Saving One Penny at a Time: Day 12: Time to Landscape!!!

Today I had one goal: finish the outdoor landscaping!!! Much needed to be done, but I was confident that it would all be wrapped up today! I needed plenty of white rock to fill in underneath the front picture window...and I was going to get that white rock from the area that we scooped up yesterday onto the sidewalk!

The house as started this morning. I had originally planned on reusing these stones here, but then I had another wild idea! Reuse the ones from weeks ago from the front yard!

But first I had to prepare the area. I raked the fresh dirt so that it sloped down away from the house. I then laid out weed barrier from side-to-side over the dirt. I made sure to overlap it quite well as I don't want to be pulling weeds anytime soon! And then I started stacking the retaining wall bricks up. Yup, that's right, I had a change of mind!!! For whatever reason, I had the idea of re-using the bricks that I had taken out from the very first day of de-landscaping. I love how retaining wall bricks look, and I had a ton of free ones that I had stacked to sell on craigslist. But why sell them when you can use them?! So I loaded oodles and oodles up this morning to make me a wall! Once that was complete, I was ready to start laying rocks on the weed barrier.

Preparing the soil with a slope away from the house.

The weed barrier is down! With rocks to keep the wind from blowing it.

My new wall! I reused the bricks from along the street. I love it!

Now it's time to add rocks!

But I had a problem...I had very, VERY dirty rocks.

So once again, I had the dubious honor of sifting rocks! I would load three or full shovels of rock into the sifter, then rock it back and forth. I would lift that heavy screen and take it over to the area to dump it! Little by little, the rocks started to cover the weed barrier. It was not a quick process at all, and it took a bit of effort. Rocks have some weight! I found that fewer shovel-fulls allowed the dirt to sift out better, and trust me, there was plenty of dirt and weeds (and even some old wheelchair ramp!) mixed in. It was slow work, but the results were astounding.

The dirty rocks laying on the sidewalk just waiting to be sifted!

The few tools. Shovel rock in, rock in the sifter, remove weeds and place in bucket. Repeat.

Look at all of that dirt on the sidewalk! This is when Dad arrived.

The area is filling in with clean white rock now!

I would work on this the entire morning. Dad came by at noon with a plate full of food, and I was so appreciative of that! That allowed me to regain some energy...but also saved me at least 30-60 minutes of work time! I didn't have to leave! I ate in the garage and showed him what my plan was. But that little lunch break was so needed.

For the afternoon, I had him scoop the rock into the sifter. I was about 75% done when he arrived, but it still took quite a bit of sifting. The portions towards the house were just full of dirt...it's from where we pulled up the concrete-covered posts a couple of weeks ago. But again, little by little, the job was taking shape. One by one, those rocks were sifted and put on top of the weed barrier. The rocks actually don't look too bad when clean!

Look at all of that dirt removed! Wow!

We finally cleaned up the entire sidewalk. And it was a PERFECT amount for the area being landscaped. After that was wrapped up, we headed to Lowe's where I bought four boxwood bushes. I also picked up some coil cleaner for my heat pump coil and yet another air return grille. We looked at another shoplight for the garage, but they were so expensive! So Dad said he would make the one he bought on Saturday work. Fine by me!

We headed back to work at the house. Dad installed the shoplight while I planted bushes. I LOVE when you can tackle multiple projects at once! The bushes were easy to plant. I just brushsed away the rocks, cut a slit in the weed barrier, dug down, then planted, and covered! The new landscaping is a far cry from the old...and I love it. It's so clean! And it's quite fulfilling to have it done, too.

The newly landscaped front!

So much better than what used to be there.

I like it!

Dad wrapped up the light, and that works perfectly. I also wrapped up painting the towel rack holder yesterday, so I was able to cut the bar and install that and the toilet paper holder. Agh, the projects are coming together!!! My list is getting smaller and smaller!!! I'm still a bit nervous about the (huge) heat pump leak, but it's so nice to have the to-do list shrink more and more each day. I'm now down to just TWO DAYS before I want to be done!!!

The new garage light. That project is now done.

The main bath as acquired.

Updated just a little!

I mowed the front and back yards and called it a day.All in all, it was just another successful and productive day. The front yard is ready to go. The sidewalk is clean. The vent is up. The yard is mowed. The rocks are cleaned. The towel rack is up. The bushes are planted.

This house is looking more and more like a home!!! Only two more days before I have to leave again!!!