Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Evolution of a Front Yard

This is what the front yard used to look like--that is, after we tore out a gross, old, uneven, narrow, dangerous brick sidewalk.
Then we hired some dudes to bust up the concrete walk. We rocked the no-grass, no-walk look for a while, including during the Heritage Hills Home and Garden Tour. It was kinda embarrasing.
But last week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights from 9 to 11 p.m., I went outside and dug this trench. Don't ask me why I did it like that. I have homeowner fever. I'm nuts.
When the hole was dug, we ordered a ton and a half of crushed limestone. Can you believe this is a ton and a half? Me neither. Will it be enough?
Hell yes, it will! Look at Emily spreading it like a champ.
Then I came and tamped it all down. Memories of taking care of my high school's baseball mound. I was the starting pitcher and it was my responsibility. We had a nice mound.
Emily was the walk's chief designer. She decided on a herringbone pattern. Very glad she did. She also laid the whole walk. Except for a stretch when our second cousins (aged 14 and 11) came over and we put them to work. Nothing like child labor.
Speaking of child labor...just kidding.
Ignore the camera strap and focus on the attitude. Manual labor is fun.
Making progress!
Finished! Except for the irregular pieces. We had to buy an angle grinder to do that.
Oh, and where did we get all these bricks? We didn't purchase a single one. No, instead we salvaged them from our property. They came from the old brick walk in front and from a brick patio in back.
Some of the bricks are older than the state of Oklahoma. This one was made in the town of Chandler. "O.T" stands for "Oklahoma Territory." How cool is that?! Again, ignore the damn camera strap.
A lot of interesting bricks here.
But wait...there's more! We landscaped, too!
We put a dogwood tree in the backyard...
...and watered all the plants, shrubs, and trees we put in the front.
Tada! We did this in one weekend. Two full days of work. Boy, were we tired.
But we are happy. The end.

6 comments:

Elisa said...

Herringbone is an excellent choice.

Anonymous said...

Hey Reynolds GREAT WORK! So glad you are here. lol FG

Anonymous said...

LOVE IT!

SteveRobOKC said...

Looks great, my dad grew up in that mesta park, so I had a lot of good times as a kid there going back to my grandparents house. a beautiful area, I really want to get a house there when I get out of school and get a stable job. Congrats, ur a great addition to our city!

Blair Humphreys said...

Great job and very cool bricks!

Chad Reynolds said...

Thanks, all. Blair, I hear from Jeremy Gardener that you're moving back????!!!! Drinks are in order.