Operation Ugly Yard Overhaul Part I: Clearing the Mess.. right side of yard

What happens when you buy a house in the middle of the winter and the yard is covered with snow? You get one hell of a surprise when it melts! And for us, it was a very unpleasant surprise... WARNING... the next image might hurt the eyes! OUCH!

So this is what we got, it is what I call 'the random plant and woodchip garden mess'. What the heck was this person thinking making this? So ugly! And it's okay, you can say our yard is f-ing ugly, because I agree, it is the ugliest yard I have ever seen! At first we wanted to hire someone to clear it and put in a new paver patio, but the frugal and DIY spirit got the best of us and we agreed to get to work! All we really wanted was a clear yard, just green grass and open space for our dogs to run and play in. We also needed to remove a section of the ugly chain link fence and those old clothes lines.

Below is another view, just random plants all over and like 20 hostas in the middle of the yard! WTF! So... we got shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, an axe, a sawzall, a garden hound, a weedwacker, yard waste bags, garden gloves... another shovel (because we broke one in half), another couple pairs of gardening gloves (because I had blisters on my hand), Tylenol, Excedrine, sunscreen, and a few... well lets be honest... lots of beer to get this job done and not kill each other.

And over the weekend... we managed to pull most of the plants we didn't want, and organize all of the dirt, woodchips, and waste into 3 GIGANTIC piles! WOW! I know everyone thought I was landscaping over the weekend... but I think we did light excavation work.

Here is another photo below of a pile, it helps show how much junk there was, these piles were about 3 feet tall and 3 yards in length. And we found random 4x4's in between weeds, we found a lot of weird stuff while digging, just glad we didn't find anything scary.

So what does someone do with tons of heavy yard waste? Too much for the city garbage to pick up, and too much to clear ourselves? Here is a tip... don't do this... Buring anything within 50 ft of your house is illegal, whoops! Well lesson learned and it didn't burn away enough to make a difference. So after lots of online research, I found that U Call I Haul was the right junk hauling company for us! They quoted us about $300 less than other junk hauling companies, and they were so nice!

WOW! I couldn't believe it when I saw just plain old dirt! It looked so glorious! We were so eager to put down top soil and plant grass.

Next blog to come... seeding grass... then clearing the OTHER side of the back yard, yes, more to clear, oh it's so much fun!