Backyard Renovation Update

It's time for an update on the backyard renovation! Things are moving REALLY fast around here (nothing like the onset of winter to light a little fire under ya!) The last few weeks have left no time for blogging, so consider this a double serving.

I'll walk you through the plan for the yard below and show some photos of the progress that we're making.

If you missed the first update, you can check it out here to see the "before" and mood board and vision for the backyard.

The Plan:

We love entertaining, so it's important to have plenty of space for outdoor dining and comfortable conversational lounging space. Additionally, we wanted some grass for the pups and raised garden beds for growing vegetables. I wanted to add ambiance with a pondless water feature and string lights. Lastly, what outdoor space isn't complete without swing/hanging chairs, so that's part of the plan to!

What we've accomplished to date is:

Rough and fine grading of the backyard for appropriate drainage.

Setting posts for the string lights and hanging chairs

New concrete patios for the dining space and fire pit

Power wash and paint fence

Landscape fencing along property fence line

Irrigation system for the grass

Top soil added

Sod installed

Rock installed

What is remaining:

Build pondless water feature

Build u-shaped sofa

Build outdoor dining table

Build fire pit

Hang lights

Hang swing chairs

Here's some pics in progress!

Posts for the string lights are set.

Concrete it poured

Raised planting bed around the tree. The tree has large roots near the surface that would be problamatic for planting sod, so the raised bed will protect the roots and provide a space for native pollinators to be planted.

We installed irrigation for the grass. Since it's a relatively small area, we were able to use a DIY system that connects to an outdoor spigot.

Fence is power washed and painted and we installed a shorter fence alone the fence line. This fence provides an extra layer between the neighbor dogs and will be planted in the spring. *Ideally the fence would be stained and not painted, but the fence was painted before and is rather old, so painting was the best option.

Sod is in! We installed a variety called Hyper Blue. It has high drought tolerance (important in Denver) and is also shade tolerant.

We're really happy with the progress so far. Stay tuned for more updates!

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* This phase of the backyard project is in conjunction with the One Room Challenge. You can check out other inspiring projects of the ORC by clicking here.