The 7-24 House - the backyard

From start to finish the backyard took us the longest. We did it in stages, starting the month we moved in (June 2008) and finishing three weeks ago. I'll start by showing you some before pictures, throwing in a "few" transition pics, and finishing up with some before and after comparisons.

A virtual tour before :

Your enter the side gate

walk up to the "barn" (glorified man-shed)

onto the patio directly looking into the living room

finally, wrap around to the side-yard

Now the work begins.

First we knocked down the random, unnecessary buildings,

pulled up old concrete, and basically cleared

all the debris until we had a bunch of bare dirt.

Meanwhile, "Barn Dave" moved in for a few months.

RJ works for Patagonia - we meet some interesting people.

Then we designed the new patio

We did hire a crew to pour the stamped concrete.

One of the few things we hired out.

Quite a few months go by. We work on the interior,

have a baby, and then RJ heads back outside to

build some raised planter beds for veggies (notice the new

exterior paint job too!)

Around this time he also put in a gas fire pit, but

unfortunately I have no work-in-procress photos.

A bunch more times goes by. We finish the front yard and

entire interior. Finally, the long thing left is our backyard lawn,

chicken coop, and a few final trees and plants.

RJ and I used a sledgehammer and our brute strength to

rip up part of the extra long RV parkway. Then digging and

placing irrigation.

And finally we're done!

Some before and after pics for your comparison.

Sorry their so small. I'll have to figure out how to make them

larger, but in the meantime just click on the image to enlarge.