Pencil Cactus

I wrote a blog post about the bloomin' pencil cactus. Here's the photo that was supposed to run with it:

Chairs & Umbrellas

Filled the deck with some chairs & tables & umbrellas. The wonderful thing is that the bamboo gives us a lot of shade in the afternoon. By the time we are home from work & school, the deck is in shade... and shortly thereafter, the pool is in shade also.

Funky Signpost

Working on my funky signpost arrows.

Pool Party

We had a pool party just a few days later... 12 kids!

Dwarf Mondo Grass

The last step was to plant Dwarf Mondo Grass as 'grout' between the pavers.

Pavers

Once the sprinklers and electric was complete, they could lay the sod. Once the sod was complete, they brought in the sand and pavers.

Sod & Electric

Luis and Octavio beginning to lay sod, Big Joe and Little Joe setting up the lights and electricity.

Sprinklers

The sprinkler system. 

Excavation

Octavio excavating the 'alley' next to the house (north side), prepping for the pavers and sod.

Lamp Post

We put in a new lamp post in the front yard. Little did we know that electric line has been connected and live all this time! The old fixture was completely broken and the live electric wire was down inside the metal post! Yikes!

Bench Swing

The deck guys came back to build an A-frame for our bench swing. The bench was built by Jimmy a few years ago.

Deck photos

Framing the deck

We began the deck project next. It's between the pool and the back fence, with a curved edge along the flower bed.

Outer steps

We had wooden steps built for outside the pool. Max is inspecting!

Wedding Cake

Jimmy and Maddie assembled & installed a set of 'wedding cake' steps for inside the pool.

Palm Trees

Put in a couple of palm trees!

Site Plan

We started sketching, then found the site plan, then blew it up on the copier and started adding cutouts of the pool, deck, pavers, trees, etc. Finally finished with a composite in Photoshop.

Splashdown

Our first swim!

Delivery and Installation

A few days later a crew came out to deliver and install the pool. It took just a few hours. We filled it up and went swimming the next day!

Digging the Hole

We thought about an in-ground pool. Well, we have for years. We thought about joining the Y. We thought about driving up and down Dale Mabry to get to the Y. We thought about how hot the summer is going to be. We thought about our neighbors who have pools but don't invite us over. We thought about the price and time involved. We thought about above-ground pools. We went to Mr. Pool and bought a big, giant 26-foot round pool. And presto, they were out here digging the hole. Sad part is, our turtle went missing the night before the hole was dug, and we still haven't found her.

Tree removal

The last of the big oaks was removed earlier this year. It was diseased and weak. After this, Jimmy and I started clearing out a lot of the overgrowth you see here. Clean sweep week came just in time!

Old pavers at dusk

Original pavers leading out the backdoor, at dusk. 

Earlier this year, I set out to weed the once beautiful planter to the left of these pavers.

Azaleas

Used to be that one of the few times we went into the backyard was to see the azaleas bloom every March. Here are the kids this past spring.

New House, New Project

In our 'new' house for 2 1/2 years now. My new year's resolution was to fix up the backyard. Jimmy joined the effort and together we've transformed it from a 'mow and avoid' situation to our own oasis of relaxation! Now that it's done, I'm ready to share the photos.