The backyard is finished!!!! (for now)

The construction guys finished the last of the sod this morning and brought in the gravel for the driveway then packed up everything and told us good-bye before lunch. The yard looks absolutely beautiful!!!! It looks better than I ever imagined it could look. I wanted to go and run barefoot in the grass, but we can't really walk on it for about 2 weeks. I have enjoyed just looking at it from the kitchen window today. I found myself just staring outside and admiring it.

I have been in the kitchen most of the day baking. I made four batches of Amish friendship bread with cinnamon chips and pecans added to it and a batch of white bread for us. I put a very small dent in the 50 pound bag of bread flour I got at Costco last week. I think I have rinsed, washed, and dried most of the bowls, measuring spoons, measuring cups, and spoons I have in my kitchen. I just finished the last batch and all of those dirty dishes are going into the dishwasher.

I am getting ready to start dinner (Bacon & Potato Chowder) to go with our fresh bread, but I wanted to post a few pictures first. I hope you are as impressed with the transformation as we are. In case you forgot how pitiful our backyard was here is a link to the before pictures : http://annscrazyworld.blogspot.com/2009/09/before-pictures-of-backyard.html

The new backyard:

This is where the drainage ditch was - the fence belongs to our neighbor. You can also now see our other neighbor's shed that was covered up by all of the overgrown bushes in the flower bed beside the ditch.

We got a new side yard by removing all of the planters and plants. We want to put in something to keep the gravel in the driveway, but when we get the patio done the gravel may get taken out.

The view from the street. We have lots of "rubber necking" when our neighbors drive by our house now.