Chris and I have been busy finalizing the plans for our backyard landscaping, including our pool! The plan is to do the pool and other updates over the winter months and have it usable by next summer. A few months back we compared the pros and cons of hiring a local landscape designer vs. working with an online exterior design service — Yardzen. We ultimately decided to work with Yardzen because we felt like their initial design was really aligned with what we envisioned, and they had good connections with local contractors in our area, saving us time and money. They really got us. Since then, we went through another round of editing and revisions to finalize the backyard landscaping plans, and we’re so happy to share them with you!

As a reminder, here’s what the same angle looked like when we first moved in.

Before

And another angle…

Currently:

It’s tricky to tell how far back our property line actually is because the courtyard is only one portion of it. Our entire property sits on an acre, with about half in the front and half in the back. But beyond the courtyard gates is a whole wooded area, including a little putting green. Because of the brick wall and fence that’s currently in place, our yard feels really tight and you can’t see beyond the wall very well making it not ideal for kids playing or maximizing the incredible yard we have. The plan is to tear out the courtyard as well as some of the trees to make room for a pool and expand the usable area.

We’ve had a lot of chats about the depth of the pool and I think we decided the deepest the pool will get is seven feet. In Idaho, we had an above-ground pool, and it was maybe 3 1/2 ft deep. The girls were in it from sun up to sun down. One of my takeaways from attending the Triangle Parade of Homes is that I confirmed that I definitely wanted the hot-tub seamlessly set in the pool. I think it’s such a clean look. And! This will allow us to have an automatic cover to go over the whole thing. (We can uncover the hot tub portion at time. No worries)

We’re definitely keeping some wooded area too and will be adding a few hammocks. I hope someday our girls have memories of laying in the hammock, looking up at the tips of the trees.

Before

The outdoor dining will actually be beneath this pergola area, which extends from our dining room. The grill is currently right outside the dining room but we are moving it a few feet over the where the guest house sits to expand and maximize this area. Name of the game!

We did contemplate making this all screened in, but ultimately decided not to because it would block out a lot of the natural light coming inside. One other edit we made to the original design was bringing a play area with trampoline and playset inside a fenced area beyond the fire pit. It gets me so excited to hang out here as a family.

The fire pit is a must for us. There was actually a double-sided fireplace in Yardzen’s first design draft. We decided against the fireplace because it felt repetitive with the fire pit. Plus we’re actually not even sure if the fireplace is staying there in our living room. More and more, we’d love to open up that window and move the fireplace to the other wall.

Sound familiar? If we can move the fireplace to a different wall, then why wouldn’t we put the window in? That room could use the extra light and it would be nice to be able to see the pool-front view. If it can’t be moved, we’ll have to determine which is more important to us.

Overall, we want this outdoor area to provide little moments for gathering, entertaining, and playing. Extending our fence to the whole perimeter of our property line will put the playground area in view, which is important to us. Right now we don’t let the girls go beyond the courtyard without supervision because we can’t keep our eyes on them. As intimate as the courtyard feels, we’re so excited to expand and really utilize our property.

What’s Next?

After Yardzen finished this second round of designs (which we love), they set us up with a local landscape architect that they vetted thoroughly. We hired the local company, and they’ve submitted a permit to the city. We also submitted a request to the HOA design board. Assuming the HOA approves the design, then the landscapers will start demo 3 to 4 weeks from the time the permit was submitted. We’re projected to finish just in time for summer. Fingers crossed!! Can’t wait!