Sticks & Stones...Yard Facelift Part 1

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Our little family has a standing tradition of taking Easter pics out in the yard every Easter Sunday (and they turned out so well this year!),

so I'll post on those soon.

Now, this is a post totally full of bragging on my sweetie.

He has worked his tail off the past couple of weeks.

He completely built our new stone landscape wall himself. He plans to start on the border structure next. (I myself just wasn't brave enough to help with this task. I did a little work here & there with the mulch around the islands & picked up a few sticks,
but the wall was all him.)

He started with removing the old wooden planks (some were even rotted out) and shoveling out the dirt- those pics are the Befores shown below. He then packed sand atop the dirt to create a level foundation for the stone. He then began building up the stones, using a level along the way to make sure it was all even. It was a slow process, but it had to be to make it right.
And, wow, did it turn out beautifully!!

The entire project wasn't really as pricey as I thought it would be. We got the materials (sand, stone blocks & stone pavers) from Lowes. We also got two HUGE loads of mulch while there, so when you take the cost of that out, it's not that bad. A few hundred bucks & LOTS of time and hard work was totally worth it to completely transform our front yard into what it is becoming.

To show you what it used to look like, for the full effect...

BEFORE

Yuck...

Now, here's our "new" yard!!...

AFTER

Beautiful!

BEFORE

Gaps & rotting wood...

AFTER

Perfection!

And some pics of steps along the way...

This shows after the wood was removed, and after Zach dug out the area for the stones to be placed...

Stacking it up...

Leveling it out...

Some stones were still wet, so that's why they look darker here...

Coming right along...

Starting on the supporting wall...

Done!...

He wants to tackle this area next- that will be Part Deux. We have already had the stone pavers delivered to the house, so they're ready to go. He plans to just lay the pavers, one single row,
all along the way. I can't wait to see it!!

This shows the Before of the wooden plank wall that was once there. I'll post this pic again in my next post once the new stone border is complete.

Because of the stone wall, it looks like an entirely different yard. I'm so proud of him!!

I also wanted to include some pics of our beautiful azaleas...

I love to enjoy God's beautiful creation, and especially when it's in our own front yard.

Hope you all have a great week!