Our Landscaping Plans
Hey friends! I listed our 2022 Projects for Nubi House in a blog post a few weeks ago (hopefully you read it and are familiar with the big changes that are going to happen here) and one of them is already underway:
LANDSCAPING!
Yes, we started a few days ago and the crew is rockin and rollin through the plans at what feels like lighting speed! Since I started sharing all the progress over on Instagram, I thought it would make sense to back up a bit tell you where this ship is actually headed!
First, there befores, which are pretty dismal and lack luster since we dug up about 90% of our old landscaping (which was only in the front yard) 3 years ago and hadn’t replaced a single thing. The backyard was just a humongous blank slate. Nothing but space and opportunity!
Marcus and I had originally thought this was going to be something we would DIY but quickly realized just how much needed to get done and that we were way over our heads. I reached out to Solo Landscape to help me come up with a plan and design for our front and back yard and quote to have it all hired out. Owner, Patrick, came to our home to survey and measure everything and to talk about our vision. Once he left, I sent him a PowerPoint presentation of all my inspo pics that I’d been saving on Pinterest. Front yard, including a vision for a new walkway, border ideas, specific plants, back patio and deck ideas, the whole nine and most importantly, the goal vibes.
I wanted a look that was modern and fitting with our house style, inside and out. I’m not a flower girl, so I didn’t want flowers to be the overwhelming look of our beds. I wanted more green to reflect all the plant life that we had going inside. I looooove the landscaping seen out west where there’s a dryer climate that allows for succulents and evergreens. I told Patrick that we need to figure out how to get that look, but fitting of our area.
I’m calling it Southern Desert. 😁
Patrick put together a plan, offered some suggestions that I hadn’t considered and sent me renderings that got me super excited! Beds filled with blue fescue, muly grass, yucca and agave, boulders for interest and trellises for our big blank walls!!! I was in love!!!
The plan included a new, wide modern walkway in the front yard to break up there huge mass of yard. Big organic landscape beds bordered with stacked Arkansas field stone and filled with limestone gravel. All the stone would coordinate with all the existing stone in the house. We’d pour a new driveway, patio and step pads to connect the two. An elevated deck with pergola outside of our primary bedroom and landscaping along our super bare fence line. And lots and lots of interesting plant life!
We immediately got started with the deck and pergola build since it would dictate so many other elements. You guys can see the build progress here.
A few months after the deck was done, Patrick came back to reassess everything to see if our original landscaping plans still tracked. Fortunately, they all did, but my life plans had changed. We lost Marcus just days after we finished the deck and I had been thinking long and hard about what this home meant to us and what it would mean to our family in the future. I wanted to invest in it as if it were our forever home, because at that point, I’m my heart, it was.
This meant going beyond plants and seriously considering something I could never convince Marcus to do: adding a swimming pool! I’ve always wanted to live in a home with one and Davin is a natural born water lover, so I knew it would be amazing for the life I wanted us to have. And thought he hated the idea of pool cost and maintenance, Marcus knew how much we both wanted one and would want it for us too.
Thankfully, Solo Landscape is not just a landscaping company, they’re a pool company too! BLESSINGS!!! I asked Patrick to render up what a pool could look like in our backyard, just to get a sense of how it would change the space. I also asked him to show ideal placement of an in-ground trampoline since my sister and brother in law got Davin one for his birthday/Christmas and if he was going to have one, I wanted to minimize the risk of broken bones as much as possible! What he sent over was an absolute dream!
I was completely floored and immediately gung-ho and ready to go! The quote, however, slowed me down a bit! 😅 We’re going through and seeing how we can save in some areas before I completely pull the trigger, but note that I know what I’m dealing with, I’m even more excited about moving forward! I promise to keep you posted when I do!!!
So that’s it friends, the full landscaping plan, plus a possible pool! Once things are completed, I’ll come back with afters and a break down of costs! Stay tuned!