Yard Work

[Cruise Director]

That's it! The yard is DONE. Complete. Fin. The original bid from the contractor was almost 6 grand. I had him pour the comcrete and do the edging but completed the rest of the work by myself. I did have some tractor help from a friend of mine but the labor was free. I completed the job for about $2600. I couldn't be happier.

The start of the project:

[Cruise Director]

Then it was on to leveling and excavating. I had about 2 hours worth of tractor work and then leveled the rest by hand. I removed 64 wheelbarrow loads of dirt. Then came the patio. I had help with that because I can't do flatwork to save my life.

[Cruise Director]

Then it was on to the sprinklers and curbing. I did the sprinklers first using a trencher I "borrowed" from the local golf course ( my neighbor is the Pro ) to lay the lines. I stubbed up funny pipe for placement of the heads after we did the curbing. The machine they use for the curbing is quite ingenious and it runs about 2.40 per foot to have done. I think I need to buy one.

[Cruise Director]

I had a couple of big boulders brought in and placed with a forklift. If you were wondering, rocks sell for about 4 cents per pound here. Then I did some planting. All of my plants are desert tolerant and are on a low-gallonage drip system.

[Cruise Director]

Rock time! 15 cubic yards of rock is a LOT of rock to move. I liked the colors in this stuff and it goes really well now that the place is finished. My poor $49 wheelbarrow is on it's last leg after moving all of this rock.

[Cruise Director]

I watered my dirt to find the low spots, did a little bit more leveling and put down some sod. Just shy of 1400 square feet of it. It went down easy enough and the trick will be to keep water on it in the 90 degree heat. My house is built in some old alfalfa fields so the ground is really fertile and the grass should take off well.

Now it's time to sit back and ENJOY my yard!!!!

[Pianomahnn]

Cruise wins!!! :D

[skalie]

You live in Lover Lane?

[Cruise Director]

It's actually "clover" but one of the contractors duct taped over the "C." Kinda funny, eh?

[Torque]

Daaaang. That's great. I only got my side yard finished so far. It's good too see how landscaping varies so much across the country. That looks a lot like folks used to do when I lived in southern california, all the rocks that dont need watering. Thanks for providing detail in the post, too.

My boss got a bunch of that qwik-curb done, and he said he just stood and watched the machine in amazement for an hour or so. He was talking to the guy that runs it, and the guy wants to sell the business due to the fact he couldnt find anyone that could run the machine as well as him for anywhere near what he wanted to pay a guy.

Nice work, Cruise!

[Mudflap]

It looks great Cruise!

I'm gonna hafta fly you in so you can do my yard. You did a great job.

[Barbie]

That looks freeking awesome!!!

[Billyman]

I really, really like it Cruise and I’m in true admiration.

Not only because it looks great but the rock moving with a wheelbarrow is very impressive. At my old place I had purchased 17 tons of rock to “do” my flower beds, around every tree and all around the house. I have a dump trailer that is pulled behind my lawn tractor with a 1000 lb capacity. I loaded that thing to the hilt with each load….the tires often protesting the presents of the weight.

I moved rock for over 6 months and my back, arms and legs still remember the shoveling.

Nice man, real nice.