Thursday, September 18, 2008

Extreme Backyard Makeover

This is what our yard looked like in April 2008. The yard sloped down towards the house which meant that all winter (fall and spring too) the grass/dirt area right next to the house was always wet and swampy. I can only imagine what it looked like under the house.
This is our backyard today. Pretty nice, eh? We had the slope of the yard graded (notice the bottom of the fence in the before and after shots to see how much dirt was removed.) We installed a French drain, had a patio poured, installed paver pathways and a sprinkler system, planted a bunch of plants including 3 blueberry bushes and a cherry tree and planted a lawn (which is still filling in).

One of my favorite features in the yard is this new spigot which is much closer to our vegetable garden beds so I won't have to drag the hose all the way across the yard every time I want to water.

Robert and I kind of talked about a good way to improve the look of a spigot sticking straight up out of the ground and this is what we came up with. I love it.

There are still a few things we want to do. We will spread bark dust in the plant beds and we want to put in another gate, add a basketball hoop, and of course, I think I need a sweet patio set. Most of those things will probably wait until next year though. It's time for us (mostly Robert) to stop working and enjoy our new, beautiful backyard.

4 comments:

Erika said...

WOW, what a huge improvement. Yards take so much work and money, but isn't it so worth it?

Gwen said...

Ooo la la. Good work. It looks great.

Heather said...

This is truly amazing. It gives me hope for our yard. :) (When the time comes, we may have to call on you for advice on the French drain.) Great job & we can't wait to see it in person.

Debbie said...

Yipee! And it's mole free?

Did you ever catch another one? Or was it just the one that was doing all of that?