We’ve come a long way since moving into our house in August 2019. When COVID hit in 2020 and we slowly started realizing we wouldn’t be going anywhere that summer, we decided to use our money towards updating the backyard. The backyard was on our to-do list but we were going to wait a couple years before we tackled anything.
We live on a corner lot and the way our house is set up makes us have a large front yard with a narrow backyard and a side yard. It is small but if set up correctly, you could still get a lot of use out of it. When we first looked at it, that’s what I saw- the potential to take what seemed like a small, non-functional backyard into an inviting and functional backyard.
In April 2020, we started the first phase of backyard renovations by removing a huge tree right in the middle of the biggest part of our backyard. The tree was so large they called it a quad tree because there was one giant trunk with four, full sized trees. That was a full days job since it was not the easiest to get to and they couldn’t use a crane or bucket due to the location. Once that tree was removed, it freed up so much space.
Now that the tree was removed, we sat on the backyard being like that for a bit before moving on to the next phase. We took the rest of the spring and some of the summer months to get some furniture for the deck and think of some design ideas we liked for the backyard. I met with our landscaper to discuss some ideas and gave him the sketch I created of how I wanted the hardscaping and landscaping to be.
My idea was to remove the concrete pad that was off of the deck, add in a walkway from our fence, a rounded patio with a fire pit, and a seating wall. We would have sod replace the area where the concrete pad was and also add in some sod along the walkway when coming in from the fence gate. Our backyard was all stone and had very twig like landscaping so I wanted to bring in some greenery and softer feeling plants. He also had the idea to put some small, gray stone along the foundation of the house (so the sod wouldn’t butt right up to the house) and replace the brown stones on the other side of the deck with the same gray ones. We discussed the type of plants I liked but also let him choose what would be best for our backyard given the soil and the amount of sunlight we get. I am NOT good with plants and flowers so the easier to maintain, the better!
He gave us some catalogs to look through to decide on materials and set us up with some quotes. I wanted to stick to more of a gray stone with texture to it rather than brown or tan colors. We ultimately went with Belgard Catalina slate in the sable blend. We mixed those pavers with the Brookshire fire pit and seating wall, also in sable blend. We finalized everything at the end of August and they would begin in the fall.
The landscaping that was decided on was 1 magnolia ‘little gem’ that sits in the corner behind the seating wall. Assorted hydrangea paniculatta, that are mainly placed along the fence, surrounding the fire pit area, and some along the side of the house. They also added in hosta plants along the edging of the patio and walkway where the mulch is because they are great shaded perennials. We still have a good amount of trees in our backyard and around our yard so it is mostly shade. PS- our puppy, Quigley has bitten off almost all the leaves of a majority of the hostas….yes, I’m rolling my eyes. We also added in one more arborvitae near the other ones that were already there to kind of complete the look and line of them a bit more.
The stones came in at the end of the fall when most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees. I tried to get some nice photos but the dead trees don’t really make it that exciting to look at and the brand new landscaping obviously had not grown yet. Now that everything is blooming and the look of it all is all together, Quigley of course had to make our beautiful sod look like a nightmare. This is clearly real life and not made just for photos, but we will be replacing the sod at some point!
We wanted to make sure we did our hardscaping and landscaping right, and right the first time, so we are so glad we hired a professional for our backyard renovation! We still have some more updates we would like to make before it is really complete. We can’t do too much to the backyard given the space but we want to update the deck a little and it needs a good staining. We will be getting a new fence for the back side of the house and extending where the other gate is so Quigley can use that less used space rather than the regularly used spot by the walkway. We will most likely DIY those to-do’s since they are a little easier than the rest of the work we had done!
While this process was not over night, the before and after photos really make me realize how major of a transformation this was and how functional and beautiful it all is now!
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