Before and After of the side and backyard

This last month Byron and I have really been concentrating on our backyard. After finishing the deck last year we kind of got burnt out of working on the yard. We turn our attention to the inside and Byron made those wonderful built in selves in our bedroom. Well now that summer is on us again (thou it is basically summer all year round here) we've been going crazy working on our backyard. Here are some before and after shots.

The lovely princess are building a bridge to the huge mound of excess rock we have from when we had to clear a space for the deck.
To tell you the truth, I think the kids liked the before because it was much more adventurous :)
Pretty plain looking....
Working on it. Byron cleared a path and laid paving stones. With the stacking stones we were able to make a little garden and plant some citrus trees and a banana tree.
Planted some palms to line the grass and the neighbors yard. Also got some big pots and some hanging baskets.
Finished product. Just image the beautiful white fence we will have someday to block out the neighbors ugly yard........ Also imagine all the flowers, plants and trees bigger.... That is just going to take some time...... I do want to get a few more pots to put on the side of the house. So it's not completely done. Just mostly.
Byron latticed in our gas tanks (for our stove) and our garbage cans. Nobody wants to see those thing when walking by. He also framed out a space where we are going to pour concrete to put our grill on (hopefully this next week or two). Where the grill is now is going to be a bench so people can talk to the person grilling.
Finally put plants in the hanging baskets and the big pots. I also just oiled our teak table so it now looks nice and shiny :) Don't mind Byron out there, he is just putting up the extra shade screen because we are having people over for dinner tomorrow.
Now that we've worked so hard in beautifying our yard, I've really enjoyed our deck more. I no longer feel it's a random space attached to our yard. It is now more inclosed and pretty so I like hanging out there more. The plants and trees also give a bit of privacy. Whenever we would eat dinner out there before I felt like I was in my neighbors living room......

And then one day we will have a fence and it will be perfect :)