Yard, day 1

Today was a VERY exciting day. One of the biggest reasons we wanted this house was the yard and today we had a crew here making it useable! The progress was huge already and the day went smoothly. Most of the work today was surface cleanup - raking, removing debris, cutting roots, etc. The general contractor was here as well with his metal guy and we did some more planning on the gates, stairs and walkway. I wasn't sure why this was necessary since we had the same conversations multiple times before, but as long as the job gets done I can talk all they want.

We had our ficus trees trimmed last summer, and I was going to wait until next summer (2 years) before having them trimmed again. The landscaper strongly urged me to do it, and even offered to bring his guy in and have me pay him directly so the landscaper took no profit. He just really felt it would be good for the yard, we would like it more and that the grass would be healthier. We got a price from the tree guy, and it was less than I paid last time (which was almost the lowest of several estimates) so I went ahead and scheduled it for Thursday. I also met with the handyman we've been using to get prices on fixing our interior doors which were messed up by our prior incompetent contractor. He told me to order jambs that were not wide enough to span the walls, and then admitted he made a mistake and refused to fix it because I put my credit card down to pay. For over a year, we've been living with doors that don't work properly, can't be finished and have no locks or handles. It will be good to get this done. I got some good information from the handyman and will go back to the door store this week to see what can be done.

Here is a shot looking out from the back door.



Here is a shot looking toward the back door from the back of the yard.



And here is behind the garage.


Look ma, no ditch!



This is a creepy doll the crew found buried in the yard.