Slinging sod

We spent the weekend working on the front yard. Shawn came into town on Friday night to lend a hand with our landscaping, sod, and laying brick. We started with the drainage pipe along the front of the house. We had some water making its way under the house during heavy rains so we dug a trench and put down some drainage pipe, landscaping fabric and stone. The trench was back breaking and I'm glad we got it down and out of the way for the rest of the day.

After the pipe, we started on the brick pathway. We tamped down the stone dust and got it pretty level. We made a center and started laying the brick in a basket weave pattern. The brick ended up being difficult. I was bent over doing this to prevent putting divots in the base layer by kneeling in it. There was also constant leveling to be done.

We then finished laying and cutting the rest of the sod. All-in-all we started around 8:30am and finished around 6pm. I actually didn't think that we would've had finished the whole thing in one day. On Sunday we planted a bunch of flowers and mulched a few small areas.

Shawn was a HUGE help and he was working so hard that his clothes were tearing off.

We had a great weekend and the house looks completely different now. I pulled the sod trailer out of the front yard so that could get the full effect of the new yard...you can tell from the photo had I need some heavy duty springs. Olive also helped clean up the mouth of Tiff's Modelo can!
It was a very satisfying weekend. Thanks Shawn!