As new homeowners, we are also the proud owners of actual outdoor space. However, our lovely space is full of CLAY!! Lovely, gushy, throw some pots and fire them CLAY!!!

So, my parents being the amazing and generous folks that they are, agreed to help us put in a lawn...or at least the seeds of a lawn to be. Never did I imagine that this would involve four 10-hour days, two 4-hour days, a tiller larger than a snowblower, a chainsaw, 24 foot ladder, a power washer, lawn roller and a spreader. Most of those items we rented and are grateful to Home Depot for this service. To try to make this more concise (too late, I know) my mom and dad and I spent one whole day leveling the yard and digging ridiculously heavy clay to throw in the car port for now. The next day, 8 cubic yards of luscious and slightly smelly compost was delivered by an enormous dump truck. It took the whole day to till the soil, spread the compost and till that in again!! My dad gets all the credit for taming that beast of a yard work machine. The next day we took down trees that were completely covered in multiple vine varieties. My dad would saw off a huge branch or tree top and it wouldn't even fall. Next would ensue 30 minutes of clipping hundreds of vines so we could free the branch to fall to the ground. That took about 6 hours to clear the fence of trees and vines. Meanwhile, my mom was power washing a huge fence that surrounds our yard and had become more mossy green than woodtoned in the past few weeks. Ew!!

Next day, the topsoil came and it was another day spreading that and fixing broken fence sections and staining the now lovely clean fence boards. Finally it was time to seed, fertilise, water and pray :)

I feel a little guilty that my parents spent a week of their spring break doing back-breaking yard work. BUT, we had a blast!! We enjoyed the sun, met lots of neighbors and their dogs, ate out at restaurants when the work days ended at 7 pm and slept really well!!

Jon and I had taken out the central cement walkway with a 12lb sledgehammer the day before.  You can see the green fence and scary viney trees too :) — Jon and I had taken out the central cement walkway with a 12lb sledgehammer the day before. You can see the green fence and scary viney trees too :)

I realize this is basically the most boring blog post ever but it being our first real home improvement, it was kind of exciting for us. If you're wondering, Jonathan was off giving a talk in Sidney, Australia during this work week. He was sad to miss the fun...but not that sad :). But is was fun the show him the fruit of our labor.

Next up, the bathroom!! Goodbye raspberry walls!!!!!

Hopebench