Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Dirt & Sawdust


Then & Now

As most who know me are probably aware, I've been unemployed for a little over a month now (my contract ended, that's just how things go at Microsoft). It kinda sucks, but it couldn't have come at a more fortuitous time really. I have been using my newfound free time to get the yard at Jenni's mother's place ready for the wedding and things are looking quite good if I do say so myself.

I started my hiatus back in August with some construction work (hammers and saws and such). I love building things, so this was easily the most enjoyable part of the house preparation. I got to drill things and saw things (first time using a circular saw extensively) and route thing (first time ever with a router, very useful tool) and do all sorts of other manly activities. It's a very nice feeling to have all of your pieces of lumber fit together nicely after all of the measuring and cutting and drilling.

So, on to specifics. I started by building some 'T's that have been placed at top of gardened area of the lawn to provide a platform for some climing flowers to grow. We're going to span the gaps between them with wire and hopefully end up with a little knee high barrier of flowers. I removed the ramp leading up to the front porch and patched the gap left in the railing by said removal. I also finished the railing for the deck in the back of the house and added a gate leading out to the yard. My latest work was to replace some warped and rotted boards on the deck. Once they've been stained they should blend right in.

New gate and railing (I built the two short segments next to the gate)

There hadn't been much activity on the yard since we seeded back in June, so the grass had taken hold pretty well by August and we were able to start getting the hill all planted. Well, really, the ladies (Jenni, Terry, & Darcy) did all of the plant selection and most of the planting. Meanwhile I did manly things like move dirt and build stairs out of rairoad ties. I am exceptionally happy with how all of the stairs turned out


Stairs in the upper-right, "T" in the upper-left.

The last thing to do for the year was to clean up the mess we'd made and lay down some bark to prevent weeds until next spring. There was a fair amount of damage (and indentation) to the upper lawn from so many loads of dirt, sand, and gravel so Terry ordered a dumptruck full of topsoil to smooth it out. Now, we've re-seeded the upper lawn and done another round of seeding to the lower lawn, there's not much more to do but wait and see how it's looking next Spring. All of the plants are doing well and the grass is filling out nicely, so I expect a lush lawn and beautiful flowers for the big day next July! :D

Not bad for a bunch of ametuers. Cheers to my dad for osmosizing knowledge of power tools into me somehow as a youth. And jeers to the internet for having too damned many ways of seeding a lawn.

3 comments:

  1. Hooray!! Trey, I'm so excited for you in all your recent manly adventures! ;-) and I'll most certainly agree with your assessment that it looks pretty darn good! =)

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  2. Looks good Trey! I'm excited to see how it looks in person!

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  3. Oh wow! The yard is really coming along! I can't wait to see it next summer!

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