Our Backyard

When Jon and I were looking for a house, we didn't want to live in Clayton Heights.  We didn't want to be squished and have no parking and no backyard.  This house isn't like that.  We have one of the few houses that have a side-loading driveway to our detached garage, and our yard is a tad larger than normal.  Definitely perfect for young kids...they have a driveway to ride bikes / colour with chalk / play hockey on, and then enough grass to run around on.

The problem with the grass-area of the backyard was that it was sloped; one whole side (along our side fence) was higher than the other side (along the driveway).  It was a little annoying last summer when we would try to fill the baby pool with water - we would have a deep end and a shallow end.  Not the end of the world though.  Our fence was also starting to fall apart, and there were a lot of rocks (for drainage?) along the sides.  But, it was a yard, and we were happy.

My Dad had other plans.  Every few years he gets really into the Christmas spirit (what?  a Vander Ende really into the holidays?!?!?) and gets each of his kids a present from him (not from my Mom).  It's really funny because we're always so ecstatic to see gifts for us from my Dad...but my Mom, who buys us gifts each year, doesn't receive the same reaction.  :)

Anyways, this past Christmas was a "Dad-gift-giving-Christmas".  Jon's and my gift was his assistance in re-doing our backyard.  YES.  So sweet.  So, this past spring, our backyard was transformed...

Above & Below:  BEFORE

Above & Below:  New fence is on (only the sides needed replacing)

Above & Below:  Excavator comes to dig out the backyard to level it.

You can see how unlevel our yard was...the bottom of the fence is where the lawn used to be.

Putting in the retaining wall.

Getting ready for the sod.

Sod is in, as well as the sandbox moved from our last place and plants in the retaining wall.

(You can really see what the original level of the lawn was in the concrete of the stairs down to the basement.)

And...this is AFTER (taken this morning...you don't get more accurate than that!):