Our goal was to get the bulk of the work done this weekend since it was a long one. Ben scheduled to have a mini-excavator delivered on Saturday so that we could strip the ground of the grass, dig up areas of the sprinkler system, and level the dirt. As soon as it was delivered, Ben took it around to the backyard and started removing the grass. Cheryl and Jason came over to help (we have such awesome neighbors!), and Cheryl and I were "assigned" the fun job of separating the grass from the dirt and replanting the good pieces of sod. I didn't even think to pull out my camera to document this whole event until Cheryl and I came back to our house after planting some sod at their house and found a small lake in our backyard. Apparently, Ben had pulled up just a little too hard on the PVC pipe and broke the main sprinkler line. Oops! The trenches quickly filled up with water, and our backyard quickly turned into a mud pit.
Annie tried to stay as cool and as clean as she could while Amos tried to get as dirty as possible.
Amos wasn't the only one that was covered in mud though.
After the trenches dried up a bit, Ben finished digging the trench for the new line and reconnected all of the pieces of the sprinkler system. Unfortunately, some of the zones didn't work after hooking it all back up but that was just a minor technicality -- we still had 2 full days to get it figured out.
On Sunday, our dads were nice enough to come over to help us with the sprinkler system.
They worked on it pretty much all day, and in the end, they were actually able to get it working even better than it did prior to it being broken. At one point, we noticed that the center of our yard felt like we were walking on a inner tube , and we knew that they had to be a leak somewhere. Little did we know that we would eventually find a buried sprinkler head in the middle of the yard that we never knew about with a detached pipe pouring water out under ground. No wonder that area has always been so green!
Unfortunately I wasn't much help when it came to the problem-solving, so I did my best to help out by being the "water girl". Whether it was keeping all of glasses full of ice cold water, watering the transplanted sod, or turning on various sprinkler system zones, I was their go-to-girl. Eventually though, all of this water led to more mud, and Amos was in heaven.
Annie, on the other hand, just watched from afar while trying to keep both clean and cool.
After the sprinkler system was fixed, Ben covered everything back up and leveled out the dirt before calling it a night.
On Sunday, we got an early start setting forms. Steve came over to help again, and he and Ben got a lot done. I held the rod while Ben shot grades, and then using the slope of our existing patio, Ben and his dad formed up the entire patio.
After leveling the dirt one last time, Ben drove the mini back around to the driveway. Although I didn't get to see him drive it into the backyard on Saturday, he had told me that it barely made it through the gate, and he wasn't exaggerating.
After picking up the backyard, Ben and I made a trip to Target to reward ourselves for all of our hard work. On Friday, I had gone patio furniture shopping -- yes, I know that it's a little early considering we don't even have the patio yet, but I wanted to see if there were any amazing Memorial Day sales. I found a wicker conversational set (love seat, 2 chairs, coffee table, etc.) that I really liked at Target, and when I saw in Sunday's newspaper that it was nearly 50% off, I knew that there was no time to hesitate!Unfortunately, Ben wasn't really left with any leg room...
...but the good news is that we were able to get all of the boxes to fit in the back of my car.
We did have to take one of the side tables out of the box, but at least we didn't have to leave it behind.
Needless to say, it was a very fun and eventful weekend. Why can't every weekend be 4 days long???
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