Before + After: The Back Yard

We've lived in our house for about two years and all the while our backyard has been a bit of a disaster. With only 13 weeks to renovate and move into this house before baby True arrived, the focus was most definitely on the inside and not on the outside.

We've been slooowwlly working on it and we're finally enjoying an actual backyard as a family. I wanted to share the befores and afters with you!

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WHAT WE DID:This was a huge project that played out over two years, but essentially we put in some stairs from the house to a deck that we built. After that John had a big vision for a tin roof coming off the garage with a seating area underneath that, plus an extra structure for gardening supplies (the doors on the gardening shed were found deep in our house's crawl space when we were renovating!). We added some detailing structure above the garage door, and cut the garbage door in half to create another dutch door like the one we have on the house (and in the house for baby safety). The hammock chair came off amazon and the deck gliders are from Grandin Road.

The most dramatic thing that finished the project was getting new sod - best move ever. That, and we put in a privacy fence that has sections custom made for climbers. And lots and lots of pruning the overgrown tree (it's a blooming dogwood tree) and bushes.



I can't tell you how nice it is to finally give True an actual yard (vs a construction site) to run and play in. Here he is watering the plants, one of his favorite daily activities.  By the way, his little wooden playhouse came from Costco.

Thanks, friends. I hope you liked the tour!
Biggest lesson I learned from this project? Patience - 24 months of it :)