Hello, My Name is Emily

Remember me saying that we built a deck this summer? Well, come next spring not only will we have a deck to enjoy, but a lawn as well! Here's how it went down.

When we went to N. Carolina this past summer, we loved the deck there so much that we decided to forego our original plans for a cement patio. I am so glad we did because our deck turned out so beautifully.

Here's another picture of the deck in progress. To this day I look at it in amazement that S built the whole thing with his two hands. (Pictures of the finished thing are further down in the post.)

After the deck was finished, we figured we had enough outdoor livable space to hold us for awhile, but then we realized that it was possible (financially and time-wise) to get the lawn in this fall. S went to work clearing out all of the debris.



He didn't discover just how many rocks were in our backyard until he started to trench. In fact, the difficulty of trenching actually broke the first trencher and he had to go get a second one. We joked later that there was no need for us to buy the rock for our retaining walls--we should have just dug them all out of our yard.

Here's a view after all of the pipe was laid.

Then he had three dumptrucks of topsoil delivered. That's a lot of dirt!



And then it was all spread out. This was actually my favorite part. I thought it looked so pretty!



Here's another view (as well as a picture of S placing the heads. As well as a good look at our deck.)



And here's a view from our lower patio.



A good close-up of our deck:



This is the morning the hydroseed was to be spread. S spent several hours raking the topsoil to perfection. The hydroseed guy said it looked like a putting green, then proceeded to tromp right through it...



The hydroseed guy going to work. It took him 20 minutes. It made me feel bad for those who spend hours laying sod.



Here's the hydroseed right after it was spread. We opted for hydroseed after several of our neighbors went that route. It takes a long time to fill in, but their lawns ended up greener than those who had sod. And it costs a tenth what sod would. We had to tell Bean (who had been out playing in the dirt over the last several weeks) that she could no longer play in the dirt because there was baby grass and it needed to grow. She accepted that.



Eight days later it started to sprout. This was the most exciting part!



20 days later.



The constant watering and some recent rainstorms turned the south end of our backyard into a swamp for awhile.

And finally 30 days later. It is still a little sparse in areas but I think it looks awesome!!





I could say it was a lot of work, but really all I did was refill S's drink and bring him snacks throughout the day. I'm sure if you asked him, though, he would say that it was a lot of work. It is amazing to compare where we are now with where we were last January.