We need a little privacy here …

Me: “Oh boys I am so excited for this fence!”

Brody: “I know, privacy! We can pee back there all the time now!”

The boy knows whats up 🙂

Our backyard has been such an uphill battle.   Tackling a neglected yard is like me attempting to tackle a sumo wrestler — while we both may look good in that get up’ it’s best I leave it up to the professionals.

So, that’s what we had to do with this good ol’ yard of ours.  We tackled as much as we could with our own hands (and with the help of family, and alcohol) and left the rest to the pro’s.  Thankfully, we are at a point in our lives where hiring out help isn’t a big deal, where as with our first house we felt the penny pinch of doing it ALL ourselves.  And let me tell you a key to a successful renovation, hiring out help when needed.  It’s an essential.  Not only saving you time but SO much frustration.

Let me walk you through a bit of a jungle journey with our yard –

If you have been an avid reader of this blog for years now (we <3 you) you have more than a general idea of what we’ve been going through with our front and back yard.  We haven’t been shy, we’ve shared all of the details.  But here we are, nearly two years out and with all the time and $$ spent, we are still a work in progress.  Why? Well, even if you get a great brazilian wax done, it will still come back to haunt you weeks later, right? Grass grows, weeds grow, and years and years of  debris can be a mother to get rid of completely.

The fastest way to catch up —

We bought a jungle – I’m Yellin Timber – Landscaping 2 – We bought a Jungle 2

And if you’re a picture person like myself here’s our journey in a few pictures

Our backyard as we bought it.  A beautiful overgrown jungle.

Dan couldn’t handle it, so he went at it.

This is just for cuteness overload, look how tiny my men are.  (Not you Dan, don’t worry.)

This was after the entire family helped chop down the rest of the trees.  Following this step was hiring help to grade the land, lay fresh soil, and plant grass seed.

Ah, let’s all soak it in.   And next is where we are at.  In between we had HUGE trees removed from the front yard, and the guy tossed us a killer deal to remove the huge ash tree in the backyard, so we trashed the back again.  Agh! The story continues.

SO this is where we are left.  This shotty fence with chicken wire is just gorgeous, isn’t it? And the grass has been torn up’ with weather and more work being done back there.

We know it will take a few years for the grass to really settle its roots, so we’re not worried about that at all.  But one of the biggest pet peeves of our yard is the lack of privacy!

Oy.  This jagged fence and the “open” look just isn’t for us.  So TODAY we have our AMAZING fence crew ripping out our entire fence to start a brand new fence that will make you weak in the knees.  We have about 1,000 square feet of land that was jipped when the fence was built years ago, so we are gaining it back.  Which means a BIGGER yard for the kiddos.  AND, more of a mess to clean with the land we gain.  Agh, you can’t get it all folks.

This kid is pumped about it all.  A 6 foot privacy fence will be complete by next week, all done by hand – each piece of wood (no panels for a more even look) and we are OVER the moon about it all.  Sure, we set ourselves back with the land we gain and have to clean up all over again, but the thought of the privacy we are going to have just leaves me full of joy.

I’m going streaking the day it is finished.  Hands down.  (wink. relax.)