Paradise Restored

That is the name of the company we used to have our yard redone- and I truly feel like they lived up to their name!! Here are several before and after shots of our new paradise. One little side note: we knew the yard was getting done in early July and pretty much neglected it until then, so the "before" pictures are a little worse than our yard usually was!

Front yard before:
Front yard after: They basically just replaced the lawn with sod and trimmed all the trees in the front yard.

Front side yard before:
Front side yard after: They replaced the side yard lawn with gravel so we can use it for parking rather than having weed-filled grass. Yes, that is the same Honda I have been driving for 9 1/2 years- makes a great "airport car" when I'm flying!

Shed area before:
Shed area after: They built a new ramp, removed the clothes line, and added gates to both side yards, so the kids can't get play around the shed.

Backyard corner before:
Backyard corner after: This is where you can really see how much they leveled the yard. They added a retaining wall to the entire back fence and partially up the side fences and brought in fill dirt. The fence is now lined with arborvitaes to mask how "unlevel" the fence now looks. If you look closely, the 5 foot tall trees are about a foot taller than the fence in this corner of the yard- the slope is gone!

Backyard before:
Backyard after: This is a great view of the whole yard from one side, showing the level yard, the arborvitaes lining the fence, the new deck, and part of the new paver patio.

Back of house before:
Back of house after: They removed the old cement and planter and added the paver patio, giving us much more usable space for patio furniture.

Before:
After: This photo really shows the new deck well. They used the existing foundation and added a little "bay window"-like bit on the right side, moved the landing from the front of the deck to the side, changed the angle of the stairs, and added the lattice under the deck- again for the kids' safety!
This is another great shot of the level yard and the arborvitaes.

We LOVE our new yard!! It is a great usable space- almost like a new room added on! We have a couple of yard games we like to play (Baggo and ladder golf) and now the kids have a safe place to play with their golf set and water table. I'm only sad to see most of the summer gone before it was finished!