Before and After

Reid has been on vacation between cases this week and instead of going somewhere we decided to be good home owners and tackle a few projects around the house. It also helped that his parents were going to be coming through Dallas this week and decided to stay for a few days to offer their help. We are so grateful for all they helped us do in such a short amount of time! We would NEVER have accomplished as much as we did without them! Thank you Denny and Debra for working so hard while you were here visiting us!

Our main project was taking out the random/ unsightly/ broken/ koi pond in the middle of the backyard. The pump wasn't working and it was already starting to attract bugs. Yuck! Poor Reid spent an entire day knocking out the stones with a sledge hammer. But, that part was done in a day, and filled in with dirt by Saturday evening. We also landscaped the flower bed, pulled up money grass and some other huge iris-like plants, and laid sod. The entire project took about four days. Reid and I still need to move the last of the flagstones that you see in the "after" picture. All I can say is it looks so much better than it did and gives us so much more yard.

Here's a Samson story for you. Yesterday, after we finished laying the sod we went in to eat lunch and left Samson outside. Well, he went to town digging and it wasn't salvageable. Samson was pleased with his work, and Reid handled it much better than I did. I'm telling you, I was mad. ;) Those four days of yard work are the most I've done in my entire life.

Reid is headed back to get two more squares of sod right now to replace the ones that Samson destroyed. Oh, well. If that's the worst damage he does to our house then I think we'll call that a victory.

Here are the official before and after pics (we still have to plant the flowers we bought for the bed):