We moved into our Midwestern house during the cold month of December.  Not your typical moving season but we did it nonetheless.  This was one of the first wintry sunsets as seen from the back of our house.

A word to the wise though:  something could be hiding under all that snow!  Once spring hit and everything thawed, to our surprise we were left with this in our backyard…

Little did we know that our new backyard harbored a small marsh.  We jokingly started telling people that we lived on a lake. 

I think it’s quite ridiculous that the builder even sodded up to the marsh.  (Our home is a “spec” home which means it was complete at the time we purchased it.  We did not pick the lot or any house materials.)

According to our neighborhood developer, rain water was supposed to be draining down through the back of our yard into an adjacent neighbor’s yard outfitted with a drainage tile.  Obviously, that wasn’t happening. 

Other than the fact that it was an eyesore, it was also a breeding ground for mosquitos.  We wouldn’t let our boys play out back for fear of them getting eaten up by those bloodsuckers.  We went back and forth with the builder to fix the problem and eventually they did.  They built up the low spot (i.e. the swampy marshland) with topsoil and laid sod.

Much better.  Our kids can now play in their own backyard!

So, why am I telling you all this?  Well, we’ve had some major undertakings outside these past few weeks and I want to share them with you.  But I want you to know what we started out with first…a swampy, sunken backyard.  It’s taken us 3 springs to get our yard in order – not to mention a lot of water.  This week is devoted to showing you those changes.  Tomorrow’s feature will focus on the backyard again but we’ll get around to the front porch eventually!  Hang tight.