Our Backyard Renos

Dear Em,
We've had a few outdoor projects underway, & I'm so excited to reveal to you some of the results! When we moved in, there was a little, red stained deck attached to the back of our house. We had just enough space to put Daddy's grill & squeeze a patio table & chairs. The little deck also included a couple benches to sit on, & it was fine for us when we first moved in.

Before: Our deck without anything on it

Before: Our deck with patio set & grill

Before: Our yard with large bush

I started to hate the deck for a number of reasons. First, it was a lot of maintenance. We had to rent a sander & sand it down before refinishing it frequently. The new stain was supposed to last 3 years, but it looked awful after just a year. The screws that they had used to build the deck began to rust & the wooden boards began to splinter. It was pretty clear that the whole deck was going to need to be replaced.

It also didn't give us a whole lot of space to do anything more than grill & eat & sit. We have a lot of outside activities. Each time Daddy mowed the lawn, he would have to move our fire pit & Adirondack chairs & everything else off the grass. Then it was a hassle to move everything back. It was getting clear that our yard would be more usable if we had a bigger space to put our things on.

Lastly, there were two small, prickly red bushes at the end of or deck. They weren't particularly nice looking & they made it so we could never walk around the backyard barefoot. In essence, we had this big, amazing yard, but it wasn't incredibly usable. The deck was a big part of the problem, & this past fall I began dreaming of ways we could make our yard more user friendly.

I made pinterest boards & talked to friends & families about ideas. I got quotes from a few different places. I made diagrams. Finally, I had to talk Daddy into what I knew would be our new dream backyard. It took him a little while to get onboard with my vision (he has trouble picturing things), but once he was onboard I was ready to get started.

My diagram

We tore out the big bushes that took up space in the middle of our yard & planted grass seed. We relocated our sea grass. We hired East Coast Concrete to put in a new stamped concrete patio. I would highly recommend them to anyone who is looking to put in any type of concrete structure. They came early. They stayed late. They tore out our existing deck structure & prickly red bushes. They brought a cool cement truck to our house. They gave us everything we asked for & more...& they finished on time!!!

The view from our back doors after the deck was taken out.

We love our new patio!!!

I'm so excited for our summer nights at the fire pit & eating meals outside.

The lawn...pay no attention to the lawn. The cement truck put divots (that have been filled with loam) on half the lawn, & we still have a mostly dirt circle where our bushes used to be...but grass is already starting to sprout in those areas. The lawn stills needs some work. But all we need is a little time, sunshine, water, & a little more grass seed.

To me, our backyard is starting to look like what you see in Home & Garden magazine photos (minus the lack of grass). I can't wait for all the precious moments we will share there.

I love you so,

Mommy