Backyard projects 2013

We had some great forward progress on our backyard this year. Much of it was instigated by the moves of our family. Thanks, Family! My parents were preparing to sell their house at the beginning of the summer and dismantled their treehouse and playhouse, slide, and swings and we were the lucky beneficiaries of that! John decided to build a pirate ship play house. It is about 65% done and we can't wait to put the finishing, "piratey" touches on it. 

Mark and Chelsea bought a home nearby us and wanted to build a sandbox so we split a load of sand with them. That was impetus to build our sandbox! We had a giant sandpile in our driveway for several weeks, which was fun in and of itself. 

And they were also on the search for free sod on KSL.com, and they were generous and thoughtful enough to give us a heads up whenever they found some. We were able to re-sod a huge section of our yard with free, brand new grass!

My dad, all on his own, built a retaining wall and firepit in the other, unused corner of our yard (including taking out part of a cement foundation by hand!) It is so fun to have these finished parts of our yard to use. 

We also inherited some pieces of playground equipment from Sue and Rick that didn't end up working in their yard remodel. We haven't quite figured out where they will go in our yard yet, but it will be fun to have these large, industrial-type pieces to work into the plan.