Once upon a time there were five brothers. One day the eldest of these brothers got married and a few years later, bought a house. This house had a nice sized backyard, but there was only one problem – weeds! Soon the four brothers began to realize it was a bad idea to answer the phone calls of their eldest brother, because they knew it was really a sugar coated invitation to come and help him pull weeds on Saturday mornings. They would be invited over for a yummy brunch and a day of games in exchange for waking up early to help tackle the backyard. As time went on, only one grew smart enough to move out of state, thus ending his phone calls for yard work requests, while the other three stayed local. Nine years later, the wish of the four brothers has come true – there are no weeds in the backyard! (At one point the weeds were SO tall that they almost hid my brother-in-law David, but I forgot how tall he is since he hasn’t been by in a couple of weeks. David? Who are you?)

Backyard progress from Sep 3 – Oct 2:

They started by cutting back on the “mini hill” we had in the back (see our poor tree that got smashed from the backyard antics of Don and David?):

Soon the bricks for the retaining wall were brought to the back as they continued to work down the mini hill. You can also see where they started marking for the additional patio space:

Mini hill is all cut back and prep for the wall begins:

More wall prep:

Wall begins to go up, you can see where the tarp is marking where our shed will go:

Wall is almost completed and we find a fun surprise – steps!! Made with the bricks Don had previously used to make a small retaining wall. David loves these bricks:

Wall is capped off and looking wonderful! Getting ready to pour cement, and see what nice care they’ve taken of our tree:

Slab for the shed is poured:

More cement is poured in the back. I love the size of the patio! It was extended an additional four feet into the yard, and the length of the house connecting it to the walkway along the side. We have septic, which explains the two square holes:

Pavers, from my In-Laws, were used as covers for the septic tank. This will make it much easer when it’s time to take care of that. Today they finished cutting some of the pavers in half to complete the squares. The dirt behind the retaining wall is graded and good soil is added to the top:

Everyday is gets more exciting as we see the progress being made! We really have an awesome crew working on this for us!