Retaining Walls Finished!

     Today Tracy, our landscape/hardscape guy, finished with the retaining walls and the window well in our backyard!  Here are the before, during, and after pictures.  :)

Before

During

This is the root system of the cursed bush that I cut way back.  That thing is huge!

Goodbye, fir tree.  He saved the hydrangea bush, though.  :)

After

It looks so much cleaner.  And he saved two more of our flower plants, too!

 The dark soil is some kind of mulch; our dirt doesn't absorb water very well,

and so this stuff will help with water absorption so things don't flood when it rains.

I used to have to practically force the kids to go out into the backyard to play,

but now they ask to go outside!  They love it!

 He used our existing rocks and blocks up on the hill so that we could utilize what we have.

These are now blocking up some rather large holes under the back fence where the soil eroded away.

More rocks to cover up the drainage pipe, and there's also a gap here which allows access to some water basin things and shut-off valves that we will need access to at some point.

He regraded the dirt in the back there so that it would be level all the way around the window well

(and now the side gate can open easier, too).

I looked up pictures online of window wells, and I really didn't want to look out of my window and see what looks like the inside of a metal bucket.  So he made a window well for us out of the same blocks and capstones that he used for the retaining walls.

  This is what I see when I look out the window.  I love it!

     It was a two-week project and Tracy worked alone.  He did an excellent job!  He was very precise with his measurements and his leveling and with the spacing of the blocks, and very exact when he cut the capstones to fit together (that was the most time-consuming part of the whole project).  I very much appreciated his attention to detail.  His work and the final product were absolutely worth the money!

     Next on the list is the deck!  Tracy also does decks, and so we'll have him back to do more of our upcoming yard projects.  I already love this backyard so much more than when we first moved in, and I actually like being outside now!  And now that everything is where it needs to be, we can start watering the grass again.  ;)