a paved space

Every year we add a pretty large project to the completion of our yard and home. This year the task has been to place pavers to our walk out/dug out area in the backyard. This has actually been a project that has taken multiple preceding projects to get to the end result.

1. remove the dirt from the entire back of the house (this was mostly done when we were building, but Jed had a lot a finite tuning to get it right).
2. place rock retaining walls-2006 (Only a small section was done when we first built. Jed's work looks way better than the excavators, but it did take a VERY long time).
3. plant the hillside and rock walls to prevent erosion-2006/2007 (We cannot count how many Vinca plugs we stuck in that hill).
4. build the deck-2007 (we love it!)
5. plant trees, shrubs, and a bit more ground cover on the hillside-2008 (We enjoyed this year immensely. Chase was coming. We had our basketball court installed. Jed completed the lawn area. The kids enjoyed the addition of the playground Jed built.)
6. 2009 More excavation to the walk out area. The sprinkling system to the hillside was completed. Also, Jed placed a drainage system with a 10 foot deep water runoff container. (The kids loved throwing dirt back in the hole on dad.)
   

You can just imagine our excitement after so many years in getting to the point to have a completed backyard. Placing the pavers is like icing on the cake.

As with all of Jed's projects, it was done with complete meticulousness. He preps and preps and preps. And then he preps more, getting the layout just perfect. It was so fun watching it come together.
Being that I am growing a little person, I was no good for the type of work that was needed. I got to sit back and occasionally tell him where to put the next paver, yeah pretty much the foreman-haha.

In the end, it turned out just as we have imagined over the last few years. We love it! And, as with all projects, you hope that you don't look in the back of your mind to the next addition, but you always do. Nothing is ever completed.