Yard day 2

Today started out with an issue about the 8 a.m. start time. Our city has a rule that when you do work on a permit, you cannot start before 8 a.m. on weekdays. I'm not sure if this applies to non-permitted work, but I assume it does. Due to the excessive heat, the landscaper had his crew here early and they started at 7:40. They were using picks and shovels, not powertools. My back neighbor came out and told them they had to start at wait until 8. I was surprised since there was almost no noise, but she is probably right so we complied. Later on, another neighbor got upset because the crew was smoking and her house is right next to the fence. I guess she had asked him to stop, and he wasn't happy and they had some words. I asked him to smoke out front, and he did it but didn't think it was necessary. I feel like it is really important to be a good neighbor, especially since we all live so close.

Today's main job was to finish picking the soil to loosen it up. They've been working the soil and watering it a lot since it was neglected so long. It is coming up really nicely though. Once the picking was done and the soil was loose enough to work, they began grading it. Originally they were going to use a rototiller and backhoe for this, but once they got here they changed the plan and did it by hand. They also started cleaning and digging for the side walkway where a bamboo privacy hedge will be planted. The general contractor's metal guy was here and cut holes in the concrete for the driveway gate and side walkway gate.

Here are some more objects uncovered during the work:

An rusty old can




A fork



Some marbles



Here is a shot looking out from the back door:





What an improvement!

Here is shot looking toward the house from the back of the yard:




Here's the back of the garage:



Here is the cleaned-up side walkway. There is a two-story apartment building right next door, and their grade is about 5 feet higher than ours so we are installing a privacy hedge here.




Here is a shot of the driveway after the gate post holes have been cut.




While digging one of the holes (on the right in the above picture), the metal contractor found an old pipe. We didn't know what it was for. It was in a really weird spot (under the driveway on the outside border of our property). The contractor thought it was nothing and considered cutting it to see what would happen. I vetoed this idea. The houses around here were built in the 1950's, and we really have no idea what it could have been. Hopefully it's not a water pipe for my neighbors running under our driveway. I do know that we have utility pipes underneath the property as do all the lots around here. We decided to leave it intact, and fortunately the way the post is installed won't disturb it, although the pipe will now be sitting in solid cement under a gate post, so I sincerely hope it never needs any attention.

Why not just move the gate location? Well, this spot is good for several reasons. It allows us to close off the most backyard possible and still park two cars. It also puts only the living room windows in the front yard (i.e. in front of the gate) and all the other windows (bedrooms) are behind the gate. Also, when we had to switch out our windows for the second time, we ended up with windows on the driveway side of the house that don't match. The gate will divide the wall between the mismatched windows.

Here is the gate post hole with the mystery pipe in it.





Here is the left driveway gate post hole with my foot in it for scale (yes, I did it on purpose!) I was amazed that tree roots had gotten this far. This spot is at least 15 feet from the nearest tree, and roots had to grow under the driveway.






Here are the post holes for the gate on the side walkway.


While digging the side walkway gate post holes, we found another unidentified pipe. This one is probably an old sprinkler pipe from the trashed sprinkler system of the prior owners.