Backyard Love

As a followup to this post, I've been working hard to get my home more organized. In the living room specifically we've laid down a new rug (a huge 8x10 monster found on the cheap at Home Goods), moved the old sofa out and the new sofa in, and got the chairs and end table from Target purchased. Mark was busily working today (and is perhaps done at this point) putting together the bookcase sofa table. Still to do: find an entertainment center, head to IKEA to replace a broken leg on the chair we bought and move the rest of the furnishings in the room. Yay for progress!

So, since I've been so successful in the living room and am still steaming forward full force, I'm moving on to the backyard. I'll post a before picture at some point, but my current backyard is best described in a single word: jungle. There's an overgrown butterfly bush that is taking up nearly half the yard as well as your typical weeds that have grown to a not-so-typical height. Eek! The current patio is sloping backwards, toward the house, and is causing us some major issues in this very rainy season. Something had to be done!

So, on Wednesday I had the designer from The Stone Store come out to write up an estimate for a new patio. Four hours later (seriously, not even kidding about that time), the contract was signed and we're in business. Around mid-May we'll be the proud owners of a new 15' x 18' brick paver patio. When the designer sent the final plan to me, his email also said, "I wish all my customers were as attentive to detail and design as you are." I'm pretty sure that was his nice way of noting how incredibly anal I am. Hehehe. Anyway, here's the design plan, which I of course spruced up with a little color for easy explaining:

The large, black box is my backyard, which measures a whopping 24' x 24'. Postage-stamp sized, but nice for someone who isn't that into gardening. The brown/red area at the top is my house. You can see the newly widened steps we'll be putting in that lead out from the sliding door. The tan area will be flower beds, which means you can all look forward to tales of me killing some plants soon. The blue area will be filled with loose stone. That spot is where our outdoor Rubbermaid storage container goes, so the loose stone will be good for drainage.

The white area is what will be newly paved. I'm loving the idea of so much more paved space and no grass to be mowed! We decided on Holland Pavers (basically bricks) set in a Herringbone pattern on a 45 degree angle. The edges will be bordered in a soldier course, which means the bricks will be lined up long side to long side (see middle of picture below, which also shows herringbone pattern). We've tentatively decided on a mix of colors in the cool tones, but that may change once I see the actual colors at the store.

Still to do for the backyard: price out a new fence since ours is falling over (already have an appointment scheduled for this Tuesday) and figure out how to fill in that six feet of flower bed at the back of the yard with things I won't kill!?!