What's the grade

Last week we saw the siding get finished.  This week, another huge milestone - rough grading.  Here's what the grading looked like before:

As you can see, the door was just kind of floating in space - not particularly convenient, unless you have Go-Go-Gadget Legs, which I (unfortunately) don't, so...

This is a much better representation of how the driveway and door will connect.  There will be a lead walk that will be just about the same level as the driveway and it will connect to a stoop that will be one step down from the door.  Here's what it looks like from the garage side:

Getting the grading done to this point was a big deal because it means we can get our utilities connected.  Can I get a hip-hop-hooray for electricity?  As you can see on the right side of the pic, the yard also got graded.  For the first time, here's roughly what the view from our patio will be:

Welcome to our yard!  I'm standing outside our patio doors looking back toward the driveway.  See how important that retaining wall is to our development plan?  The kids spend a ton of time outside playing, so one of the goals of our planning was to have flat shady yard space for them.  The flat part was made possible by the retaining wall.  The shady part is thanks to the house itself, and that big oak tree that we saved (in part by building the retaining wall around it).  Here's what the yard space looks like from the top of the retaining wall:

There's still some final grading to do, but it won't be all that much different from what we're looking at above.

We have big, fun plans for the patio - I can't wait to be able to share that with you - and invite you over for the perfect margarita  :D

Bye for now,
TJ
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