New Landscaping Project

The soil along the front of our house has always been too high up on the foundation and we've been concerned about rain water (if it ever rains again) flooding into the house like it did in the living room the year we moved in.  We asked our neighbor to dig it out and regrade it for us with his Bobcat, which he has done.

Since we have it all dug up, we (well, really *I*) decided that now is the time to do the landscaping that I've been wanting to do in the front yard.  Who wants a big ugly trench in their front yard?  So, while Meagan and I were shopping for wedding stuff in Dallas, Tom went through and pulled out a truckload of grass and old tree roots and smoothed out the whole area.

Then I laid out the line for the short retaining wall that we're going to build.  The ground slopes very slightly away from the house and away from the front walkway so that the water will drain away from the house and down the driveway.  I had envisioned a sharper slope, but that was not to be.

This is the other side of the walkway.  The water should drain out to the side yard and around back.

Next step is to level the ground where the bricks are so that we will have a nice level wall.