Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Before & After

Our small backyard is finally completed!!!  It took the guys from All Play Synthetic Lawns and Landscaping about 4 full days to remove 2 large slabs of concrete, level the ground, remove the not-working sprinkler system, lay down the paving stones and install the artificial grass.  Craig also removed two large tree stumps before any of this could be done. 

Our backyard always looked smaller than what it actually was as there was about 18 inches of dirt around the outside with 2 spaces where trees once were.  Now with the new landscaping it looks so much cleaner and larger.  Joel, the owner of All Play was fantastic and worked with us to get the job completed before we headed back to our northern home. He was at the job site at least twice a day if not more to make sure his guys were getting the job completed on time and to make sure we didn't have any concerns.  The crew was great and were on the job by 7:30am - always in good spirits and listening to their Spanish music.  

Here's some before pictures:

You can see the dirt along the edges where the neighbours'
cats used it as their personal litter box

Too much concrete and wasn't inviting

These are the two slabs that were removed

Here's the two man crew that worked their butts off

Concrete is gone now they need to level and add
the base

The one guy had the pattern wrong so the foreman corrected him
and they removed about 5 rows of paving stones and started over again

As mentioned in a previous post there were also a neighbours' trees that were growing into our yard and over our house.  After getting the ok from their HOA we got them trimmed up today.  Joel from All Pay recommended a small family tree trimming company.  He said that they do a great job, not over priced and their cleanup is amazing, much better than the bigger companies in Yuma.  Well he was right, they started the job around 8:30 this morning and by 11 they took down the one very large branch that had grown over our house, trimmed the 4 bushes on the side of the house and had all debris in their trucks and the yard blown and vacuumed. They also blew all the dead leaves that had accumulated onto our roof. The other neighbour was impressed and he also hired them on the spot as this large tree was also over grown into his yard. 

Our dining room was always so dark as it faced the over grown bushes and as I am sitting here at the table there are sunbeams entering into the room and I don't need a light on. We also had problems with our satellite radio with reception and this afternoon we tuned into a station and had perfect reception.

I can't say how much we love our backyard and our friends Debbie & Art came for dinner last night and we sat around the fire to christen the yard.  

Here's some before pictures:

It was a jungle in between our house and the fence

This large branch had grown so far into our yard

And over our house.

Here's the after pictures:

Look how wide the walkway is between the house and the fence

No more overgrown tree over the house  

Or into the yard

Here's some after of the yard:

Our small yard looks so much bigger now

As you can imagine the dogs are loving the turf

We now have a place to sit and have a fire or bbq

Here's what it now looks like from our back door

Blitz grabs a ball as soon as you let him out

Two happy pups!

Should of called him Snoopy as he is always looking 
over the fence. He has never tried to jump it even though
it would be nothing for him to do.

Talk soon!

4 comments:

  1. Looks lovely. I was so happy when the landlord next door took out 2 big old trees, an elm and a ficus. We actually have sun on our patio in front now. Dogs look happy!

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    1. Thank you, we are so happy we hired someone to do the yard. The yards in the complex are small and this big old tree should not be here. The lemon trees in that yard cannot get enough sun and don't produce large fruit, instead they are the size of a small kiwi.

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  2. Absolutely beautiful! The dogs look so happy! They must love having sunshine! Thank you Denise for sharing!

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  3. Thanks! Dogs and us are very happy with the yard and going to miss this place when we leave.

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