The Backyard Unveiled!

Every weekend for the past 2 months has been spent working on our backyard. Hubby was determined to have it completed by his birthday party, and we finished it (the day before ;)

As you step out the back door, this is the new view to the right. Where once there was nothing more than a mound of dirt and some weeds, we now have a Japanese Maple, one of the birdbaths, and lots of river rock. Hubby would have been more than happy to have let the rock end up in the bottom of the (former) pond, but I insisted on keeping it because I knew we'd use it elsewhere. So we hauled it all out of the pond and put it in a pile. Then we realized that the pile was in the way, so we moved it again. Which also ended up in the way, so it got moved again. But look! We did finally use it! Which of course required us to move it - again ;)



This is our new outdoor dining area. Originally we'd planned on having the table on the flagstones, but quickly found that it was nearly impossible to get everything level enough for our liking. We ended up spreading our pile of pea gravel between the flagstones and the lawn, and since it gets sun in the morning and is shaded in the afternoon, it turned out to be the perfect spot for the table. Eventually we'll get some more pea gravel to go in between the flagstones, so it'll all tie together.



And where once there was pond...



Yep - nearly all of that was under water just a few short months ago. Our yard feels SO MUCH bigger now - we love it! We built a berm along the back side and added plantings and some solar lights.

Hubby did a fabulous job of dismantling, redesigning, and rebuilding the new deck. We finally have a usable area (as opposed to the large, nicely curving original deck that was way too narrow to actually be used). I won't lie - it was a huge pain in the ass to reuse the old decking, but as we were doing this makeover on an *extremely* tight budget, it was totally necessary. We were lucky that the wood was still in great shape, or we wouldn't have a deck there ;)



Here's the much smaller, but more enjoyable pond and waterfall.



Hubby designed the deck so that it overhangs a portion of the pond, which also alows the fish a place to hide when raccoons and blue herons come for a snack. He built a small section in the front that can be removed in order to get to the pump and filter.

So there it is - our new backyard. The re-do has also doubled our garden area, so as soon as we get time, we'll be building more raised beds. But for now, we're just enjoying our yard :D