Back Yard Renovation

Shortly after Sean and I moved into our house, almost five years ago, our backyard was something we wanted to change. It had a wooden deck that collected leaves from the two Live Oaks like crazy (and animals lived under it... opposom for instance... GROSS) and it was surrounded by this lattice wall that I'm guessing was used by the previous owners to block the view from the levy behind our fence. Our first summer was a really, really rainy one and we discovered that we had serious drainage problems back there. It was like a swimming pool after even the slightest rain.

Little surprise we didn't spend a lot of time back there and now that we have Carson and we spend lots and lots of time at home, we want to actually use our backyard. Sean did most of the demo himself (including cutting down a tree and nearly cutting off his leg along with it), then we had a patio poured and drainage put in, along with new grass and landscaping. We LOVE it.

I don't have before pics from before he started the demo but I took some along the way and have several pictures of the finished project now that all the flowers and plants have started to bloom and the trees have leaves. When it was finished in December, it looked nice right away, but we really didn't get the full effect until this spring. The grass is greener everyday!



It seems as though I've just snuck in a picture of my cute (CHUBBY?!?!) son, but this picture is the only one I can find of the old deck and lattice. And the terribly overgrown landscaping in the corner.





Here you can see the TERRIBLE drainage problems we had. This was after some of the demo, but it was like this before the deck was removed as well. And check out the worst fence ever.



Here's the prep work for the patterned concrete patio. You can see the large hole in the yard where Sean dug out the stump after he removed the tree. At first I didn't want to cut down the tree... but it proved to be a great decision. It opened up the yard and now we have actual sunshine back there!









And after the patio was completed... already a major improvement. And now for the landscaping, grass, and fence!! (I should have taken some pictures as they were putting the drainage system in... the entire yard was dug up. It took a team of 4 men 3 days to complete it all. Here are the pictures from December...











And now, for some pictures I took a few days ago...





I love my little red tree.





Leaves!! So exciting!



Love these little flowers... I have no idea what they're called, but they sure are cute!



Love this plant too... so FUN!

Sean and I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. At the end of this summer we're going to hunt for some outdoor furniture that's on sale, so for now we're just using the old table set. The grass is already quite a bit greener than it is in these pictures... I'll have to take some more pictures later...

Our azealas in the front yard were better than ever this year!





I really love this time of year in Texas. It's gorgeous. Love, love, love spring!