Maybe it’s ’cause I moved here from NYC, but the yards are more exciting to me than the house. Don’t get me wrong – I’m excited about it all. My voice goes up one octave when I talk about the house and two when I talk about the yard. Pretty soon only the puppy will hear me.

The Upper Yard is roughly 30ft. x 43ft., giving us approx. 1290 square feet to work with.

Here’s the before:

View of the back door from the retaining wall:

View from the back door out:

The Plan!!!

See those hay bales on the left of the space plan? See those circles drawn on the ends of the bar? See that projector in the laundry nook?

The circles will be telescoping poles that we can slide a white screen onto. Drag those hay bales onto the lawn and come on over for movie night!

The planter by the small pool/tub will have lavender, aloe, etc. – anything you might want in a bath. The planters on either side of the bar will have rosemary, basil, etc. – anything you might want for cooking over the firepit/charcoal grill (The firepit will be poured in place concrete with flyash like I told you about a few posts back.). The meat market sells bags of pure mesquite for $3. Mmmmm…

I was sad to learn today that my favorite design mag, Western Interiors, is no more. Here are two inspiration photos from their February/March 2009 issue:

The seating area (we should have room for 14 people):

The lounging area:

We’ll have our beautiful bougainvillea sitting on top of the pergola with sparkling lanterns hanging down.

We’re hoping to get the seating area and the green planted by May, in time to enjoy and entertain during the summer months. Even in the summer it cools off very nicely at night. We’ll need a nice place to relax outside by then since May is when we begin the largest chunk of interior reno – hydronic radiant heat, wall insulation, floors throughout, bathroom, and kitchen.

We’re also hoping that by this time next year we’ll be working on all of our DIY custom built-ins for the living room, dining room, master bedroom, and kids’ room.