Our backyard has always been a work in progress…
If you’ve been following for a while now, you would know I clearly have an issue with making up my mind on what I want! I struggle with decisions. But I knew that eventually, I wanted three things… Pavers, a Playhouse (DIY), and a fence. Let’s see how that ended up…
First, I made my hubs mix concrete to make our own stones…
And while I loved that, the concrete didn’t mix well and the stones felt like a liability even for my own kids! Jagged and Rough. So while they looked great, they were a little scary for toddlers. We used it like this for a while, but then finally gave in to something else.
Then I made him pull those up and just put pea gravel in… I’d seen so many pea gravel patios that were chic and classic looking and I’d mentioned that to the mister, and one day I came home and he had ordered the pea gravel dumped in our yard….
I thought this would be it! It was just as I’d imagined and easy to maintain.
Except we have dogs…
Dogs who ruined that…
Because they assumed the pea gravel was their own little potty yard. And yes, I’m embarrassed to admit that, but I didn’t realize they would do that with grass all around. Everytime we walked outside they had peed or pooped on the stones! So embarrassing!
So I bought a ton of bleach and bleached the hell out of those stones!!!
A few times…
While I tried to figure out my next move…
Then last year, I decided maybe we could still utilize the stones but add big cement pavers to create a modern look that would hopefully deter the pets from doing their business here. I had finally I found something I loved too. It looks great (when swept). It’s kid friendly and acts as a place to draw with chalk when they want to. And the dogs don’t pee and poo on it!! Winning!
I spoiled myself with a new loveseat from World Market AND we invested in a fence!
BEST. IDEA. EVER.
With us living so close to other homes in our neighborhood – our houses are set up like row houses, just not connected – we needed some sort of privacy! The line was crossed when the neighborhood kids were using the plug in my side/back yard for their boom box (I know, I’m old, but that’s what I call them) and I was inside with a sleeping baby…
With the fence in, it was like having another room to utilize! Which was amazing and almost made it feel bigger. We have an itty bitty yard, but it’s one of the bigger ones in our part of the neighborhood. But now it felt a little empty and I had wanted something for the kids to play with for a long time. We’d talked about a playhouse, but I wanted something that went with our house and wasn’t plastic.
My husband some how snagged this one for $100 and with about $75 + hours and hours (and more hours) of working on it we think it’s a great addition to our backyard! It’s almost the exact opposite color scheme to our house so it fits right in! And the girls are loving it!
It was a labor of love. LABOR. OF. LOVE.
It took forever to build, then forever to paint. I could have given up a few times. But I’m so glad how it turned out! And glad we have an extra space to play in, especially when the weather is nice!
Both girls love playing with it and in it… I’m sure Ella will soon start to climb on it and I’ll lose it, but until then we will enjoy it. Olive loves to sell ice cream out of the windows. And we love to decorate it… Spring decor is the best! And target dollar bins for the win!
We also added rubber pellets in this part of our yard, to (1) eliminate having to mow around this gal, and (2) for just a little extra crisp look. We wanted something to allow for trips and falls (even though there’s not that much room) and not have to be replenished year after year. So far, it’s working out. It looks good, and the girls don’t mind playing on it!
We are getting ready to add some new flowers and décor to the outside of it… Maybe the inside too! But the fun thing about it is it’s not an eye sore even if the kids pick some quirky pieces!
Now to to find a new umbrella for some shade!
And can’t wait for those upcoming summer nights to do movies in the backyard again!