Bob and Hannah in matching Tilley hats hanging out in Bob's fun and organized garage.
Christy sitting pretty with new additions for our backyard.
Our new trellis and freshly laid paving stones.
Bob built a new raised bed on the east side of the yard. Lots of room for planting.
A freshly graded and leveled yard.
Our new patio cover added great shade to the back of the house.
Bob and Caleb planting our newly purchased Linden tree.
Lisa was excited about the choice of a Linden tree because there was one in her yard in Great Falls Montana when she was growing up.
Hannah and Caleb staining the new raised bed.
Christy seated on our beautiful new picnic table. Bob purchased a "build your own table" kit. The kit came with end pieces and you provided the 2x4 lumber. They turned out great - stylish yet sturdy.
Leveling and planning the next phase of our backyard landscaping project, the sprinkler system.
Our Linden Tree - State Tree of Austria.
For the concrete work we hired Ken Smith, a great handy man we had used before, to help us out. Here Bob and Ken are building forms for the concrete slab and RV parking runners.
We also had about a hundred feet of concrete curbing put in to separate all the different sections of landscaping.
Freshly poured curbing outlining the future yard and forming a tree well for the new Linden tree.
Ken and Bob working hard laying rebar.
The concrete truck arrives.
Laying it down, working it in, screeding it off, and troweling it out.
Concrete is cured, forms are pulled, and now comes the the finishing touches of the irrigation system.
Before laying the concrete all the irrigation lines had been run and riser positions marked. Now all we had to do was go back, dig to the lines where the risers were to go, and then install them and the sprinkler heads. Lisa thought it looked like a gopher invasion.
Quite a bit of planning goes into a project like this to make sure that everything works when you turn the water on.
Although it was a lot of work, Bob really enjoyed all the planning and work on our own home.
Another view of the concrete work and RV runners.
We were fortunate that quite a bit of work in the backyard had already been done by the previous owners like all the brick you see in this picture and a number of trees that are now mature.
Multiple irrigation lines running from the manifold box in the upper left hand corner of this picture.
Many of these pictures also provide a great point of reference where irrigation lines and sprinklers are located should we need to find them later on.
Although a lot of work, this project was a great opportunity to teach Hannah and Caleb a bunch of stuff they never would have had the opportunity to learn otherwise.
Parts and pieces.
Bob at work doing something he enjoys and is good at.
Construction is always messy.
In this section there are risers if someday they are needed. For now they are capped off because this is to be a walkway between the grass and rose beds.
Identifying risers where the grapes are to go and those that are to be terminated under the flagstone walkway.
Another new whiskey barrel ready for plumbing, soil, and planting.
This is Hannah's project and she's all about getting it done.
Caleb too has got it figured out and has really become Dad's helper.
The ground is again leveled and holes filled for our next phase - laying the sod.
Lisa having fun rolling out the sod and fitting it in tight and right.
Bob teaching Caleb how to cut and fit sod.
A true family project - how fun!
Even Christy totally got into it and thought it was really great that we put a "park" in the backyard just for her.
Here she is chewing on a piece of sod and thinking it's great.
Here is a panoramic view of the (almost) completed backyard. Click this small image for a much bigger detailed version.
Bob fitting in the final pieces of sod.
Looks GREAT!
We had fun helping put the finishing touches on Bob's design for a base under the bird feeders. Bob floated some of the extra flagstone we had into concrete with just enough space for the kids to put hand prints in.
Father and son working together.
There was even room for a couple of small paw prints.
Form and function.
Final clean-up.
The birds are happy and the base is decorative, as well as keeping the birdseed from sprouting in the grass. Not only that, but when the hand prints fill with water the birds drink from them. It turned out really great!
One of the last things we did was add a concrete step to the handicap ramp on the east side of the house. While the concrete was still wet we decided this would be another good place to add our hand prints while adding a little texture for traction on the step. Here Bob is making his mark.
Next to Bob's go Lisa's.
Followed by Hannah.
Then Caleb.
And last but not least is Christy.
Bob and Lisa standing together on the rebuilt shed ramp overlooking their newly landscaped backyard.
The finished yard looks amazing!
We have an amazing place to live, work, and play.
Our little PopUp camper all staged on the new RV runners just in time for the upcoming summer's camping season.
The yard, trees, and plants are growing wonderfully after all the hard work and attention to detail.
A view of the patio with strawberry plants in the foreground.
A new whiskey barrel full of petunia's, a new raised bed full of tomato's and peppers, with a peach tree behind.
Our lovely backyard ready for entertaining.
Trellis and grapevines framing the master bedroom window. Later in the season we even had a scrub jay build a nest in the grapevine where we could watch them without them knowing from inside the bedroom - it was a real treat.
Side view of patio and trellis and another view of the new tomato and pepper raised bed. Caleb planted everything in this bed so it is now known as "Caleb's Salsa Garden."
Patio paving stones with the two existing raised beds that were part of the yard when we bought it, the large raised bed we added in the back, and just the corner of "Caleb's Salsa Garden" bed in front.
Side yard and large raised bed.
The front of our home.
Flag flying at our entryway.
Our entryway flower bed.
Close panorama of the front of our house.
A more contextual panorama of our home. We live in a great neighborhood in a beautiful setting. Click this picture for a larger, more detailed image.
One of the last pieces of landscaping work we did was to add a few rocks and this log underneath the spruce tree in our front yard. The lower branches of the tree had been pruned much too high leaving an unsightly space the decorative rocks and log helped fill in.
Sharing a beer with our friend and neighbor Sean Summers after he helped us unload and place the decorative rocks and log at the base of our spruce tree.
Hannah relaxing in her hammock and thoroughly enjoying our new backyard.