Backaryd Progress

Hi friends!  Apologies for being a little more silent than usual, but we've been a bit preoccupied with the progress of the backyard.  The pool has been complete for almost 2 months now but because of various reasons, we've had to put the landscaping on hold until this week.  The Decomposed Granite ("DG") has now been laid and the sprinklers are being installed today.  Sod goes in on Saturday and then after it's safe to walk on the sod we'll start the planting of shrubs, plants and trees. 

When we were designing the backyard it was very important to us to still have a good size grass area for the kids and dog, as well as for us.  Grass just seems to keep a yard cooler don't you think?  Which is why we placed the pool in the very far back corner of the yard so we could have grass going right up to the pool deck.  Another important factor was to limit the amount of concrete.  Our garage is detached and so we have a huge stretch of concrete driveway that already runs along the entire side of the backyard.  With this in mind, we chose Decomposed Granite for the patio, and around the fire pit.  We also made a winding pathway from the fire pit to the back of the pool to create some interest.

We love the rustic and natural element that the DG lends to the yard.  I love how a patio set looks resting in DG (reminds me of a lot of wineries we've visited).  Plus it's significantly cheaper than concrete which is an added bonus.  We spent 1/3 of what we would have spent on concrete.  I really hope I'm not kicking myself later though with the mess.  We're going to spray a light glue adhesive down to help keep the small pebbles in check.  If that doesn't work, we can always lay some slate right into the DG, and we'll still end up spending less than if we had poured concrete.  We'll see how it goes.  For now, here's some pictures with notes of the progress so far.  There still is so much to do but we'll get there eventually! 

That huge wall along the right side of the yard in the picture below is the neighbor's garage that they converted into a 2 story guest house/rumpus room.  That whole wall needs to be painted and hopefully the Japanese Maple will hide most of it.

The planter wall on the side of the pool will also be filled with climbing vines on trellises to help cover up the huge wall, which is our garage.  The back concrete pad was the only other concrete we had poured.  Eventually chaise lounge chairs will go there.  I can't wait till I'm hanging back there with a margarita in hand :)

Note to self: find some sort of pool toy storage so they don't all end up dumped to the side as in picture below :)

 There's the trunk to our beautiful and HUGE Chinese Elm that hangs over the pool.  That tree was one of the main selling points for me on this house :)

 

The DG is packed down pretty hard so that it doesn't give at all when you walk on it.  Tiny little pebbles do lift up as you're walking, but eventually they should all get ground in. 

And that's it so far!  Thanks for taking the tour :)