OUR BACKYARD PROJECT

I’m excited to share photos of our backyard project with you today! This project was a major undertaking (one we’ve planned for since we bought the house!) and while the process was far from pretty, we’re so happy with the end result. We still have some planting to do to make it feel 100% complete, but I wanted to post a few before and after photos and answer a few of the questions I’ve received over on Instagram!

The pool that existed when we bought the house took up the majority of the backyard and required several updates to bring it up to current code. We were most excited to replace the kidney-esque shape with a sleeker, more modern rectangle that would allow for an automatic pool cover (our #1 priority having a pool with little ones!). We also relocated the stone wall that previously cut the backyard in half to extend the stone wall along the front of our property, replaced the rest of our fence, planted dozens of arborvitae trees around the perimeter, and swapped all the overgrown ground coverings for useable lawn space for our kids to play on. Whew! There were lots of delays and headaches along the way that I won’t get into here, but I hope you like the “after” as much as we do!

OUR BACKYARD PROJECT

pool before

Here you can see the pool the way it looked when we bought the house. It was a perfectly functional pool for adults, but as a family with young kids, we felt strongly about being able to install an automatic cover and to replace all the gravel and ground coverings with a proper patio and lawn. The cost of removing the existing pool and constructing a new one in a different shape was about the same as it would be to build a new pool in a yard without one, but I think the peace of mind that comes with having a pool that’s completely up to code makes it one of our better investments in this house.

After relocating the stone wall that was originally beyond the old pool! This was day #1 of work on the pool, removing the old oversized concrete surround.

Removing the old pool…

…and then this giant hole is what our backyard looked like for a looong while.

Finally construction began on the new pool!

It was so fascinating to see the new pool begin to take shape.

There was another long delay waiting for the company that sprays the concrete, but the day they arrived was one of the most exciting days of the project! Then they backfilled with dirt around the new shape.

Then work started on the patio between the house and the pool…

…and eventually the plaster company came and filled it with water all in one day! Then the lawn took shape over the next couple months and here’s how it looks today:

serena & lily eastport striped umbrella and ballard designs miles redd bermuda chaise in design darling backyard

serena & lily eastport striped umbrella and ballard designs miles redd bermuda outdoor furniture in design darling backyard

english lattice fence and arbor in design darling backyard

serena & lily eastport striped umbrella and outdoor riviera dining chairs in design darling backyard

ballard designs miles redd bermuda outdoor furniture in design darling backyard

serena & lily eastport striped umbrella ballard designs miles redd bermuda chaise in design darling backyard

We’ve been in the pool with the boys every day since we got home (using the automatic cover any time we’re not in it!) and are so looking forward to making family memories out here for years to come. I’ll link our umbrellas, chaises, sofa, side tables, lounge chairs, coffee table, dining table (exact style sold out but similar shape here and here), and dining chairs in the scroll below but let me know if you have any other questions! Finally time to update the 101 in 1001 list. 🙂

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