We Have Germination and More Progress

We have germination!

A week or so ago, I finished installing that stone pathway between the back door to the house and the outdoor grilling kitchen area we are in the process of building. Upon completion of laying the all the stone, I sprinkled down some grass seed so we could grow some nice grass between the stones (as opposed to weeds) like our other stone pathway going to the back door. 

When I cut the lawn yesterday, I noticed that the grass seeds had germinated already!

Before long, the stone path will look like it has been there forever. We still have plenty of big plans for the back yard but it already looks nothing like it did when I moved here. The landscaping, just like the house, has come a long way in a few relatively short years.

The weather was nice this morning... sunny and not too warm... so I decided to make some more headway on the part of the project where I lay the patio blocks for the grilling kitchen area.

Area cleared, leveled, tamped and ready for patio blocks...

This entailed removing a lot of weeds...  leveling in one direction... pulling out more weeds... leveling in the opposite direction... pulling even more weeds and small rocks... leveling on a diagonal... pulling out more debris... leveling in the opposite diagonal... then a final leveling with a slight grade for water runoff. Then I tamped it all down.

That was the hard part... very tedious!

With that hard part behind me, I started laying patio blocks. I have two colors of blocks so I decided upon a dark rectangle on the inside with a lighter border. It looks nice...  and it will look even nicer when there is a small U-shaped kitchen and grill on top of it!

It is coming along nicely though! 

Next up... building the roof structure...

(Right now, my spine is killing me... I think the next few days will be quiet days as I recover.)

The big grill will be on the right over that larger
side of the light colored border... that
Kenmore grill is a monster!