under the big tree.

Remember the construction fence that was around the big chestnut in front for about three years (two before we moved in)? Andrew and his labour crew transformed it.

Look at the size of that tree!

I was a bit late for "before" pics, but you can see the orange fencing off to the left. (Fifi is excellent  at farmer poses.)

First, we put down some soil and sod, which I scrounged off a landscaper working in the neighbourhood (just asked if he had any to spare, which he did). 

Turned out the soil was from a certain "medicinal plant" farm as evidenced by the many little full-grown surprises we found in it. Which we sold to help offset some of our costs. Kidding. We chucked it. The soil was sure rich though! (BTW, this is NOT the same soil piled in front of our house that we're now giving away!)

Yippee! Summertime! Sprinkler and a little strip of grass on the boulevard!

Ugh. Before.

After the fun, Andrew started to clean up around the tree so we could do some planting. He took an axe to some of those roots. (caught your good side with that camera angle there, Andrew!)

 

The crew helped out.

Nice!

Gathering rocks from the excavation.

starting to look good...

rock border

Starting to look even better!

Plant some flowers.

Honestly, we did not force the girls to do all this work. They love it! 

Especially shopping for plants!

Water 'em in.

et voila!

Andrew working so hard!

Andrew has really been burning the candle: out there every night straight after work and often until past midnight. ...He's re-discovered muscles he forgot he had.

A lot of digging by hand.

In fact, a whole bin full!

There was a lot excess soil on this property!

...and when the new turf soil and topsoil arrived (woo-hoo!)

...he dug that in by hand too. Lots of shovelling!

He also dug up a lot of rocks!

Two pallets of sod arrives! 

Yay, Dad!

(These girls always manage to have fun!)

Excavation

Anyone who's walked by knows things have transformed since these pics, though it really was only a few days ago we were at this stage.

I'll post a bunch of pictures to give you a sense of the drama: a small space with tons (literally) of excess soil to be removed.

The digger is delivered to much fanfare!

Woo-hoo. (Our house is second from the end.)

What a scene!

Jake. Excavator extraordinaire! Highly recommended. Polite, friendly, efficient, honest, skilled, resourceful, energetic. 

Tons of soil (about 20?) left piled in the back by previous owners from their excavating for extension and drainage (also two huge stumps, a third was removed by Andrew!).

Mountains of soil.

All gone! Plus a rectangle dug deeper for patio base.

The basement space under the porch was also full of soil! (?!) Wall had to come down and soil dug out from there too. Aigh.

We're going to put in a concrete floor and use the space for bike storage.

We decided we might as well have the front yard scraped off while we were at it.

Treasures were unearthed. (No gold or anything... just some prehistoric plastic toys.)

Many large rocks too!

Most of which we saved for a rock wall in the front.

Three bins full of soil!!

                            

Nothing like a digger and a pile of dirt to bring out the neighbourhood kids.

Business as usual. Off to gymnastics camp.

To get the playhouse out of the way, resourceful Jake tied a strap around it and picked it up with his digger.

I include a video of that for your viewing pleasure.

The girls watching from the now-inaccessible back door.

Random picture. Beautiful selfie. 

(btw, sorry for the quality of the photos. My camera's broken and I've been using my phone, which takes terrible pictures.)

I see a red door and I want it painted black.

I know it wasn't quite red, but I can't get that song out of my head. 

before.

I applied a second coat yesterday, and our little worker bees removed the tape, and voila!

after

Alas, it's only the door. Looking forward to getting the whole thing painted next year.