One of the benefits of home ownership is the ability to make choices about your home and land to fit your personality – without ever having to ask or clear it through anyone first.  Mike and I have really enjoyed making this “house” our “home” over the last few years, with numerous upgrades, tweaks, and remodels.  As someone who worked in apartment management, I loved the amenities of apartment living – landscaping being one of them.

After months of saying we “want to do something with the yard”  Mike and I finally hired a contractor last week to come in and remove everything to start with a clean slate and put in all new sod, plants, and landscaping.  It was absolutely one of the best choices we have made in a long time.

The first step was to kill what little bit was left back there.  Between having the wrong kind of grass installed to begin with and having several large dogs, the back yard had suffered.  Our landscaper put a chemical down that literally killed everything that was back there – grass, weeds, trees – you name it.  We were going for “blank slate.”

Within a few days it began to look like Wintertime back there, and certainly not like it was 90*+ with the sun shining every day.  Our yard looked “sad” to say the least, but I was excited about what was to come.   The guys came back and raked and bagged everything that was left back there.  It looked like a war zone.

The next week the guys came back – with SIX pallets of sod, like 20-something plants, and I dont even know how many bags of mulch.  Mike was out golfing all day and I had tons of coaching calls, so I left the guys to do their work.  Later I walked outside to see this:

We absolutely could not be more thrilled with how it turned out, and we are so excited to start hosting cookouts and get togethers in our beautiful new back yard.

When you are first buying your home and dealing with everything from Escrow to Lenders to mortgage insurance, the stress can be overwhelming.  But when you are sitting in your back yard, sipping a glass of Moscato, looking over everything that is so beautiful and knowing it is ALL YOURS… it makes it SO worth it.

This sponsored post was inspired by Genworth Financial. Opinions expressed are my own. For more information about home mortgage insurance visit the Genworth Financial website.