The Chaos Phase…
At this point, things escalated quickly.
What started as “a few landscape beds near the house” somehow turned into trailers full of stone, ENDLESS wheelbarrow trips, pathways, retaining walls, and a backyard covered almost entirely in landscape fabric.
Apparently transforming a half-acre lawn into habitat requires moving approximately one million pounds of rock by hand! 😄
Since we’re doing everything ourselves — from selecting stone and loading trailers to hauling materials across the yard one wheelbarrow at a time — progress has been a mix of excitement, exhaustion, creativity, and occasional questioning of our own sanity.
At this stage, the backyard looked less like a habitat and more like a landscaping crime scene.
But slowly, the vision started taking shape.
Somewhere Between Vision & Chaos!!!
Around this same time, that pool thing that started the ball rolling?… it happened.
Pool construction finally began.
So while I was at work during the day, James was outside building pathways, hauling rock, planting, shaping beds, and slowly trying to bring the landscape vision to life while excavation, forming, and construction equipment started taking over the backyard.
At one point, it felt like we were simultaneously building a habitat, a pool, and what looked like a combination construction site and ecological experiment!!
Dirt, Decisions & Questionable Confidence!
Pool design and installation by Anthony & Sylvan Pools
This Was ALWAYS the Goal 🤍🌿
Signs of Life…
Rock, Sweat & No Regret
Tiny Wins! 🤍
As chaotic and exhausting as this phase of the project was this was also the point where everything started feeling real.
The pathways began connecting spaces. The blooms started bringing in bees and butterflies. The pool finally came to life. And somewhere between the wheelbarrow trips, rock piles, construction equipment, and late-night landscaping sessions, the backyard started becoming more than just a project.
It started becoming an experience.
At the time, I still wasn’t fully convinced James might actually be right about the whole native plant thing.
That lesson came later… right around the time winter arrived and nature made its opinions very clear.
Continue the story → Survival of the Fittest🌼
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