Our Backyard Transformation - Part 2

Ok so for those of you who were left in suspense after yesterday's post, this is the post for you.  As I mentioned yesterday we have been working on creating a backyard oasis at our home since 2007.  Yesterday I shared that our grass and backyard was in rough shape to say the least.  After working hard trying to revive the grass and building a fence it was finally after two years of living with an embarrassing yard that we finally agreed on the "big picture" backyard oasis.

In 2009 my hubby and I sat down with a couple of landscape professionals to put our dreams and ideas for our yard into a plan... I am a planner at heart if I don't have a plan I get stressed my hubby and parents will tell you how bad it really is, but it makes me, ME :-)... We didn't just settle with one suggestion because we wanted to have a couple of ideas and take the parts we liked best from each plan.  So this is the plan we came up with.

 The drawing on the grid paper was our plan getting started, the little sketch at the bottom right corner are the dimensions of the garden.  The sketch with the dimensions proved to be important when picking plants cause we wanted to make sure they would not take over our space. With a big picture plan in mind we hired a company to complete the interlock patio.

This is a picture taken just after the interlock patio was completed but there was still work to be done.  You can also see the fence we had installed in this picture.

While we were completing the interlock we wanted to change the existing deck that the builder built.  You may be able to see in this picture below there was a railing that extended across the front of the deck with a little opening enough for a step down.  When we were completing the patio we wanted to open the deck up and put one large step across the front.  Here is a picture of the progress. 

This is what the deck looked like when it was completed.  You can't see the step we built it was washed out by the sun oops.  Do you like our outdoor furniture?  LOL that's what we had and we didn't have it in our budget to get new ones that year.  It's a chair right?  You do what you gotta do!

This picture below is the completed yard with new grass...ya we gave up and got new sod, the other grass that was there when we moved in was taken over with weeds because it just wasn't strong enough. 

The last step of our plan was planting and well life got busy and it just wasn't possible for a year so, this year was the year.  This is what the finished backyard oasis looks like.  I know it looks sparse but it will fill out in a few years.  

It was a busy day in the yard, lots of work to get done but it's done. Tomorrow I will share more pictures of the completed backyard oasis and of us hard at work getting it to this stage.  I will also share what we've planted and I hope to share what the plants will look like in full growth. (I'll to do some digging for pictures, no pun intended... lol)  I hope you come back to check it out.