Today, I am thankful for our backyard. Yep…that’s right, I’m thankful for a yard.
When we were house-hunting six years ago, we looked at many houses. We had a list of “features” we really wanted in a home and one of those features was a good backyard. When we saw this house the first time, we saw potential in the yard. It had a play “fort” out in the backyard, so, naturally, Mickey was all over it immediately. It wasn’t the perfect yard, but it had potential and we liked it. The yard was one key factor in our deciding to buy this house.
We’ve been here six years now and the yard has undergone transformations in these years. The rough version of the play fort has now become a nice play fort that has a play set attached to it. We have a trampoline that the girls just love! (Don’t worry, it has an enclosure and they are super safe on it.) A couple of years ago, we had our deck rebuilt and that added to the cool factor of our backyard too. We’ve had trees taken out which provided more space. And, just this summer, our yard underwent probably the greatest changes to date. You see, we used to have this “gully” in our backyard that even had bridge built over it by someone who lived here prior to us. The gully came about because apparently building materials were buried when construction was completed. Over time, those materials broke down and the ground sunk in as a result. That gully has always been an eyesore for us. Well, this summer we had dirt brought in to fill the gully and then had “Bobcat” work done to level that area and some of the sloping that leads down to our driveway. Then, we finally got to put in some sod. Grass in our backyard…at long last!! Yay!! We did just a portion of the front part of the yard. This gives the girls a place to play. I can’t even begin to describe how much I like the new look out there. It’s so cool to me! And, if that wasn’t cool enough, Mickey and Macey bought bricks and built us a new fire pit just beyond the sodded area. Then, they graveled around that area. Again…way cool!!
So, it’s not at all a stretch for me to be thankful for our backyard. It has gone from being mostly dirt and trees with potential to a family-friendly hang-out place. We have hosted parties in our yard and have gotten to fire up a couple of nice bonfires already. It’s great! Not only can we play and relax back there, but we can hang out too. And, for that, I’m thankful. 🙂
I don’t have any really recent photos of the yard, but here is a shot looking from the deck out toward the play fort not long after the sod was installed:
For comparison, here is a “before” shot from a couple of years ago:
And, here is a shot where you can see some of the great fire pit that Mickey and Macey built for us. This was taken right before Macey’s soccer team came over for a bonfire party.
Hope you all have a blessed day!
Kelly