For the last three weeks we have been very busy transforming our backyard. The idea was to just get a new firepit for our backyard but like many projects do, it took on a life of its own and we are so happy with the results (even if it required A LOT of work!!)
Here was our backyard before (this picture was from the summer of 2010, just after we bought the home and had the patio put in...including our cheap yard-sale-find patio table!!)
The nasty grass was a result of a severe drought that summer. Thankfully it has grown in considerably in the last 3 years...
Stage 1 of backyard transformation...
I dug out all the sod around the perimeter of the patio and for the actual firepit area and then had to level it out since our yard slopes a bit on the side. Talk about manual labor!!
After digging and leveling for two weeks, we bordered everything with landscape timbers, put in the firepit and then laid some gravel. Add in some red chairs for a pop of color and things were starting to take shape...
We finished this portion on a Saturday afternoon and that evening we broke it in with our first fire and invited two other families over for marshmallow roasting and s'mores!!
The next week our mulch order was delivered and we bordered the edge around the patio with some more landscape timbers to provide some continuity to the whole project. We also added some plants to finish off the transformation. (And yes, that is the same patio table from 3 years ago, just spray painted and new cushions added. I like it so much better now!)
In the corner we let the kids pick out some flowers so they could have their very own flower box to care for throughout the summer...
Our final touch were some solar-powered tiki torches in each of the four corners of the firepit area. These come on and flicker each night and they look awesome (plus we don't have to worry about catching somebody's hair on fire!!)
I came up with the idea myself, drew it all out, and did about 95% of the work. Jason was a bit skeptical about how it would all turn out but he was very excited to see that my vision of a "backyard retreat" wasn't so crazy after all. It seemed to take forever to get it all done, but I seriously LOVE how it all turned out and we have already had many evenings enjoying the fruits of our labors!!
2 comments:
That is SO awesome!! Way to go designing it yourself and basically doing it all by yourself. It looks REALLY good.
Wow, Dadra! Impressed with your skills and that you did most all of it. I love a girl who just gets in there and does it! I love the idea of a firepit to have people over with.
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