After almost 7 months of renovating our backyard, the final touches were added to her early Saturday evening, and we couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out. We started these renovations over a year ago… starting small with some planters around the backyard and stuccoing over areas that were constructed with cinder block (which in it of itself made such a huge difference)… then last summer we added tile pavers and our patterned cement tiles over the existing concrete (another huge difference)… and then in the early fall we started construction on the pool. It’s been such an amazing process transforming our backyard space from what it was when we purchased it, to a true indoor/outdoor living space and we feel so grateful and can’t wait to make memories back here with our family for years to come.

The other night TJ and I were sitting by the pool, and we commented on how we feel as if our backyard is actually bigger than before we started the renovations. And what we concluded is that we ultimately ended up utilizing “dead” space…. our pool is in an area that we never really used because it was tiered, etc… so now it’s usable space we didn’t have before. The extra concrete we added to create the outdoor kitchen, was basically where that small concrete slab is in the below photo… the grass was always dead there, so we avoided it because it was dirty… now it’s a usable outdoor kitchen… and we moved the trampoline to the far corner of the yard that again, always had dead grass, so now we have that entire space that the trampoline took up.

I did a full write up on our pool renovation here and that answers everything we used for the pool.

Sharing some before and afters photos below and a lengthier description of what we did in each area….
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BEFORE + AFTER PHOTOS

We’ve been really happy with our outdoor furniture over the past several seasons, so we kept it for this space (the cushions are horribly stained so I’m attacking them this week….). We added in this outdoor coffee table (to replace the firepit), and I purchased these pillow covers. The outdoor lights are the same brand as the ones we had hanging previously, but bigger and in a different color.
(dining table, bench, chairs)

We really wanted to bring indoor outdoor living to our house, so a covered patio space was a non-negotiable. It’s constructed from alumawood, which we were told would basically last us forever (no worrying about termite damage/rotting wood). It’s connected to our house, but there are some small gaps so we added rain gutters so that no water would seep through during the rainy months (whenever that happens again in So. Cal….). The covering vaults over the fireplace, and then levels off over the dining area. Given our love of being outdoor year round, adding an outdoor fireplace was always on our wish list. It was created with cinderblock, and then they added smooth stucco over it, and painted it to match our house. Inside we have tan firebrick laid in a herringbone pattern, and purchased tan fireballs (they do have some charred marks on them, but we don’t mind the look).

As for the outdoor kitchen area, we wanted something durable, but that would still flow with the same feel of the backyard area. We opted to go with a polished concrete countertop…. it’s smooth, easy to clean, and will withstand the heat of the grills we have. TJ got a green egg smoker for Christmas, and we purchased the 4 burner Turbo grill + Alfa pizza oven specifically for this space (the pizza oven was my request… I love doing homemade pizzas). We ultimately decided against a sink, but did include an outdoor refrigerator for easy access to beverages when we’re in the pool (instead of going through the house dripping wet).

We wanted to also have a nice sitting area around the pool where those who aren’t enjoying the water can relax. We took a little while to decide which furniture we wanted for the space, but ultimately decided on this deep, and very comfortable lounge set… and moved our favorite fire pit to this space… provides us with another spot to sit in the evenings (or on a cooler day).

We are a huge fan of these fringe umbrellas (but we collapse and cover them every evening to preserve them)… and these umbrella stands are awesome… they act as a table, umbrellas stand, and small storage container all in one. For the chaise loungers, we had every intention of using the ones we purchased last year, but the color didn’t flow (it clashed with the decking, as well as the fence we have) so we purchased these. They’re incredibly sturdy, and we’ve been very happy with them.

Our gardener, and his wife, are excellent at landscaping as well, and he added in all of our up-lights around the house. I didn’t realize how much I’dl love them until they’d been fully installed. Outdoor lighting makes such a big difference.