Project Wonderland

One of the many things that Zac and I love about our house is the amount of space that we have in our backyard. After living together in our first apartment for 3 years we were so excited when we got our home and discovered the endless possibilities of projects and fun having a backyard would bring.

Zac and I have lived in our home for nearly two years now. We've had plenty of time to sort through our ideas about what to do with our backyard space and now we are putting together an official plan which we are calling "Project Wonderland".

We really love to host parties, have people over, and entertain. It makes us so happy to fill our home with the people we love and enjoy ourselves, laugh, celebrate and create memories. Our plan is to make our backyard an extension of our home in the sense that it will be another place to make our guests comfortable and allow us to entertain a large number of people

Before we were able to put our plan into action, Zac and I first had to finalize a plan. This involved looking for inspiration...everywhere. One source of inspiration came from the fireplace in our living room.

Zac and I love our fireplace and think that it would be so great to have one outside in our backyard. It would definitely create a focal point for our space plus sitting out by the fireplace with our friends and family sounds like a great way to spend our evening. Zac plans to pour cement, build the fireplace, and add stone to the outside of the fireplace later.

Browsing through Pinterest.com I found this little picture for some inspiration:

The fireplace will be going in the back corner of our backyard. We will be adding some stone pavers to create a little path from the existing patio to the back corner. Zac has big plans for creating a deck and building some custom furniture to give the area an outdoor living room space feel. His furniture plans involve building a few chairs and a sectional style sofa for lounging. This picture from Pinterest.com is kind of what we had in mind with the furniture:

Surrounding the deck, Zac has already begun to dig a trench where he will create a fish pond.

The dirt from this trench went straight into the compost pile Zac created last summer. I am super excited about this pond. I love watching fish swim around. Before we got our little pup Jim, the only pets that I had ever had were fish. Currently Zac and I have about 20 very small fish in a 10 gallon tank. It will be so nice to sit on the deck by the fireplace and watch the fish swim in the pond.

Our backyard currently has only one source of lighting; a small light bulb just outside the patio door. So, needless to say, when the sun goes down we usually head inside since the backyard gets so dark. To brighten up our backyard and encourage some post sunset hang out time in our space Zac and I definitely need to add some lighting. Our plan is to add some spot lights to highlight our trees as well as extend our power out to the fireplace and add some lighting to the deck. Also our backyard has a long covered patio:

To give us some overhead lighting and allow us to hang out on the patio and play games without having to strain our eyes to read our cards, our plan is to add 4 overhead lights. Zac is going to extend the power from the house to the overhead lights which will allow us to use the light switch for the current patio light to turn on the additional lighting. (Thank goodness Zac is so handy right?!) We plan to add a dimmer switch so that we can control the amount of light at any given time. This will allow us to have enough light to see our game boards and cards on game nights as well as turn down the lights and create a romantic feel for a date night dinner outside.

To add a more whimsical feel to our backyard space, Zac and I want to add some light that will hang from the trees. These lights will not be powered by electricity or solar power. Instead we want to add some candlelight. Looking online at different lighting options I found this picture during my browsing session on Pinterst.com :

It pretty much represents perfectly the look that we are going for. It looks kind of magical right? The string seems to disappear and the lights look as though they are hovering in space, almost like little fireflies. Using candles makes this whimsical idea look soft and romantic as well. We love this idea and think that we can accomplish it pretty easily.

To make the backyard a little more whimsical and wonderland-ish, we'll also be adding a lot of flowers and plants to our space. The majority of these flowers will go along our back fence. Zac wants a variety of flowers so that the look is less uniform and more playful. The idea is to have flowers that come in a bunch of different heighths and vary in color. Another picture from Pinterest.com serves as inspiration:

In addition to the flowers along the fence, Zac really wants to add some latice. His big plan is to plant green vines along that latice that will eventually fill out and create a wall of green. It will definitely be something more pretty to look at than a plain wooden fence. We are thinking about planting honeysuckle since it has some really pretty white blooms, but we don't know how it will hold up in our Fresno climate. We'll definitely be looking into what vine-like plants will work out the best. The best thing about working on our garden is that we have an amazing nursery just two blocks away. Not only do they have some incredible plants, but they also have a big fish pond. We will definitely be picking their brains about our backyard garden/fish related projects.

Once all of this is complete and we are happy with the way things have turned out we hope to add a few more fun projects to our list. Check out this outdoor movie screen and lounge area that I found on (you guessed it) Pinterest.com:

Isn't that uh-may-zing?! I can totally picture us hanging out in our backyard during the summer with a few of our favorite people, munching on snacks, drinking some wine, and watching a movie. So perfect!

So here is the check list of our plans for our future backyard wonderland:

- Clean off patio space and find proper places for everything.

- Set up sitting area on patio space.

- Add flowers and plants to the back wall.

- Build latice wall on the back fence.

- Grow vines on the back fence latice wall.

- Hang votive lights from tree .

- Create overhead lighting for the patio space.

- Place solar power spot lights in front of trees.

- Finish digging out trench to add fish pond.

- Lay cement foundation for brick wall against back fence.

- Lay cement foundation for additional patio entertaining space.

- Add electrical power from the house to additional patio entertaining space.

- Lay down paver path from patio space to additional patio entertaining space.

- Put in lines for water pump for fish pond and propane for outdoor fireplace.

- Build outdoor fireplace.

- Lay down pavers on floor of additional patio entertaining space.

- Build furniture for additional patio entertaining space.

- Add stone to outside of outdoor fireplace.

Needless to say we have quite a few projects ahead of us and a lot of work to get done to turn our backyard into another space to hang out and entertain. We're looking forward to the challenge though. We love working on projects and anything that makes our home a more beautiful and comfortable space is definitely worth the work that goes into it. We'll be getting as many of the smaller projects done as we can first before diving into the big projects that require more man power and money. The fireplace may have to wait until after the wedding simply for cost reasons, but hopefully by this time next year our little wonderland will be a reality.