“Yikes! The yard!” Probably one of the first things that would run through your head if you walked into the backyard of the new place when we got it. Have no fear, a plan to upgrade is in the works. First step: out with the old. Easier said than done though…

In an effort to save some time, we outsourced the “demolition” of the old plants to some extent. We cut down the 5 foot tall grass on the back hill ourselves but the trees and shrubs were all taken out by the pros. Once we had a clean canvas, out came the shovels, pick-axes, leveling lines, and 6000 lbs of sand, gravel, and top soil. Lets not forget the bricks for the nearly 750 linear feet of retaining wall – the big project for the 4th of July weekend. Mom came out to visit and we quickly put her expertise to work.

Saturday was a good day of work; the shovels broke the soil, sand was easily leveled and the wall came up. By the end of the day we had put in most of the first wall. Sunday we took a break from the work, did some exploring down in San Diego that included amazing fish tacos at Pt Loma Seafood and the usual amazing cup of joe at Cafe Calabria. Finished the night off with a fun evening of food, drinks, and fireworks in the city so nice, the Coaster stops there twice!

Monday was certainly not a fun-day! Up in the morning with intentions of finishing the second wall, we quickly discovered that the soil was impenetrable to shovels. After hacking at the hill for an hour with the pick-axe, Phil decided a jack-hammer would be the best tool for the job. A quick trip to Home Depot and we were back in business. In six hours of jack-hammering we managed to cut the base layer for the second wall and lay a few bricks. This was destined to be a two weekend project it seems. Now if we could only find another free weekend to finish it…