2012 Backyard Project

The plans for our backyard project had been materializing in hubby my minds for nearly two years. It's so great to finally see and feel the results of our thorough planning.

First, the before photo.



As much as we love the outdoors... We hardly ever stepped foot in our own backyard. When we wanted to sit outside, we sat on the front porch because the backyard never seemed inviting.

Don't get me wrong we have always loved our nice size backyard. But what we didn't like is that we had set of stairs which led straight down into the grass. Something we knew when we purchased the house we would want to change someday. There was not a patio or anywhere for outdoor furniture to sit just grass and more grass.

So we drew up plans that changed several times until we ended up with this... And even after our final drawing and 2 years of dreaming this up, we still changed some things!



Then we..
Got bids and lots of them.
Applied for a city building permit.
Hired a deck company to build our deck. Picked materials and how we wanted it constructed (screwed not nailed).
Hired a light specialist/ electrician to install our deck lighting. Decided on lighting fixtures and where we wanted them.
Hired a patio installer to install a stamped patio (picked a design and color).
Had our sprinkler company move our in ground sprinklers.
Hired a stone company to build us a seating wall and fire pit with drain.
Hubby installed lighting in the seating wall as it was installed.
Grass ended up a mess so we started building some landscaping beds to avoid looking at our dead grass until this fall when we had planned to work on the landscaping.
Decided to go ahead and plant one tree and install landscaping lights.
Hubby and I stained deck.
Oh and somewhere along the way we bought deck and patio furniture and shades for the deck.

After photos...












We have been enjoying the deck and patio and feel like we added a lot of living space to our home. We love every part of it! Looking forward to landscaping around it all this fall when the temperatures drop.

We are already dreaming up our next few projects... Master bathroom remodeling and in a few years a screened in porch off our formal dining room (which we planned this project around).

I hope everyone is having a productive summer like ours!