I started a post a while back called "Spring Planning" where I was going to give progress updates of our work in the yard, but I never got around to finishing that post and publishing it to the blog; it's probably because we started off the spring season hoping that we would take great care of our yard, and then it got hot and we once again didn't water as much as we had planned... So, I'm using some of the details from that post to explain where we started, and then update you to where we are now.
If you remember my post from last fall on the landscaping project we started, we moved our bushes and flowering tree that was in the front yard to the backyard, and we planted some new bushes in the front yard. We didn't have much time before the weather turned, so we weren't able to buy any rock or plant any perrinials. So, that was on my list for this Spring. We also pulled up several clumps of crab grass throughout the yard, so we had several bare spots that we started filling them in with seed. We took some pictures of our yard and had the gentleman from Grass Pad review them, and he said we had "mostly good grass", so all we needed was to lay down some weed and feed and fill in the spots with some seed and then see him again in a couple months once that grows. I'm not sure what a bad yard looks like then, if ours has mostly good grass. But, it did give me some hope to make are yard immaculate.
In the month of April, we went home and started pulling our weeds and then laid down the weed and feed. The yard already looked a ton better getting those weeds out of there. We laid down the some seed, and I totally underestimated the amount of patches that we had, so we went back and got more seed and made sure we had enough to fill in all spots.
The yard was mostly "weed-free" for a couple months, and then they started to grow all over. We usually make the effort to pull the weeds before we mow the grass, and finally this weekend, we got some weed-killer spray to try and treat them, so hopefully that works out. If any of you have a weed-killer brand that you know you like, then comment below cause we need some help. We picked up Ortho.
So, back to the landscaping beds. We almost went the entire summer without doing anything to the beds. We would get weeds in there, and I would go out and pick them every so often, like it actually made it look any better. I did plant some knock-out roses, lilac flowers (that look like a clump of grass right now), and some small grasses, but out of the 7 that I bought, only 3 are still living.
We were told of a place called House of Rocks in Merriam, KS, and I went there over my lunch break and they allowed me to bring home some samples. Greg and I really thought we liked the grey pepplestone and of course, it was the most expensive. Greg and I went together another weekend and we got 2 more samples. We actually really liked the Native River Rock that everyone around here calls Kansas River Rock, and it was the best priced rock for the bigger types.
We waited another month, and I finally said I'm ordering it, and gosh, we could not have had a better weekend to lay it down than two weekends ago. It was in the low 80's and there was a nice breeze. We decided that we were going to order enough rock to do the front and sides of the house, so with our estimate, they said 1 ton covers 100 SF with a 2" coverage, and we were at 97 LF and the beds are roughly 4' wide, so I ordered 4 tons.
We started on Friday by pulling the weeds again in the beds and bagging up the mulch that was on the sides of the house still. There was so much mulch from over the years.
Then, we laid down the weed matting as we moved through a bed and Greg would fill it with rock to hold it down. On Friday, we had accomplished most of the front bed.
On Saturday, Greg surprised me with saying he had made plans to play baseball with some of his friends, so he would be leaving. So, I can actually say that I did a lot of this work. I did the entire side of the house by the roses. I cut down my roses by half the height a couple weeks ago. They were getting out of control!
On the other side of the house, we killed most of those plants too, so I bought some bushes to plant, and hopefully we will take better care of them.
By the time that we got half way through this side of the house, we knew that we were going to have a ton of rock left over, so I said I would like to put it in the backyard.
Our flowering tree finally started to bloom, so I was happy that is was a success relocating it. We weren't sure if we wanted to lay rock in the backyard at first because we always dream about doing something with our patio. I did finally clean up these beds back there a couple months ago and laid down some mulch to make them look decent. I also put in the little iron fencing that my mom used to have in her yard. It gave it a nice finished look, but we just had too much rock, so the mulch had to go. So, I once again, bagged it all up, laid down the weed matting, and then laid down the rock. We also laid down rock under the bump out in the back of our house.
Finally, we got to the end where those last couple of loads we just wheeled around the yard and slapped the rock down to disperse it everywhere.
The rock is so dusty and dirty, and they said it will take a few good rains to get the real color of the rock to show. Greg watered it down so you can see it for the pictures. We love it, and hopefully I won't see a weed in these beds for a long time!
We've been busy these last couple of weeks working around the house, and it feels great to get a few of our projects completed! One of the projects that we weren't planning on doing so soon was replacing our kitchen sink; however, our old faucet started to leak a few weeks ago, and we could only stand the sound of dripping water for so long. We did try repairing it, but after we took off the handle, we couldn't get the rest of it off because it was so corroded. Lucky for you, I even took a picture of that because I was going to ask a plumber at work if we were trying to take it apart right or if it was just time for a new faucet because of all the corrosion.
After looking at new faucets, we realized how expensive they can be, so we wanted to make sure that we were getting one that we wanted, if we were going to be paying around $100 for it. Of course you know that Greg did a ton of research, so we got a good deal and we love what we ended up with!
Then, we thought, why pay for a nice faucet and put it on a scratched up, chipped, white porcelain sink? We decided that it was time to replace the sink as well since we were investing in a faucet. Our sink is the only white "appliance" in our kitchen, so we knew we wanted to go to a stainless steel. We also wanted to get rid of the middle divider and go with 1 sink basin. It took a little while to get used to, but oh my, is it nice! You can fit a ton of dishes in it before you have to wash them. Ha!
Greg worked diligently throughout the week to get the sink installed. We ordered one that fit our same dimensions, but he had to cut out the countertop slightly since the corners weren't as rounded. The new sink was also 1" deeper at 10", so Greg had to alter the plumbing piping to fit on the new p-trap and reroute the line feeding the dishwasher since we only have 1 drain now, so he routed it over to the disposal. All and all, I think he would say it was pretty simple and totally worth it.
It's a nice change to the kitchen and we're actually excited to do the dishes. We'll see how long that lasts... Ha!
