Yesterday the weather finally cooperated enough for us to get our rough grading done. The grading project which began on April 7 and ended on April 30, really only took 4 days of grading work. Unfortunately, we go so much rain in April that 4 days of work had to be spread over the whole month.

To see what the yard looked like before the grading check out my earlier post. Here's the pictures of the completed grading:

Front yard:


Back yard (side view):


Back yard (looking down the hill):



In the front yard, the excavator brought up the dirt around and house and fixed the grade so that water will run away from the house and out of the front yard. He also added a bunch of topsoil that he found on the lower portions of the lot. Although it's not "black dirt", it is much better looking dirt than the clay he used to build up the grade.

In the back we have a hill which we were expecting. The excavator used dirt from a hill on a lower section of the lot to build up a flat area just outside the back of the house. The result is that we now have 40-50ft of flat land outside the back of the house, and the hill where he got the dirt from has also been leveled off. On the hill, the excavator did a great job of smoothing it out and making the grade consistent. I attempted to measure the grade of the hill last night using non-precise methods. One measurement came in at 12 degrees inclines and another came in around 9 degrees. So I'm estimating that we have roughly a 10 degree grade overall on the hill. The hill itself is about 100ft long if you walk from top straight down to bottom. The width of the hill pretty much runs the length of the back yard so it is 120ft+ wide. At the bottom of the hill, the excavator smoothed out a nice large flat area and fixed the grade to keep water flowing down the lot to the stream.

Overall, we are really pleased with the way it turned out. We were slightly concerned that the flat area at the bottom of the hill would get too soggy, but the excavator says the water should run off. We've been down there before after a rain and it seemed no worse off than other areas, so I think we'll be OK. The next step is to have someone with a tractor and a disc break up the dirt and get it ready for planting. Unfortunately, the forecast is calling for more rain, so who knows when that will get done.