Our yard is quite large, about 1/4 acre, and it’s not flat. It has a significant slop, which meant that just hiring a couple of guys to help us do the landscaping was just not an option. We needed a plan and professionals.
We reached out to a local landscaper last fall. We thought that we would have been able to start work within a few months but as with most large construction projects, it took significantly longer. We were able to work with Panjia Outdoors and their landscape architect to design the space. Before he could begin the design, a lot of decisions needed to made regarding the design, materials and planting. We need to decide how the yard will be used now and in the future to help shape the design. It took months of back and forth before we had, what we thought was a finalized design. Once we got closer to starting the work, we realized the measurements (not to mention our budget) didn’t make sense for the yard so we had to make a few more changes and scale back the design. Here is the final backyard design.
We love entertaining and thought we would want a fire pit. However, we were almost evacuated from our home only a few months after moving in due to a raging wildfire in the area so we decided to forgo a fire pit. I have a lot of great memories sitting around a fire pit growing up but we weren’t really concerned about wild fires and being evacuated from our home, ever. It’s just not worth the risk. We are keeping the existing concrete (to save money) and incorporating pavers, which are fire resistant and offer a lot of entertaining space.
My fiancée and I love modern design however; our home is what I like to call San Diego traditional. It’s a traditional house design with stucco and a tile roof. We needed to merge our modern sensibility with the house. We searched all over pinterest for inspiration. I have a swimming pool board and outdoor living board on pinterest you can check out our design inspiration. We choose pavers and wood instead of too much concrete. We are also going with local desert plants to bring in the San Diego sensibility. We loved the idea of grass right up against pool coping and stepping-stones. Since San Diego is HOT, we needed shade so we opted for a few cabanas. My fiancée wanted modern cabanas modeled off of ones he’s seen in Miami.
The backyard already had an existing structure (covered patio) with gas, electricity and water. I think the previous owners had a hot tub in the space but we thought it was perfect for a grill. Clearly, we love to cook and eat so an outdoor cooking space was a priority. We are planning to add a large portable stainless steel gas grill. It’s significantly cheaper than having something built in. If we change our mind, we can always add a custom built in grill space down the road.
We went back and forth about installing a pool. Our yard is large so we certainly have room for it but we are in the middle of a severe drought. We have 90 degree plus weather starting in March and going until about October. That makes pools and spas useful almost all year round. It’s refreshing during the spring, summer and fall but still useable the rest of the year. It would certainly be used, but we were really concerned about wasting water. We did our research and ultimately decided to go ahead with the pool. We learned that newer pool equipment including an automatic cover help keep water waste and evaporation to a minimum not to mention they are much easier to maintain than older pools. The pool cover meant that the pool needed to be a rectangle. This was fine by us as we like straight lines (i.e. modern lines).
Renovations are always a costly endeavor especially when you are renovating a 1/4 acre. Turf is a cheap solution to a landscaping issue. It’s significantly cheaper than pavers, concrete or artificial turf. However, it’s only cheaper to install. It’s half the cost of pavers, concrete or artificial turf. You end up paying significantly more over the course of your home ownership for maintenance and upkeep. Like I said previously, we are in the middle of a drought which means water is a precious resource and we just didn’t feel comfortable wasting water in this manner. While we were finalizing the design, the state starting instituting water restrictions. These restrictions ultimately made the decision, to go with artificial turf, for us.
The drought and water restrictions have made a huge impact on the type of plants we will use in our yard. We could just throw down a bunch of stone and completely avoid plants but that’s not esthetically pleasing. There are a few plants that actually thrive in sun with very little water. They are usually local plants, succulents or cactus. We are using as many of these plants as possible to avoid a completely gravel yard. The only exception to the rule is edible plants. There are some plants that can provide food but can survive the high temps in our area. They may require a little more water but the trade off is that they are also edible. We’re considering passion fruit vines, lavender, rosemary, aloe, bay trees or bushes and plums.
We’re wanted something low maintenance so that was the mindset for almost all decisions going forward including the swimming pool and planting. We didn’t want to be tethered to our yard every weekend so we opted for an irrigation system, plants that require minimal care and no grass to cut. We also decided on an auto pool cover, which means the pool will be covered unless we are using it so that we keep pool cleaning to a minimum.
We wanted to use our side yard so we’re installing a very simple and basic bocce ball court. There’s not much else that we could do there so we took advantage of the long space.
I don't have a final plan for the front yard as most of the action is happening in the back. The front yard is getting a new driveway. It's hard to tell from the photos but ours is currently at an insane and illogical incline. The apron slopes upwards and then the driveway immediately slopes downward creating a peak which scrapes the bottom of our cars. It’s stupid and it has to go. We wanted a grid pattern concrete driveway with gravel or grass in between for a modern look. We decided to forego the turf and gravel and use pavers, as it was shockingly cheaper than concrete. We are instead saving the current concrete walkway and cutting it to keep the modern grid pattern and then fill in the spaces with gravel.
We aren’t doing much to the rest of the front yard, as we want it to be extra low maintenance. We are adding gravel to the section right off the driveway to allow for extra parking. We’re also replacing the hideous generic concrete blocks with boulders. We’re only doing minimal planting along the street and then a few sections near the house. We want a more desert look in the front yard so we’re using succulents and cactus to coordinate with the gravel and boulders.
Stay tuned because next is DEMO! In the meantime, be sure to follow along the renovation on instagram using the hashtag #BethHomeProject.
If you missed the before photos, check out my post, Backyard and Frontyard Renovation.
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