Backyard Renovation

For the past couple of years, my husband and I have thrown around ideas for making our backyard a more enjoyable place for our family and friends. We finally agreed on a couple of projects, and extending the fence was the first one we wanted to get through. We chose to re-do the fence for a couple of reasons.

1. We live on a corner lot and have a HUGE front yard, which can be difficult to keep up on (especially in the Spring). Extending the fence would make front yard maintenance far easier. 2. We had a HUGE side yard which was a waste of space. Our front yard isn't fenced, so our boys couldn't enjoy the space without constant supervision. 3. Our backyard was a great size, but we hope to eventually extend the patio and add a play structure. Doing these two projects would make our original backyard feel cramped, and would not leave us with much grass space.

Once again, we put a call in to my dad, who has his own repair/remodel business. He also helped us with our closet renovation project last spring. See Renovation: Week One and Drum Roll Please......, if you would like to see that project. He came by, took some measurements, and gave us a quote for the project. We got started the next day!

Here is what our backyard looked like before the renovation:

Our fence ended at the back of the house, and only went out about 3 feet. After finding out that we only needed 8 feet of clearance from the sidewalk to the fence, we realized, that we could go out another 8 feet past our original fence placement. It was a no-brainier!

Day One: My Dad tore down the old fence, saving the boards that we still usable. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at this point, but you can tell in the pictures of Day Two how open it made it.

Day Two: Dad put in the posts (all but one), started the retaining wall that would make the additional yard space level with the existing backyard, and the huge mound of compost dirt was delivered. He left out the one post, so that the truck could back into the yard.

Day Three: Dad searched through the old boards to find ones to use on the ends of the fence. This was a difficult and time-consuming project, as the past fence was built with a mismatch of supplies, which we didn't know until he tried to reuse them. Then started on the end by the house, finished the retaining wall, and leveled some of the dirt.

Day Four: He put up the new side of the fence, and continued to fill in the slope of the yard with more dirt.

Day Five: Dad finished up the fence, and leveled the yard, yet again. We finally had a finished fence, and could let Maizy (our dog) out for potty breaks without supervision!

We still have a pretty large mound of dirt, but it is wonderful compost dirt and we will slowly use it in our flower beds. We still have some work to do to finish the project (move the remaining dirt and plant grass), but it looks amazing! Our future backyard projects include putting in a new patio, planting fruit trees in the newly smaller side yard, add a play structure, and put in some sort of patio cover. So stay tuned for more renovations!