Dream Backyard - Part Three

Hey Friends!! Glad you stopped by today!

I have a few more photos of the backyard to share with you.

I hope you're not bored with this!!

It is still - and will probably always be - a work in progress - but that's ok!!

I would probably get really bored if I didn't have projects to work on.

Looking for patio furniture was an adventure!! We've never owned patio furniture, so we

really weren't sure what to look for, or even what we would need. 

Due to the lovely Oklahoma wind, we knew we needed something heavy!!

Of course it had to be pretty, but not "too pretty" - that's just not us

and it needed to be comfortable.

Most of what we purchased is wrought iron - but even that can end up in the pool

as I learned Sunday afternoon!!

This is our main seating area and I love it!! It has back cushions, but again due to the wind,

they are usually in the pool storage box. But they are still comfortable without the backs.

We spend many evenings sitting in these chairs, just talking, about life.  It's wonderful!!

 The Alaskan Weeping Cedar tree was transplanted from our front yard. So far, so good!!

I hope it does well back here! I love the way it looks!

For now, we have two chaise lounges. I want to get cushions, but not sure what color.

Red seems to be what I'm most drawn to - but we'll see.

Friday these flowers and basket blew into the pool, so I'm not sure I'll be able to leave them in this spot,

but I sure do love how they look sitting next to this bench and I love the red against the blue of the pool!

I love burlap, so I lined the basket with a burlap sack and just set the flowers in the basket.

Easy and pretty!!!

The bistro table on the back side of the pool was on my front porch, but I really like it back here,

so this is it's new home.  I'll have to find something new for the front porch!

 Oh darn, I'll have to go shopping!!





We still need to plant three trees, add a few more plants and flowers, then mulch it all.

After that, I think we will call it done for this year!!

The grass is finally starting to get green and the plants are starting to fill in more so it looks

prettier each day.  I'll post a few more photos later this week or next week, then I'll move on

to the next project!  Thanks for hanging in there with me!!

Have a lovely week, my friends!!

Dream Backyard - Part Two

Here it is!!

~ Midnight Blue ~

Isn't it dreamy?? Isn't it relaxing?? Isn't it glorious??

I.love.it!!!!

It was probably the toughest design decision we had to make regarding the pool

and it turned out better than we could ever have envisioned!!

But - it took a few days to get there!!

Once they applied the color, which only took a few hours,

they immediately started filing it with water.

Here it is the day they applied it -

It had a chalk-like appearance - oh but don't worry -

we get to brush it all off -

twice a day

for 7 to 10 days.

Quite an upper arm work-out!!



Baby boy checkin' it out - he couldn't wait to get in!!

He didn't care it was only the second week of March

and still cold outside or that the water was maybe 55-60 degrees....

He got in! He got out!!

While all that was going on, we had to decide what to do with our 16 dumptruck

loads of dirt.  What did we want the landscape to look like??  Where do we have them put that dirt??

We had an idea of what we wanted, but due to the size of our yard, we had no idea where to start!!

So, we called in the professionals!!

We actually tried to call several professionals, but they either weren't accepting new clients,

were too expensive, or didn't return our phone call timely. But I think it was meant to be!!

We called Foster's Nursery & Tree Farm and it was a match made in heaven!!

We knew we wanted to do the work ourselves, we just needed some guidance - a plan!!!

So, Jim from Foster's came by our house, took notes of our ideas, took some photos of the yard,

took some measurements and headed back to the nursery. 

A few days later, we anxiously went by the nursery to check out the design plan 

and look at the actual plants and trees.

To say I was excited, would be an understatement......

This after all was the final piece - the decorative piece -

"the pretty" that would pull it all together!! 

Here is our awesome design plan!!

Jim designed our yard in a way that I never could have imagined.

Flowerbeds in places I'd never even considered!

It was beautiful - but a little overwhelming at first!!

What are all those lines and drawings?? How about all those colors??

How did he get it to scale?

It took a couple of days of me staring at the design plan, holding it up, looking out to the backyard

and trying to acclamate the drawing with our yard. 

But once I got it - I really "got it"!!!! 

I knew our yard had potential - but this was beyond my wildest dreams!!!

If you need to purchase plants or need a landscape design or landscape advice,

I HIGHLY recommend Foster's!!

They are nice, knowledgeable, and it is a locally (okc) owned family business!!

Now that we have the design plan, we need to have the dirt moved!!

A little here.................

a little there.......

While they were moving the dirt, we also had them put a couple of boulders in place.

The large rock on the right, is the "dive" rock. 

Instead of a diving board, we opted for this large boulder.

Once the dirt was moved, we outlined the flowerbeds with the waterhoses and began

placing the plants........

The Man - my pool boy, my yard boy, my love!!!

We think we have it where we want it - now we have to plant it all!!

oh my!!! That's manual labor!!

Well, we also need some new grass!!  Bring on the rolls of sod!!

The sod is all down, the plants are all planted,

now let the watering begin!!

Bringing in some more boulders for the landscape!!

Love this moss rock!!!

The Man is creating a rock border for my roses.................

The mounds of dirt are for trees.........One or two will be transplanted from our front yard,

the others will be purchased later on.

The landscaping has been alot of work, and we have so much more to do,

like the edging, planting trees and annuals, adding mulch, etc.....

and patio furniture!! That was a fun purchase!!

If one was rich, you could seriously make your backyard more comfortable than your living room!!!

These pictures were all taken a few weeks ago, so it has changed quite a bit -

I'll get more pictures posted soon!!

We are so in love with this and so excited to get it completed

so we can share it with family and friends!!

This is truly a dream come true!!!



My Dream Backyard

Hello - hello - anyone - anyone still out there???

Sorry for the lack of blog posts, but here is the reason I haven't been able to focus on any

projects lately!!  We have a huge project going on right here in our own backyard!!

I've gone back and forth with whether or not I should do this post -

because I don't want to seem boastful or like I'm bragging about this

or saying "look at what I have". 

That is not the case at all!!

This is about a dream

and the biggest design project to ever happen in my life!!!

Plus, I started my blog to document the projects I'm working on, as well, as inspiration I find

from others.  This project is all about finding inspiration from other people and sources.

I love all things related to design - great before and after photos and seeing projects completed.

This post is about all of those things - happening right here at the farmhouse!!

The Man and I have many pictures pulled from magazines, dog-eared pages in landscaping books,

ideas in our heads, on paper napkins, on notebook pages, many pictures saved in my favorites file and

much time logged on our back porch visualizing our dream and how great it would be

 to have it come to fruition so we could share it with family and friends! 

Due to the number of photos I have, I will do this in several posts, so please hang in there with me!!! 

The actual project started January 17, 2011 with a spray painted outline in my backyard!!

The perfect blank slate!

 It was a wide open space begging for something - anything - but we had a plan and didn't want to spend time or money on landscaping that we knew would be temporary and/or interfere with our grand plan.

So, for over 6 years, we've lived with the empty backyard - just waiting for this day!

Yay!!! Momma's gettin' a swimming pool!!!!!

January 18, 2011 - I was so excited this on day!!!

It's actually happening!!! 

   

They weren't messing around!! We had this huge hole in our backyard the first day of digging.

My baby boy!! He can't wait to get in - water or not!

Boys will be boys - no matter what age!! He loved "playing" on the dirt pile.

By the way, they dug up about 16 dumptruck loads of dirt to create this dream dirt pile for my son.

We asked to keep the dirt for our landscaping project!!!!  That's ALOT of dirt! Hope we can use it all!

The re-bar, electrical and plumbing were all set -

This was a busy day on the cul-de-sac!!!

Three huge trucks showed up to spray the gunite (concrete type stuff) as the pool base.

All this only took about 4 hours and was a little messy!!

They had to place a temporary tarp wall to keep it from blowing on the house.

This was an exciting day because we could actually see what the pool was going to look like!!

We had them create a suntan ledge and a few benches into the walls.

(see how large the yard is)

We had to make a trip to the rockyard to pick out the stone we wanted as the coping around the edges.

 I wanted stone instead of brick for a more natural look.  Picking out the stone was easy!!

The tile - not so much!!!

I had a really difficult time with this and wasn't confident in my decision

 until the pool was filled with water. 

Here's The Man watering the gunite!! We had to keep it wet so it wouldn't crack. That was a little

nerve wracking to know that we could be the cause of a crack so early on in the project!!

I love the flagstone we picked out and most of the time it looked great with the tile.

But there were days when it appeared peach, instead of tan. Not what I had envisioned at all!!!

Well, we got to this point really quickly - then it snowed - twice!! This caused a 2 week delay.

The pool full of ice and snow.

The snow finally melted, but there was still ice. Thick ice in the deep end of my pool!!

Yay!! It's finally melting!

Let's get this party started again!!



Doing a little dirt work in prepartion for the patio and decking.



Wow!! That's going to be a big patio!!!

The patio and decking are completed and I'm freaking out!!!

You know how things looks all "wonky" in a funhouse mirror??

Well, that's what my new patio and deck looked like to me. It was a sea of wonky concrete!!

I cried!!

We paid extra money for all this concrete and it looked ridiculous!

It slanted and sloped -

and how was someone going to sit upright in their chair??

I called The Man

I called Greg - our pool contractor -

Greg said it looked fine. I called The Man again - I cried.  He called Greg.

I wasn't happy!! Not sure what could be done at this point, but I WAS NOT happy!

Greg came back out and looked at it again and surveyed it to make sure it was ok -

I'm sure this was just to satisfy this hormonal crazy woman -

but again, he said it was "slanted and sloped" the way it needed to be for proper drainage

and assured me it would look good and I should just wait until it was all completed

to make my final determination.

Oh yeah, right?? Wait til it's completed so nothing could be done??

So, that's what I did!! I waited and waited!! 

And I'll give you a heads-up. It did turn out looking great!!

Greg did know what he was talking about!! I should have believed the professional!!

On top of being unsure about the patio and decking, we had to pick out a pool color.

Not by looking at life size pools, but looking at 2x2inch color samples.

What?? You think picking out paint colors is difficult - this kept me awake at nightt!!

 We didn't want it too dark, we didn't want it too light, didn't want it to look like

a motel swimming pool, and didn't want it to be a "trendy" color that would be outdated in a

couple of years. I wanted it to be the color I visualized in my mind, but what "color" is that??? 

I can decorate a house, but take me outside and my mind goes completely blank!

I can't visualize the space -

Everything I know about decorating my house just comes naturally -

but outside -

NOT SO MUCH!!!

So, this is where I'll leave you for now - contemplating a pool color!!!

I'll post more later this week.  Thanks for hanging in there!!

I promise the "after" photos will be worth the wait!!