Water and grass

The above puddle is the representation of ALOT of hard work!!  ALOT of unexpected work!!  This is our front yard obviously...  To make a long story short, each time it rained we would have this lovely frog swimming pool in our front yard.  Our clay soil (if you want to call it soil) is so rock solid that it wouldn't soak up any water, so the water would end up in our basement :)  Oh, joy!  Yep, within six months of buying the house we had water in the basement.  I still can't believe it.  When we knew the rain would come and we'd stand watch, checking the basement every so often; if water came in, we sopped it up with towels, sucked it up with the shop vac and squidgy the hell out of the lovely laminate tile flooring, always hoping it was the last time.  

In order to stop the issue, we gathered friends and family - you fabulous people know who you are - and we dug that shite up!  Jay had busted up one section of sidewalk to help October 2009 - Halloween day actually - and realized we needed more manpower.  So in June of this year, we recruited help in the nicest way...pretty please...  Jay and I got up early busting up the sidewalk and once help came the men tore that sidewalk apart getting out all their aggressions, while we dug up all the millions and millions of pebbles.  We used the dump cart and made a nice mound in the back beside the workshop to use for a future patio project.  In between trips to the dump - surprised we don't know them by name now - we'd stop and get a yard of dirt to fill in the vacant space.  Our plan was to regrade from the flower bed to the grass so the water wouldn't puddle and sit.  It was amazing that day and great to get good and sweaty being able to see our progress from the morning.  

Before Jay and I started that morning...

 After the sidewalk and good portion of pebbles are gone...

 

In the end, Jay and I tore out the flower bed also to grade from the house out.  We probably have about 8-10 yards of dirt (thank you Lee Highway Nursery) and tons of shoveling experience it's insane!  Now that it's level, I'm proud to say that we haven't had water in the basement since mid-summer... 

We planted grass in the dirt area almost a month ago.  The Husband meticulously researched the correct grass seed to buy and lay...we leveled the area (it looks like a magician's hat to me) and pulled all the weeds...bought just a bit more dirt and laid some seed.  It's growing - some places better than others but it's coming along. 

We are supposed to get a frost tonight, so this is what a Wife does for her Husband's love of his grass...

Yes, those the original curtains from our living room - glad they can be used for something!

We have fabulous friends that have helped along the way of this journey....truly magnificent friends and family! 

The extension of this front yard project is the basement...more on that later.