We finally got the landscaping bug, meaning we couldn't stand to look at our weed garden in the front any longer (rest assured, the one in the back is still thriving). It's been a back-breaking week. First I removed the plants we wanted to keep (Conan style). After learning all I could about proper grading and drainage (with some help from the folks on This Old House forums) I decided to get some help rather than tackle it myself. As it turns out that was a REALLY good idea as we had to move about 3 yards of material to the back (about 20 wheel-barrow loads) and uncovered a buried koi pond. "A koi pond" doesn't quite do this abomination justice. It was 5 feet in diameter and about 3 feet deep, and made from reinforced concrete lined with a second harder cement-like material and lined with a brush-on rubber membrane (and it was still holding water when we finally reached it's bottom). After a very affordable $50/4-hour breaker rental we had that beast broken up and removed in about 3 hours (the walls ranged from 3 to 8 inches thick, while the base was a full 12" thick). The removed pile of concrete is... quite large They added a bunch of water and then filled in the hole - which turned to soup (we nearly lost one of the guys in it). A week later and it's still not completely firm. They finally tilled up the yard, gave me a slight slope away from the house (with the exception of a couple mounds around existing trees) and tilled in some compost and gravel for drainage.

With the grading complete, I installed the conduit for the future water feature. Turns out that even after grading and amending, a 25 foot long 14 inch deep trench is still "a lot of work" (tm). But, I got it dug, the conduit run, and the rough-in inspected. With that out of the way, we ordered some sod and added the limestone dust and starter fertilizer. The sod showed up Saturday morning at 7:30 AM - and I got promptly to work. With the help of my two WONDERFUL neighbors, we had the entire lawn down in about 4 hours. We're now onto the water-the-heck-out-of-it stage. We're thrilled with the results and are looking forward to a few less weeds to pull. Many thanks to all the great advice from This Old House and Ask This Old House, my generous neighbors, and a very patient wife (and a not so patient toddler - he really wants to play on it NOW).

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