Backyard Progress and Upcoming Plans

A view into our backyard here and the progress we have made over the past few years. A closer look at what we plan to do over the next couple years.

Here’s what our backyard is looking like after the last few years and some basic cleaning this past week. I’m sharing what we plan to do over this summer and next summer to give it a whole new look!

BEFORE:

The previous owners did a great job with this space and kept it nice and clean. This is what it looked like when we moved in.

They had some lovely plants and trees they had added to the garden area as well. There is the sweetest play house they built and it has been on my list to update every summer (that will need to come later down the road though). Getting the time to do it has been the biggest obstacle.

DURING:

Funnily enough, this photo from earlier this week actually is much worse than a usual “before photo”, haha! We haven’t spent much time or money on our backyard. The biggest things we have invested in have been the addition of plants and gravel. Our outdoor furniture from our last home did get damaged here and will need some repair/upkeep sadly. But we can fix it and make it all look new again without needed to buy everything all over.

To start, earlier this week we pulled everything apart and pressure washed it ALL! What a difference that alone makes… It felt so nice to wash away all the dirt, clean up the furniture, etc… You can see here what it looks like mid process.

This was a great reminder of what cleaning can do for how you may feel about a space. It really is a great refresh all on its own.

Once everything was dry, we started to play with configurations for the furniture. I’m not one hundred percent sure what we will do in terms of layout. I need to see what it all looks like pulled together. We still need to clean the rug and fire pit at this point. I do know that the outdoor sofa looks much better with a smaller footprint. It was filling the space up too much previously the way we had it. Our home before had more room for our furniture outdoors and we will need to adjust accordingly here.

These pictures show how we are prepping the furniture to be painted. It will look much nicer once it gets a fresh coat of paint.

We chose to take down that wooden rack that was on the wall and keep it a clean slate over the furniture.

Across the way you can see how much our little baby plants have grown in! It makes me so happy to see this space fill in.

Below the garden and along the wall we placed an arrangement of white pots. I will eventually fill these with a rounded topiary type of plant (hoping to get to that by the end of the month if possible).

We also replaced all the solar lighting with these lantern inspired ones. They reflect in the pool at night and it is so pretty!

The progress is slow out here, but it really is coming along!

TO DO:

• Plantings in the pots
• Put together the solar fountain (more on that soon)
• Hang the globe fixtures and lighting
• More outdoor lighting
• Spray paint and paint the damaged furniture (sofa/loungechairs)
• Add an umbrella

I am sure there are many things I am forgetting, but that is ok it is all part of the process!

I have so many ideas and things I want to do here at this sweet home of ours, but I am also keeping it in perspective. I want to work within our means, spend reasonable time fixing it up (not every spare minute can be used on house projects) and be patient when reaching our goals. I hope this gives you encouragement too that not everything is overnight and in fact, sometimes things look worse before they get better!

Our backyard after the last few years is a great example of that. With some basic cleaning this past week it gave the space a whole new feel. We’ve planned some simple upgrades too that will help pull it all together over the next couple summers!