Backyard Reveal!!

....and now finally, here it is! Pictures of our new backyard!!

Here are some photos of Sophie helping her Popo Carlos lay the sod!

We put in a new "Mr. Lincoln" rose tree and we were blessed by a sweet mockingbird, who made a nest there! She laid two eggs but only one of them hatched. It was really awesome watching the baby bird grow up and fly out of his nest. The little bird grew up VERY quickly too!! I was really surprised at how fast it grew.

This is the view looking out onto the yard from our dining room. It really is a dream come true to finally have a lovely lush lawn, instead of rough, dusty rocks and annoying weeds!!

We are really loving our bougainvilleas! It's so lovely to have such a beautiful pop of color!

Now we continue our stroll down the sidewalk and towards the shed and playground!

I love that we have this play set for the kiddos! I will admit however that the sand is so messy!!!! The kiddos LOVE it; Mommy not as much, hehe.

Off to the side of the shed, we have a little garden guest :0)

now to my favorite spot!...I love the flagstone floor, it reminds me of home sweet home -San Antonio!

I'm still trying to find the perfect table for the gazebo, we do put up a folding banquet table for bbq's. Also, growing up each leg of the gazebo are "Joseph's Coat" climbing roses...can't wait until the roses grow nice and tall!!

Down at the end of the yard is a fountain, a very lovely and calming focal point.

This part of the yard is my favorite! It feels park like, which is what I was picturing in my mind when I designed it.

I remember standing out here amongst all the rocks, closing my eyes and pretending that I was surrounded by grass instead....Thank you Lord for my yard! 

and finally the view looking back towards the house from under the gazebo. This photo was taken before we put that monstrous  play set together!

I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did :0)

Thanks for stopping by my humble blog, God bless.

Just to refresh your memory here is what it used to look like:

*phew*

Our Backyard Pt: 4

Irrigation:

We decided to use something called netafim to water our grass...It uses half the water and there is less water waste because it waters from underneath the turf! Sher and I were so excited to come across this product.

Here is a video on youtube to show how it is installed.

The tubing goes underneath the turf and delivers water to the roots of the grass. It has actually been around for quite some time and is widely used in Israel. 

Here are some photos of the process:

A layer of soil goes down, then the netafim system, followed by another layer of top soil and then the sod is placed upon that. 

It costs a little more than your traditional sprinkler system but we are thrilled to be using less water for our grass..thus saving water and money in the long run.

Up next I'll share some photos of our completed yard!! It's truly a dream come true!! It's so surreal to look outside and see what has been in my head for so many years. We are so excited to actually have a yard now  instead of a rock and weed cemetery, hehe!! 

My Mom had hip replacement surgery on Monday so I promise to return with the photos as soon as I can! Thanks so much for dropping by! God bless.

Our Backyard Pt: 3

Concrete Curbing

We decided to use concrete curbing to seperate the different areas in the yard. For example, under the tree we will have rocks and on the other side of the curbing will be our lovely grass!

Here is the view from the "rose wall" side of the yard, looking onto the play area and future shed.

The view from the "rose wall" looking towards the house.

Gazebo

We chose to use sand in the play area and will be putting in a playhouse/swing set for the kiddos!

Here is little Miss Sophia enjoying her brand new, fluffy sand!!! 

Our Backyard Pt: 2

Next on the to do list was all the flat work! This was so exciting to watch unfold because we woke up without sidewalks and went to bed with lovely brand new sidewalks!!

This is the patio extension

The view looking back into the yard from our patio

We also removed the old spa that never worked! Now we have a nice place to BBQ and hang out.

Here we have the platform for our future shed.

Stairs and sidewalk leading to the playground.

This is where the gazebo will sit, with  flagstone flooring and climbing roses at each of it's legs!

Coming up next will be the concrete curbing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Backyard

We have been dreaming for a long time to turn our ugly backyard into a beautiful place. A place where the kiddos can run free and let their imaginations run wild....

This is what our backyard started out as, these are actually how it looked when we bought our home.

...a wasteland of rocks and weeds!

Here are more pictures of what we started with...the bushes in this picture are deceiving! When you actually stand next to them they are a good 5 -5 1/2 feet tall!

We put the gazebo in place to make sure we liked it, before setting everything in concrete.

 The year before Sher built the retaining wall you see in this photo, it was a monster  of a project- each block weighing 60 lbs.!

I'm so happy that we were blessed with some nice, shade producing trees in the backyard!

After drawing and redrawing up a plan for the yard about a billion different times, we finally settled on this: 

The items in white are what was already existing in the yard..

..And so this is how it all began, I was really TIRED of looking at our messy rock wasteland so I decided to take it upon myself and start working on the foundation for the gazebo.

During nap time I'd go outside and move a little bit of the rocks, until I had the area clear. I deal with fatigue and really low energy levels so it was quite a task for me, but I was so happy when I accomplished it!! We already had some flagstone in the yard so I brought them all to the gazebo to make sure I had enough for the patio floor.

Here you can kind of see the stones laying under the gazebo...this encouraged my husband Sher to come help me get more things done out there! The next thing we tackled was to build a small retaining wall to house a rose garden. 

After that came time to hire out for the concrete work! Those guys were awesome! They went by my drawing and laid out all of the forms..

patio extension

future shed

sidewalks

....Next I'll share how the concrete came out!