Progress!

When Ike came to visit this past September he was not a very welcomed guest. He successfully trashed our garage with 6 feet of storm surge water, ruining most everything down there including the 1/2 bathroom. Items we did salvage now have a lovely coating of rust or a "not-so-fresh" look about them. But most disappointing was the destroyed backyard. We lost all landscaping, flower beds, two large shade trees, and had some fence damage. Amazingly though, the gazebo was still standing! The trees somehow fell around the gazebo. And the yard was littered with millions of pieces of roof shingles (thankfully not ours!) among other debris. After several months of picking up shingles and random pieces of debris in the yard, Paul and I grew more and more apathetic towards the whole backyard restoration. I would cringe when I looked outside in the yard and felt so sorry for Stretch when I would see him walking around in "his" backyard. We knew this was a job way too big for us to complete. And Paul Ford is soooo not a "yard man";) So that's where Martin our new Yard Guy comes into the picture. He and his amazing crew of men have totally transformed our backyard into a wonderful little oasis once again! The landscaping is almost finished at this point. Here are some pictures of the progress being made-- more pictures of the landscaping and new walkway will come on a later posting....

before work had begun...

It took 5 men to roll that stump out to the alley!

trenches for the sprinkler system

the grass getting delivered!

where our new flagstone walkway will be :)

Stretch likes to check out the progress in his backyard every day.

This is the front gated garden that once had all of our herbs in it. It had to be raised up because of being sunken down from the water. We've decided to make it our herb and vegetable garden this year. Mmm, I can't wait!