Landscaping

We found an amazing Landscaper, ELOC, thanks Melinda for the referral, and he has been turning our blah front yard into a piece of beauty. Even the gradeschoolers have been commenting and enjoying the new additions.

Here are a few pictures of what Dave and Kerry have done. I'll add the complete view when we are done.

Before

Weeds Removed

Prepping for the Stone Wall

Throwing Gravel for driveway

Gravel on Driveway

Pavers Started

Driveway 90% done

Fire Pit Prep

Fire Pit waiting to be compacted. We'll have built-in benches as well.

Walkway joining back patio and side walkway

A few plants

Plants for the island

West Side

I wanted a Japanese Laceleaf Maple and here it is :)

View from the street

Fun topiary

A Coral Bark Maple. The bark turns coral color the cooler the weather is.

The island with some trees

East Side

It's Official!!!

We are now the proud owners of a parcel of land. The escrow went through this morning. Here are a few pictures of our land. We are planning on razing the current home and building a new home in five to six years. The land is .42 of an acre and located next to an elementary school. We actually share our side border with the school's field.
There are grapes that have been invaded by blackberries, an apple tree and a plum tree. With the purchase of our land, we've also become landlords.

The Bidding Game

Reed has been wanting to purchase some land for us to build a home within the next seven years. Unfortunately, land is pretty hard to come by within the city limits. We wanted to find half an acre to a full acre, but don't want to be further than a 20 minute drive to Reed's work. I started to look at parcels a few weeks ago and got frustrated that I couldn't find anything which met our needs and wants. After several failed attempts, we turned to a Real Estate Broker, Hank, who has been wonderful. He found several properties. After narrowing them down to about seven, Reed, Ms. A and I went for a drive. We liked two of them. We walked the property with the owners and Hank on Friday. The owners would be our next door neighbors and they were very nice. Plus, it's next to an elementary school and it is scheduled to have sidewalks put in right around the time we will build. There are several great things about the area. I also discovered we have several friends from our former ward that live around us. I liked the location of other one better, but we decided to place a bid for this one. It was more land and in a great neighborhood as well.

Today, we signed the financial documents and placed the bid. Now we need to wait for their reply/counter offer. We'll see how this goes. :) Wish us luck!