Backyard Renovation - before

This post is a long time coming!!!!  Since moving in to this house 5 years ago every 6 months or so we tackle some project.  We have replaced all of the windows, replaced the air conditioning, converted from natural gas to oil (the two oil drums had to be cut apart and removed in pieces), painted every room in the house, refinished the wood floors on the main floor, added a shower to the guest bath, added heat to the basement and guest room, built and installed custom built-in bookcases in our living room, built and installed custom built-in lockers in our mudroom, landscape the front of the house and not to mention all the work on the deck and gutters.

It was finally time to tackle the back of the house.  As you can see, it was a jungle back there.  The plants were random and wild.  The deck was falling down.  Basically, nothing made sense or caused any happiness for us.  We started planning very early on - hiring a landscape architect who came up with many different plans.  We narrowed it down and then bid it out to three contractors.  We hired a contractor and got working.  Here are the before pictures...