Before and After

As most everyone knows, we recently did our part to stimulate the economy by hiring a local landscaper to complete a big backyard renovation. We couldn't be more thrilled with the results! Plus, the workers were here every day from 7:30a - 6p, with no complications and no unexpected "issues." (You know, the kind of issues that add thousands of dollars to the cost of the project?) Boy, did we get lucky or what?

Our new backyard has a fence, a huge lawn, a new retaining wall, steps leading from the driveway to the yard, a fire pit, pavers under the deck, a new storage area under the screened porch and lots of beautiful landscaping. Sounds heavenly, eh?

So, with that said, I'd love to show some before and after pictures. Of course, it's much prettier in person, but you get the idea. Here goes!

BEFORE...

In this picture, you can see how the old yard was eroding, plus, you can see the old deck railing and
the massive pile of dirt under the screened porch.

This is a view from the old back hill, looking up toward the original retaining wall.

Another picture of the old back hill. We removed the top row of rose bushes completely and
placed the new retaining wall there, which added three feet of lawn to the backyard.

This is the old backyard. You can see the pile of dirt in the corner under the screened porch
and the deck railing that we removed. (There were nothing but rocks under the deck at this point.)

Old yard, again. Look at how much it was eroding! The yard was flat when we moved here
three years ago!

See! Erosion!

Drum roll, please...

And now, the

AFTER!

This is the view from the end of the driveway. We have two new trees here - with landscaping,
plus the fence and new bushes on the other side of the fence that extend all the way
down the retaining wall. 

This is the new hill coming off the driveway. No more grass. (The grass that's left actually
belongs to the neighbors.) We added mulch, landscaping, a tree and a couple of bushes.

This is the new retaining wall that was added off of the back hill. It goes all the way from
our property line to the deck. At this end of the retaining wall, it's over 6' tall! Plus, there's a fence here, too!

This is the new lawn in the back. This picture doesn't do it justice. It's HUGE!
Notice no dirt under the screened porch! No deck railing! Instead, we have three new
stone columns, a fire pit and pavers under the deck.
(Ignore the stuff in the back corner of the deck. That's an outdoor playset for the boys.)

STEPS! Going from the lawn to the driveway. It's lit at night, too.

Here's a closer picture of the fire pit and one of the columns. 

This is a different view of the fire pit, looking back toward the house.
Notice the new storage area in the back right corner of the picture?

And, here are the doors of the new storage area - which is HUGE, by the way!

A closer view of the pavers and fire pit. The pavers arc out in a semi-circle.

This is looking up from the backyard to the driveway / the top of the old retaining wall.

The workers even added this new stone entryway to the screened porch.
We didn't ask them to do this, by the way. They just did!

This is the original retaining wall which we added onto and arced the other direction to give us more lawn.
If you look just left of the middle of the picture, you can see where the old retaining wall stops
and the new stones were added to extend it. (The new stones haven't faded from the sun, yet.)

I need to see if I can get a good picture of the back yard so you can sort of get an idea of how big it is. Regardless, we are thrilled! We can't wait for you to see it in person. I promise you will be amazed!!