The Backyard

Our house was a short-sale when we purchased it.  Built in 1998, the original owner sold it to an invester in 2004, who used it as a rental.  At the turn of the housing market and when we were in the market to buy, the house sat vacant for almost 18 months. 

The neighborhood eyesore from the yard alone, a house empty for that long is sure to fall in a state of disrepair.  Fortunately (and surprisingly), when we took ownership, the house itself was in pretty good condition.  The previous tenants had dogs, so the carpet was gross, but all the appliances still worked, fixtures were in tact and general state left us with a clean slate to do whatever we wanted without having to do major overhauls.

Let me remind you that our home is on a 12,000 square foot lot, and while we have a large front yard, we also have a mighty big back yard.  Imagine how great that looks when it's overgrown. 

Before:

Check out those weeds!  Some were almost 5 ft tall!

After:

Nice huh?  Observe the nice grassy corner beyond the fencing.

Who doesn't love a yard with the waist-high weeds.

And after all the junk, random fencing and forest were removed.

Side yard and RV gate.

Cleared, mowed and watered. 

There's also a wood play-yard w/ swings/slide for our daughter just to the right of the AC unit.

Corner of lot (pool is to right)

The corner now

Well, we're finally calling on a designer to help us with some landscaping and patio extension ideas.   What we do know is we want a built-in bbq and a putting green.  Beyond that, we're clueless.

While not adding to the house or altering the enclosed patio, we'd like to extend a patio to the corner of the picture you see above.  Remove the planter, build a bbq/seating area there and work our way out toward the pool using pavers, flagstone, or whatever.  Again - clueless.

It helps to have friends with clues.