Almost done… the front yard was barren after all the construction thoughtlessness. At our own expense, we replanted a great deal of grass.
We added a fence to the side of our house in order to extend the area in the back yard. Before…
After…
We put up lights around the perimeter in the back and plan to add more along the garden fence. Very important… SG was the first to turn them on!
As mentioned before, we decided to shorten our screened-in porch.
As you can see from the photo below right, from inside the house looking out, it’s now a lovely view (not blocked by the porch). The left photo is what our garden looked like pre-landscaping. I still can’t believe how many plants were lost.
It was a very quick decision, but we added an aluminum pergola over part of the back patio. Literally, Mr. B went out of town on a Monday and came home on Thursday to see it up!
The issue we encountered: As you can see below, one side of the beams were on the roof, but the other side was hanging down from the main brown support beam. Mr. B saw a photo and was insistent that we stop work and raise that side. It really did look sloppy and I agreed it needed to be done. I hated causing trouble though! The beams weren’t long enough.
We were going to have to reorder some new pieces at our expense. I worked my charm… the contractor had packed up for the day (and the Easter weekend actually), but I convinced him of a workable solution and we got our electricians to help raise the beams so we could put them higher.
(I must add that SG and I both thought it would have been much more pleasant had the guy worked with his shirt on!)
Part of the solution… 2 posts that really don’t get in the way of our line of sight.
I ordered this outdoor fan… I wished I’d gotten a bigger one. He put a plexiglass square over that part of the pergola to protect the fan from water.
On to landscaping, finally. I have an awesome gardener to took me to a wholesale nursery where we got 2 trailers full of plants, trees, mulch, rock, and stone (to make stepping stones) for very low prices. It made the Home Depot/Lowes prices seem exorbitant.
We love how it’s filling in with lush colors. The jasmine is slowly climbing those trellis pieces and the flowers are blooming. The bouganvilla are on wheels so when it rains, I can roll them out a little to get watered.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Catch up on Pool post #1 and Pool post #2. (There’s also Garage project #1, #2, and #3.)
Thanks for reading! Come on over for a swim anytime. 🙂
