed barrier and...

poured on the breeze.

I then had to patiently spread and level the breeze using ~~an old wood fence picket~~ my handy, sophisticated, leveling tool below. (patent pending)