The Final Grade is FINALLY done!

First off, can I just say how thankful I am that I am no longer looking at piles of dirt surrounding our house??? LOL- seriously! Last Tuesday (4/28/09) the builder sent out the company they use to finish our final grade. We literally had NO idea when they would arrive to do this job because it depending on the weather, and since it had been so wet, we figured it may not get done until May sometime. And the day they showed up it was SUPPOSED to rain- thank goodness it didn't! The one gentleman who was here with the bulldozer arrived around 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday and worked until 6:00! I only saw him take a break for lunch and a couple of phone calls through the whole day- he got a lot done! On Wednesday he returned to finish a few spots that he didn't get to on Tuesday and then his brother was hauling in a couple loads of gravel for the drive up to the garage. We weren't home most of the day on Wednesday, so when we got back and saw the yard and the driveway, we were thrilled to see the final results of all that work! We can actually drive our vehicles into the garage now, and stepping outside the basement doors allows us to step right out into the yard without stepping down anymore. The same can be said for going out the side door from the garage. It's a beautiful thing to NOT see piles of dirt surrounding the house. Now to get grass seed down and get the yard established... But for now- here are a few pictures of the final grade that is DONE:

This is looking to the right of the garage... notice the big piles are gone! Also notice that we have tree limbs to cut down at the edge of our property, too...

This is looking directly at the house from the "established" part of the yard. Directly in front of me is dirt that was pushed around from a pile that was on the left of the picture- now it just makes the (dirt) yard more even!

This view is to the left of the house. There were at least two huge piles of dirt on this side- now if you look close enough, you can actually see the sand mound- it's that strip of green along the left side at the base of the trees. I just noticed that these pictures don't have the finished gravel in the drive going up to the garage... Guess I forgot to take those pictures off my camera. Either way, this is pretty much DONE here!

This poor little toad happens to be a "casualty of war" from the grade being finished. I went out to move my car so some dirt could be pushed up near the garage and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye... turned out to be this toad. Yes, he is alive in this picture- but I'm certain he didn't last for much longer that day. You see, he wasn't moving very fast, nor would he ever hop again- he lost his left rear leg during the bull-dozing, and his right leg was pretty scratched up as well. Not to mention he could barely move his left front leg, either. I felt so bad for this little guy, but what can you do?? It's not like you can give warning to all the little creatures that are in a yard when it come time to move dirt... So- RIP, little toad... sorry you had to endure that trauma!!

Hopefully the next time I post the yard will be GREEN! As it is now, we still have to buy some grass seed! The good thing is, though, it goes on sale on Wednesday, so we should be able to get enough to seed the yard by this weekend! And then we'll have to start mowing... ah- the joys of "country" living! 'Til next time... take care! Oh- and watch out for them toads...