Backyard Remodel Stage 1: Before

Since purchasing our home in July of 2008, Brian has engineered some pretty awesome remodeling projects.  Our first, and by far largest, was the addition of the garage, residing the house, and turning the old "garage" into a storage shed.  Oh yes, along with paving the driveway.  Next came the downstairs room into an updated TV/play room, which is a wonderful space.  Then we had some not-so-easily seen but much needed things done like spraying extra insullation into the attic and a recent radon mitigation.  I had never even heard of radon before Brian pointed it out - at first I thought it was a prank.

This winter, as we talked about all the projects that the house really needs (and that list is quite long) I won out with my bid for a backyard remodel.  Brian had already started getting quotes from contractors last fall, so he got back on that horse in February to get some contractors put together.

At first it looked like this would be a June project because there are weight limit road restrictions on Three Points which would prohibit those big bobcats and trucks from getting out here, but with the crazy warm weather we had in March the restrictions were lifted 6 weeks early.  So, things got started and have been rolling along at a good clip!

Here are a few "before" pics of the back yard.

We got some help from Fred and Kath a few weekends back and took a Saturday to clean up all the leaves and debrees in the back yard that we didn't get to in the fall.  It's not easy to see, but the ground in the back yard was very uneven and pocked with little divets.  You had to watch your step or risk twisting an ankle!

In the pic below, although you can't see it, right where Brian is standing were the remains of the old driveway.  It was class 5 gravel.  So that whole area from Brian down to the house and across to the shed (to the left of the pic) was pretty much crappy gravel with a few weeds and daylilies forging life from the sand.

 Wally was helping me secure my idea that we really need some kind of hedge between our back yard and the Mazurek's side yard.  Wally loves to step over the little strip of perennials and run down Joe and Julie's driveway.  The pic below is from the street, where they are preparing to put in some landscape edging to carve out some nice mulched areas around the trees.

 This next pic just makes me happy to see.  Notice the unsightly wood pallet that was a bottom stair (not the weatherd paint job on the deck....that's not changing anytime soon).  I hated these pallets at the bottom of the steps.  This one in particular occasionally tipped if you stepped on just the wrong spot.  It was embarassing for me to have my piano students use this every winter to get into the house!  This pallet is now gone forever!  Yes!

 Check back soon for the action shots of the yard being torn apart and put back together!

Easter with the John Family

Easter: Part 2 of 2

We spent the early afternoon of Easter Sunday at Mame and Ray's place.  Mame made us a really nice lunch with just about everything you could imagine.  The ham was excellent, and my favorite (as always) are the scalloped potatoes.  She even had an angel food cake and 2 pies for dessert.

We got a few cute family shots, which I completely over edited.  But since I'm running out of time, this is what I'll post!

Wally was a little crabby because he really wanted to run in the hallways instead of hang out in the living room, so it was hard to get a smile.  The chair ride with Grandpa Fred helped.

Easter with the Rock Family

Easter Sunday: Part 1 of 2

Now isn't this the cutest group of little men you've ever seen?  I think so at least!  Wally, Colin, and Ryder are growing up and we had the perfect 3 seconds where they all sat still.  Raenay and Grant's back yard is so interesting that I didn't think we'd be able to do it.  Sheer mommy will. This is why I love the "continuous shoot" action on my camera.

I had to include this one even though it's a little blurry because this is such a funny little face.

 Dad and Raenay smiling for the camera!

I took a few family shots for Andy and Kacy.  Now that thier family is growing (due August!) we need to document the stages when we can :)  

 Here's a few more cute pics from the day.  I just thought I'd throw them in for fun!

Visit to Lake Elmo

Last weekend Brian was attending the Minnebar Tech Conference in Mpls, so Wally and I had the whole day Saturday to hang out.  We decided to head over to Lake Elmo and visit my dad and Mary, and it was a wonderful day. Kacy and Andy joined us, and Colin and Wally gave a thorough "kid-testing" to the new house.  They inspected everything from the dishwasher to stairways to bedrooms.  No square inch was unturned.  Here is a cute pic of Colin with one of Marys kitchen wooden spoons.

Those spoons made wonderful golf clubs, and Wally had a blast batting those tennis balls around the dining area.

 Dad spent a good chunk of the day chasing Wally up and down the stairs.  They played a game of peek-a-boo (a current Wally favorite) between the lower and upper staircases.

 We'll be back soon for another visit!

Easter Egg Dying

This past Saturday we had a few free hours in the afternoon so we headed over to Mame and Ray's. When we got there, Mame had everything ready to go for dying easter eggs, which was a wonderful surprise!  So, Wally got to do two new favorite activities - running up and down the hallways and spilling things all over.  It was a very exciting day!

Even though we were way past nap time and Wally was starting to get a little crabby, as soon as we put him in the high chair he was super excited. Naturally, we eat things when we are sitting in our high chair.  Vinegar water with a little coloring is no exception.  

I tried to write on one egg "Wally's 1st Easter" but it wasn't super clear.  Here's a pic.  After we got done, Wally had a little more play time in the living room before leaving.  Overall, wonderful day!  Thanks to Mame and Ray!

Gale Woods Farm

On Friday Mame, Wally and I went out to Gale Woods Farm for thier "Spring on the Farm" day.  It was really great, lots of families and kids learning about animals, growing vegetables, and cooking.  The older kids were making popcorn from actual corn cobs, so the whole building smelled great. The play room was open with a barn puppet stage and lots of little farm equipment to play with.  Wally promptly stole one of the stuffed animal chickens and carried it around the farm for the rest of the visit.  

The show stealer was the animal barn.  One of the sheep had just given birth at 1:00am that morning, so we got to pet three brand new lambs.  They were just adorable and the mom was so calm!  Plus, we actually watched an Ewe give birth to a little black goat in the next stall over.  That was really awesome (and admitedly brought back memories of Wally's little head poping out, which I did see because I had them put the mirror up).   

Wally was so absorbed with sorting the new hay into piles over in the corner that I had to pry him away.  He was still kicking and screaming in this next picture while Mame was trying to show him the chicks.  Eventually he calmed when we went to see the cow outside!

 

Quick little story:  The last time Wally and I were out at Gale Woods, he bent down to pet a kitty and did a face plant into the gravel.  He was literaly spitting it out of his mouth and got a good scrape on his nose. We left that day in tears.  So, this trip I told Mame about that and how we had to be extra careful on the gravel.  As we were walking out the door to the car, we stopped by the chicken coop one last time.  As fate would have it, as Wally was effortlessly walking accross the gravel he did what looked like a summersault attempt, with his forehead hitting the ground first.  He now has a fairly sizable scrape down one side. Farm = 2  Wally = 0

Play Date

On Tuesday we head a wonderful play date with Wally's buddies - Chase and Julianna.  Moms Christine and Jess are some new friends of mine and I'm so happy to have found such down to earth ladies in Mound!  Christine lives in a beautiful home they built a few years ago out in Minnetrista, so it was fun to hear about that. It's also nice to have found other mom's in very similar situations to my own - first child, staying at home while hubby works, all the stresses and joys attached to that.  I think the biggest benefit is the ease we now have to call eachother up and get the kids together.  This is becoming especially useful now that I really feel the need to get Wally out of the house at least once a day just so he doesn't go stir crazy.  Next week we'll all meet for lunch at a park here in Mound, which will be great (hope the weather holds out).

 Here is Wally playing on the stairs.  He still loves climbing stairs - so I spend a fairly significant percentage of my day following him up and down.  Chase, who is about 5 months younger than Wally, is just starting to pull himself up on things and can even creep up the steps himself.  He was fascinated, needless to say, by this big tank-boy who could scale those stairs like nobodys business.

Here are a few pics I took of Juliana.  She's the little peanut who is 3 weeks younger and litterally half the size of Wally.  In our little play group it's Julianna and the 3 boys (although Landon wasn't able to make it this round).  Wally likes her - I can tell because he's always trying to feed her things like these cherrios.  You know I raise him right - keep your women fed :)

Here is the three of them eating Cherrios.  Wally is a head taller than Chase and Julianna, and much more active. It's hard to keep him in one room because he just wants to explore right now.  I really don't mind letting him roam because he's so interested in finding new things - and he loves playing with new toys.

Juliana and Jess sitting on the couch.  I'm realizing more and more how important it is to get pics of mom and baby together.  In the thousands of pics I have of Wally - even of Brian and Wally together - I only have a couple of Wally and I.  It's hard to do when most of my picture taking happens when it's just the two of us. Or when I'm handing the camera to Brian whom I haven't fully taught how to properly focus and compose an image.