It’s been a little over a month since I took you on a virtual early spring back yard tour and shared the growing list of projects we want to tackle this year during the warmer months. Today I’m back with an updated yard tour and I’m excited to share with you some recent progress on the patio and the pond.
Backyard Tour
You can check out the original tour and see more about our goals for the backyard here. As you can see from the before and after photos below, we are making progress. We’ve planted some privacy shrubs along the fence and we’ve landscaped around the pond and patio area to balance all the hard surfaces.
The waterfall and stream are nearly complete as well as the pond. I’ll be sharing a full post about how we built our pond and stream in the coming weeks.
The Patio Progress
We started the patio two years ago. B fixed the drainage issue from the corner of the house and put in the small retaining wall that defines the patio area but that’s where we stopped. That’s around the time that B took on his new position and without a solid plan of what we wanted to do with the area, we weren’t motivated to make progress.
After tiring of the eyesore that it had become, we made a plan this year and I can’t believe how much better it looks already.
After deciding to build a pond, I just had to complicated it even more by adding in a waterfall and stream. We created the stream to start at the house and make it’s way through the patio area eventually dumping into the pond. The stream creates a natural division of the patio area making two distinct spaces.
The far side (on the other side of the stream) is to become a little sitting area with adirondack chairs, a small table and serve as a future spot for a hot tub. It’s tucked away behind our deck giving us maximum privacy from the neighbors. It’s a great little spot and with the waterfall, it’s going to be a favorite spot of mine this summer and fall for sure!
The side closest to the stairs from the deck will get concrete pavers and serve as the area for our small fire pit. It’s close to the deck but with the pit being so small and closed in, we don’t see an issue with anything catching on fire that shouldn’t. It’s also somewhat shielded from the neighbors giving us at least a little privacy when we want to sit out.
With the seating area side complete, I’m now getting anxious to complete the fire pit side. What a difference in our yard already.
Backyard Project List
- Take out the garden and move it to the back corner as a smaller area in beds.
- Plant some privacy trees / shrubs along both sides of the fence to add a little privacy from the neighbors.
- Add pond and water feature (Details on how we built our pond coming soon!)
- Add some landscaping to “pretty” the yard. (This task is partially complete but there is still more to do.)
- Finish the patio area with fire pit. (You can read about how we started this project here.)
- Add stone area with Adirondack chairs on the other side of the pond
- Add some fun lighting to the landscaping
- Install new siding on back of house and paint
- Build door for garden shed and paint entire shed
- Add Trim to corners and around openings on shed
- + more!
We are definitely making progress on the backyard and it’s been fun seeing the fruits of our labor. We still have a lot to tackle this summer but we want to be able to enjoy our hard work as well so we are pacing ourselves throughout the process.
I can’t wait to share with your some of the details about the projects we’ve completed so far. If you are willing to do some manual labor, the projects have really been quite simple to do. Stay tuned for details and more progress updates.
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