Deconstruct to Reconstruct

We figured the rest of the work we planned to do we could accomplish ourselves without the help of contractors or slaves. We're smart, fearless, and have plenty of ingenuity, right? Boy were we in for a treat when we decided to strip our yard of all vegetation in order to lay down new sod. We'll start for fun with the "before" photos of our weedsome lawn:



We rented a sod cutter and a Uhaul pickup truck to transport the sod cutter. Cutting sod is not quite as easy as it looks in commercials, but it's not impossible. And Derek thinks it's fun to play with heavy machinery so I left him to it. I followed behind and rolled up the sod into nice, neat weed barrels that we stacked along the house. The following weekend we ripped up the remaining weeds along the edges by hand.



We were out of town to a wedding the following weekend, so it had been two weeks since we had actually cut sod. You can imagine what began to happen. The weeds started growing back! We made a quick trip to Lowe's yesterday for some Roundup. I dearly hope it is effective.

In the meantime, we started moving some dirt around to level the yard when Derek discovered that the previous owners had buried a sink in the backyard. Perhaps they didn't want to pay for a trip to the dump? I dug the dirt out of it, then Derek smashed it to little pieces with the sledge hammer so we could extract it from the ground. (See pile of broken ceramic pieces below.) Derek also found what he thought was another sink next to it. Upon further digging, we unearthed not a sink, but a whole intact bathtub. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?



At this point, we're thinking pretty hard about how to move forward. We will need to till up the whole yard to level it and lay down edging for where the garden beds and the patio will eventually go. We will probably need to till it up again when we add nutrients and fertilizer before laying sod. The tiller costs about $80 to rent each time. And every time we rent a tiller, we have to rent a pickup to haul the tiller. What we did next was perhaps a little impulsive. We bought a tiller. But we didn't just buy a tiller. We also bought a pickup truck.



I know, I know. But it costs money to have things hauled away (i.e. the bath tub and the sod rolls), it costs money to have things delivered (i.e. the tiller we just bought, our future sod, patio materials, etc.), and it costs money to rent a truck if you want to do it yourself. And what do you gain by being overcharged for these services? Nothing. I can think of 10 separate times we will need a pickup truck to do these types of things over the course of the summer. So I don't think it was really a rash decision. I think it was an efficient decision. Even a frugal decision! Clearly, I am still trying to convince myself of this or I wouldn't be trying to rationalize it to you. Regardless, we are now proud owners of a 2007 Chevy Colorado. Derek couldn't be happier.