Last Week of Construction (Cross Fingers)

As some of you may have guessed after reading my Paleolithic regression over my new fire-toy, the Fabulous New Back Yard^TM is nearing completion. From a "macro" standpoint, the casual observer might think the only thing left is sod (and new patio furniture & bar stools, which are on order), although there are a lot of little things left to do in the background (or underground): plumbing the sink, putting in "light scaping", putting in new valves for the sprinkler system, etc.

This week all the plants (minus the sod) showed up, including 5 trees



When picking out my new trees, I used very scientific terms like "the one that blooms purple in the spring" (Jacaranda), "the pretty one that has white bark" (birch - two of these) and a red-purple flower tree that I had no input on, but which showed up anyway (and I still don't know what it is, but I got two of them). This is in addition to a plum, peach and citrus tree I already had, so I have good tree coverage, although the news one are sorta small so will take a while to really grow in.



In this pic you can also see the fountain, which is a really nice addition. For a sense of scale, the fence is just over six feet tall.

The components for the bar are all in, although the sink still needs to be hooked up:



The side of the house has been a nice surprise. If you look at the original diagram, this was not that well defined, but it has come together as a separate little patio area. I have been calling it the "secret garden", but the contractor calls it the BAC 0.2% area:



That's temporary patio furniture (some old stuff) in there, and we will replace this with a quaint little table and chair set for taking in morning coffee, or getting separated from the main party area to get that BAC up.