A month can seem like a long time or fly by in a minute. I’ve experienced both on my backyard remodel.

It took only one month for the wonderful people at Garden Plus Landscape & Pools to tear out my old backyard and install something beautiful and new.

And it’s taken an entire month for me to round-up and Photoshop all the photos so that I can finally get this post up. No time like the present, so let’s get on with it! These first four photos are the renderings that Garden’s Plus presented me with.

Lovely, aren’t they?

The rest will be the before, the between (the progress) and the after photos.

As a refresher; in May 2017, I moved out of a 4,000 sq ft house that I’d lived in for 18 years, into a 2,000 sq ft rental that also served as my storage space. Then in November 2017, I moved into this 3,000 sq ft house. I adore this house and it felt like home immediately.

Well, except for all the excess stuff that was piled deep and high on the back patio and along the very narrow eve on the north side of the house.

Thankfully it doesn’t rain in AZ very often! If it did, there would have been much more of this situation.

It all felt so very claustrophobic, suffocating and downright awful.

To rid myself of that stuff and those less than warm and fuzzy new home feelings, I needed to pare it down and spread it out. The paring down came in the form of a garage sale on March 3rd and 4th.

And the beginning of being able to spread it out began at the same time, in the form of a new covered patio that would be nearly 3x the size of the original covered patio.

This is something that has been in the works for a while now. The original covered patio needed revamping because it was just so damaged. It didn’t look good in terms of appearance and it was probably even dangerous to walk on. So, this is why we are all super excited to contact somewhere like this Milwaukee Concrete Brick Edging service to get it recovered with better material. This will definitely add some spice to our renovation project.

How amazing does that sound? I’ve always dreamed of having a great patio space that will allow us to spend more time outdoors so we can make the most of our surroundings. This is what it’s for, after all. To expand the life and workability of the pool deck and walkways, we decide to look into construction materials that are resilient to all weather conditions. We may look into concrete flooring options, perhaps consult a BM Concrete Reno or in our neighborhood, so that we can utilize our outdoor space to the fullest. Moreover, there are just so many options that you can take advantage of when it comes to your patio space that I’m slightly worried that it could become dirty as soon as it’s fitted. And, of course, I would hate for this to happen straight off the bat.

When I told my friend about my initial concerns, she told me to get in touch with a professional pressure washing service like Malachi Exterior Wash (www.pressurewashingclarksvillemalachiexteriorwash.com) to come as often as is needed to ensure that every inch of my patio, as well as my driveway and walkways, have all been cleaned to the highest quality. And as soon as she said this, it filled me with great joy and relief.

Knowing this bit of information allows me to enjoy the renovation process and to take in every second.

At the same time, the chipping plaster and cracking border tile of the original pool needed to come out and be replaced with new tile, coping and pebble finish. The old cement under the long but narrow covered patio, the faded cool-deck and a good part of grass area were to be replaced with travertine.

A built-in gas grill with dinning table was getting built, along with a beautiful accent wall/planter, which was inspired by a vintage French wall fountain I scooped up at Sweet Salvage several years ago.

Being installed in between the accent wall/planter and the pool, an eye-catching harlequin-pattern of travertine tile and faux grass. I’d love to take credit for that design element, but all credit goes to Adrian at Garden’s Plus. He spotted the French fountain among all the stuff piled on the patio and came up with the idea and design.

Had he told me that the first order of business to upgrade your patio was to get everything off the patio, or not, that’s what I somehow wanted to do. I moved all the boxes into the garage and figured out what would be kept and what was to go in the sale. I moved all the outdoor furnishings onto an extra-large tarp in the grass on the far north side of the yard and then the guys covered it with more tarps to protect it from possible rain. It rained for two days before I was able to move stuff to the grass, but it hasn’t rained since … that was February 27th.

Note: As if to prove me a liar, it rained only hours after I pushed “schedule” on this post. Yes, it rained last night! Hallelujah! Praying it’s raining up north and helping put out or at least control the Tinder Fire.

Actually now that I look at the photos, I remember that the guys started putting up the masonry columns even before I moved my stuff off the patio. That seriously lit a fire under me and put the pressure on!

This was travertine delivery day. In a future post, I’ll share with you all the drama that occurred on granite delivery day. It was quite the thing.

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The weather is quickly heating up around here, so I thought it might be nice to share a few quick photos before everything turns, well you know, brown and dead.

Later this week I’ll tell you about an experiment I’m in the middle of with my pomegranate blossoms, like the one above, to try to actually get some edible pomegranates from my tree this year.

This is one of the few plants that will still look this good come July and it is my favorite image here. Proving, that I really am a desert girl at heart.

Postscript: In a comment below, Betsy asked for a list of the plants pictured, I’ve not only added that in the comment section in response to her, but also at the end of the post. Thanks for asking Betsy!

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Although I’ve lived in Arizona my entire life, I’ve never seen a snake in my yard before. A couple of times out in the “wild” but never on my property… that is… until now.

The snake above is not the exact snake from my yard, but he is the same type… a nonvenomous Pituophi catenifer deserticola – more commonly known as a Great Basin Gopher Snake.

Here is “my” snake. I walked out on my back patio and there he was!

He was much more afraid of me than I was of him. As soon as I snapped the first photo, he slithered off into a garden area. Look closely, he’s there.

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Ten years ago, in 2003, we had a huge peach tree. It was too huge!

Somehow, it had grown completely out of control, and sadly, this was what happened to it. It was so top-heavy and full of heavy ripe peaches, that most of the branches broke from the weight.

I did what any resourceful woman would do – I had an impromptu “Pick Your Own Peaches” Dinner Party. To attend, you had to pick as many peaches as humanly possible and take them home with you! You were rewarded with dinner and profuse amounts of gratitude.

The tree was never quite the same. We had another couple of years of good harvest, but it was an ugly tree after all those branches broke off in such an inhuman way.

Then, in December of 2007, we took our backyard down to the dirt, literally. We took out and filled in the old plaster diving pool. We tore down the south and west sides of our block wall fence and the entire narrow covered patio, plus the dated columns that held it up.

And we said goodbye to the peach tree – and just about every other living thing in the back yard. The peach tree used to stand where that orange trash dumpster sits, in the photo above. And that’s my gorgeous Tanqueray in the center of the photo. How I miss my sweet boy!

All that was left were the citrus trees … the branches of the lemon tree are seen on the right, while the orange and grapefruit trees are out of view along that same side of the yard. Plus the orchid tree, which is on the far left of the photo, but can be seen more clearly in the photo above this, is directly behind Tanqueray. Also saved was the large fig tree, which is out of view, but is on the back side of that orange dumpster. The two queen palms were later transplanted, but in the end, didn’t survive. The tall eucalyptus trees in the background used to be on the side of our front yard, but we pushed out the fence and they now line the western edge of the back yard.

After living in a pile of dirt, dust, and far too often, mud, that wet winter – we were hugely rewarded in May 2008 with a beautiful backyard oasis.

I will soon be showing you more photos of the yard because we are about to embark on phase two of the backyard remodel. Anyhow, a new tiny peach tree replaced the previous monster. It’s hard to make out because it’s so small and barely in the picture, but if you look closely, you’ll see it on the far left center edge of the photo. That spot of green against the white of the house, that’s it!

Here is what it looks like now. It’s a dwarf peach tree, so it is still small today. This photo was taken exactly one month ago. It may be little but I generally get a nice size basket or two of fruit from it each year. More than enough for just Dave and me.

Along with plenty of peaches to make the dessert in yesterday’s post and enough “just eating” peaches, I was able to make a main course peach dish with what I harvested this year.

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