DIY // Before & after of my backyard

It actually make me painful a tiny bit to upload the previous photos of my backyard with all of the pretties I post here, but you won’t get the full effect unless I do, so this one’s for you guys! My full makeover reveal is on the blog today where you can see all of the extra product details, a quick and easy DIY to disguise an ugly air conditioner, and possibly the most random way you could ever use shower curtain liners for decor (can you guess how?!). At the same time, I’ll give you the before tour…



There was nothing when I first moved into this house, but black tarp and messed up pebble stones. Actually, my dad put in the concrete stepping stone pad and walkway, and filled in the stone just so that the area wasn’t a complete eyesore and the water were drain away from the house. I still never used it much just because it wasn’t something that was within my budget or a huge priority right away.

Now that it’s been a little over a year, it was expired. With the right sized outdoor dining table, some accessories, a whole lot of elbow grease, and DIY power, it looks way different!



The left was before, and the right is what it looks like now. Thanks to resilient plants and fake grass, it actually looks lush in the middle of the busy city! I liked sticking to the modern cool grey color tone because it went well with the metal siding and clean lines of the stones and I’m really glad I stuck with it, I love the outcome very much.








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DIY Fire Pit and Seating Area

Eight years ago, my wife and I bought this house, due in part to the very large backyard - roughly .5 acre. For eight years we had done nothing meaningful with it until now. I'd like to add that I did this project entirely by myself and that before we began this project, I had absolutely zero experience with construction, landscaping, or home improvement projects. So with that in mind, I fully admit I probably made some mistakes that may be glaring to some.

With that being said, please see our brand new fire pit and seating area:

Step 1: Collect Fire Pit Materials

For this fire pit I used the RumbleStone pavers. I went to make it 4 courses high. For each course I used 12 Traps and 12 Minis for a total of 48 trapezoid blocks and 48 mini blocks.

In addition to the stones, I also purchased landscape adhesive to lock the stone layers together, a caulk gun, marking paint, and gravel and sand for drainage inside the pit.

Step 2: Decide the location

I chose a location that was a pretty good distance away from the house. I think 10 feet is the minimum recommended distance, but I went with about 80 feet as I wanted to attach a quasi-winding pathway to the fire pit from our patio.

Step 3: Arrange layer of stones and outline fire pit footprint

So this is probably the first mistake I made. I didn't want to spray paint on the stones, so I lined them up where I wanted, and etched around the perimeter of the stones with a shovel. In hindsight, this layer is almost completely in-ground, so a little spray paint on them would not have hurt, and I think outlining with spray paint would've been less intensive and produced the same desired results. And also, I finished painting around the outline anyway when the stones were removed.

Step 4: Outline seating area

Again, I'm not a construction-minded individual, so I did the best I could here. I staked a post in the center of the fire pit ring. Then I unrolled some garden twine and attached one end to the stake. I ran the string out to 12 feet* and attached the other end to an eye bolt** I had lying around. I then pulled the twine taut and took a spray can of marking paint and sprayed as I walked with the twine held as close to the ground as possible.

*There was no rhyme or reason to the 12 feet figure. To be frank, the small tape measure I was using only went to 12 feet, so that's where I stopped. As it turned out I think the 24 foot diameter was a perfect size.

**An eye bolt was totally not necessary. This could have easily been a pencil, a stick, another person...really could have been nothing at all probably.

Step 5: Dig out the outlined area for the firepit

I wasn't really sure about this part, but I knew I needed some way for the pit to drain after rain.

So I ended up digging around a foot and a half deep. It doesn't have to be perfect by any means, but I made sure the sides were fairly straight.

Step 6: Fill the hole

Fill the hole with a layer of gravel on the very bottom then fill the rest of the way with sand, which leaving about 2 or 3 inches or so between the sand and the top of the hole. Then I just packed the sand down and leveled it out with a 2X4.

Step 7: Lay the first course of stones

Now that the sand is level and packed, lay the first course of stones,alternating trap, min,trap, mini, etc. and checking for level often. 

This was the most time-consuming part yet. It wasn't hard to get the stones set necessarily, but making sure that each stone was level was much more difficult and aggravating than I could've expected.

After the stones were finally set and level, I added one more bag of sand over the course of stones, then using a shop broom pushed the sand in between the stones. I'm honestly not really sure if this part was needed, but it seemed like a good idea, and I had one bag left, so in it went. Also, it's really important to brush the stones with the broom to make sure that there's no sand on them for the next step.

Step 8: Lay the remaining courses

This was the easiest part of the entire process I'd say.

It's also the most fun, since this is when you start seeing all the hard work taking shape.

To get started on this step, apply a bead of landscape adhesive in a zigzag form where you plan to lay the next stone of the next course. Make sure to stagger the stones over the previous layer (you can see what I mean in the photo for this step). In the second layer (first layer of this step), I intentionally left a gap between two of the blocks to allow for oxygen flow. Keep going until you're done with all four courses of stone, and Boom! Fire pit!

Step 9: Gather supplies for seating area

Now that you've got a fire pit, you need a space for everyone to sit. So gather 80 feet of landscape edging for the seating area (plus what you need for a walkway) enough landscape fabric to cover about 500 square feet for the seating area (plus what you need to cover the area of your walkway), plenty of landscape fabric pins and some grass/weed killer.

Step 10: Outline seating area with edging and apply fabric

Outline the seating area with the landscape edging, leaving an opening for your walkway. I didn't bother to paint the boundaries for the walkway area, I just bought extra landscape edging and used a 4 foot 2x4 to space the edging out along the walkway and formed it to the curved shape that my better half requested.

Once everything is outlined with edging, spray the area with weed/grass killer. I waited about 24 hours until it was all dry and then rolled out and staked down the landscape fabric.

Note: You'll notice in the photos that I didn't have the walkway in when I started laying the fabric. It would've been better to get it all done in the meanwhile,but I used out of edging, so I decided to finish what I could before going back to Lowe's.

Step 11: Have gravel delivered

We went with crushed limestone. It's a little more expensive than pea gravel, but I think it looks better.

We got 7.5 tons and it was $535 delivered.

Note: You see the pathway there with the weed/grass killer in full effect. I put down landscape fabric along the pathway right after this photo was taken.

Step 12: Spread the gravel out evenly

Nope. Never again. This was the single most meticulous, tedious, maddening and back-breaking thing I have done in years.Basically move rocks around in piles and then take a steel rake and rake them until they're as smooth as possible. I hauled rocks to and fro for the better part of 2 days. It seemed like I would never get to the bottom of that pile of rocks. But when I finally did...

Step 13: Done!

Man this felt good.

Step 14: Then we added seating...

We sanded, painted, assembled and sealed 4 chairs for seating. It really added to the atmosphere.

Step 15: And finally, we added lighting

This is a step I found on another website, so I won't go through the directions here, but I added patio lights with hooks for some wireless speakers which you can see hanging on the two far posts. Added some solar pathway lighting and some citronella torches since mosquitoes are so bad here in the deep South. It really is amazingly relaxing out there now! Quite a transformation from just 2 moths ago.




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The Timing To Consider When Having An Evening Garden

Now you know the reason why you need to have an evening garden, you should start planning now. Firstly, find out the things which you may need to consider such as the following:

First of all, think about the lighting.

Since it is a garden by night, you should think of the lighting. In this way, you will be able to see how beautiful your garden is even though it is already at night. Plus, you will greatly enjoy your stay. Lighting can also make your garden look magical and awesome at night. You can add sculptures that lighten up. You can also add a fountain which has lights. Just imagine how relaxing it is. Some would even install lights along the pathways while others would set them up on top of the tree or surrounding the garden shed. You can also use the top of you fence in putting lights. You can also use small lights that may brighten like the stars.

Secondly, properly choose the right plants.

There are plants which bloom at night and seem like to sleep by day time. These plants usually have white or blue colors like the Jasmine, white roses, and foxgloves. Actually, there are tons of them which may not give you any difficulties when selecting. There are also flowers which give sweet smelling scent at night. Oh, that could be lovely. While you are staying in your garden, you will not only get fascinated by their looks, but you will also love their scents. This only shows how worthy it is to have an evening garden.

Thirdly, provide enough heat.

At night, the wind can be too cold for you. In this case, how can you enjoy your evening garden if you can’t even take the cold? Plus, this may not be good for your health. As suggested, it is best to have a fireplace to keep you warm. Maybe, a good wine with the fireplace on is a good idea for relaxation, right? Don’t you think so?

Fourthly, provide a place where you can dine.

You can add a bench, couch, or a dining table where you can relax in your garden during at night. Some homeowners would even add outdoor kitchen. You can do this too as long as you have enough space. In choosing for the furniture, see to it that they would complement to the entire place. Most important of all, you should think of what makes you feel comfortable.

Fifthly, do you want a place where you can stay even if it is raining?

If you don’t have enough protection in your garden, you may not be able to use it when it is raining. But if you really want to use it even if it is raining, you can install patio umbrellas, gazebos, patio lights and patio deck. This will make you still enjoy your garden no matter if it is raining or not.

Finally, when having an evening garden, you should also think of your budget. You may need to buy accessories and new furniture. But these will be paid off once you see the benefits of it as well as the beauty of the entire garden.





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Outdoor mood lighting

Recently, we moved into our new home. One of the many things we absolutely love about this new house is the huge deck in the backyard. It is the ultimate party deck!



We can easy fit several dozen people on the deck. We bring out a bunch of chairs, a few coolers with drinks, turn on the BBQ grill and it’s an instant party. Once the sun goes down though the deck and backyard are almost impossible to enjoy.
The main issue is that there simply isn’t enough lighting. Here’s what our deck looks like with the porch light that came with the house.



In fact, who wants to sit out there in pitch black? Hardly anyone. I knew something needed to be done so I hit up my local True Value and their online shop to see what type of outdoor mood lighting they had. The results are literally jaw-dropping.



I added a few strands of string lights and a trio of lanterns to create this custom outdoor lighting. It become an instant party in our backyard now.




Our favorite local restaurant has marquee-style string lights on their outdoor deck and I just love the mood they create, so I recreated the look at our house.




My favorite part is the hanging lanterns. They are special looking and were a cinch to install. The lanterns are LED and solar powered, so they required no cables to bury and no power to connect. And they turn themselves on every night without me even having to think about it.



Outdoor mood lighting is cheap to purchase and easy to install. It literally added square footage to our home by turning an unusable outdoor space into an extension of our family room.



Now if only we could turn the AC on out back! These 100 degree days are killing me.





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DIY Backyard

You may think that I would have at least some Italy pictures ready to go by now.  But I don’t.  You see my old laptop was out of space and no matter how many pictures and music I moved to the external hard drive it was still too full and s…l…o..w.  So lucky, my brother (whose major is computers) was still in town after dog-sitting for two weeks and officially condemned it and told us what we needed.  So we did what every jet-lagged person does…go buy  a new computer.  We decided on a desktop because of amount space and power I wanted while still keeping the cost down.  I love my new toy that is running amazingly fast….and I now have photoshop.  I was so excited to get to making all the vacation pictures super pretty.  Then I tried to use photoshop…..and then started googling “basic photoshop tutorials”….and then went to the bookstore to buy a how-to book.

So while I try to understand the very basic functioning of this program, I wanted to share with you my guest post a couple of weeks ago.  I am happy to report that they have been in use over a month with lots of sun, wind and rain and have held up beautifully.

Our deck was hot and sunny….a combination that did not bode well for spending time out there.  Especially because I am not a fan of sweating.  We had a rickety pergola that the previous owners had installed but the slats were so far apart that it did not do much in terms of providing shade.  Oh yeah we also installed lights when we moved in for some ambiance.  I still love the light set, but our installation method…..well let’s just say it was straight and rigid.  Not exactly evoking feelings of summer casual fun.  Behold the before-




But how could we get some shade without adding a roof or another layer the questionably stable pergola?  Finally, we would like to have plants climb it and provide shade, but that will take times, maybe years.  And patience is not one of my advantage.

And then when I was appreciating the popular drop cloth curtains I had an idea.  Why couldn’t we use cheap paint tarps as the canvas to cover the pergola with?  Brilliant!

So I head to the nearest home improvement store and bought two 4x15 drop cloths.



I worried that rain and wind could have negative results if I left them this size.  So I sliced them in two and did a quick seam in heavy duty thread.  No measuring or preciseness…..I cut where they were folded.  I am not fast on the sewing machine and got four done in in 35 minutes.

Then I added two grommets on each end to attach to the pergola.  Again this step did not take very long at all.

With the husbands help, we took down the lights and wove the four strips of drop cloth into the pergola all the way across.  They were attached with screws through the grommets that can easily be taken down in the winter.   An “above” pictures from the window.



Again no measuring was involved….we just eyeballed the spacing.  Then we added the patio lights back in a more casual way to get this-




And at night…



The table is now shady and we can make as if that we are in a fun restaurant when we are just eating in our own backyard.  It would have been easy to add another two strips to bring the shade to the end of the pergola…..but you see that green tarp?



That would be the BBQ and I do not think flame and canvas are a good mix even in the name of style.

The whole project cost less than $50 and a 2 hours of time.  Will it fade…..yes but I do not care as a lighter color will still work.  Will it last 20 years….no but it was inexpensive and easily replaceable.

Well worth it for some shade and ambience in my opinion.  And even if you do not have a pergola in your backyard, drop cloths could still be used on other structures or even between a couple of poles.  Who knew that they could be so multi-functional?





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