The Fishbowl

When we were house-hunting a couple of years ago I fell in love with my house on the first visit - I knew it was the one. I loved the open floor plan and spacious kitchen,and it had everything I was looking for. The ONLY thing that gave me pause is the way the house was situated on the lot. It's on a large lot, but the builder set it on the lot in a way that makes the majority of the yard completely useless....I have a HUGE side yard and front yard....what the heck am I supposed to do with that? Our yard is a giant fishbowl - zero privacy.

So, this year I've embarked on a mission to make my backyard usable. Well, ok, I actually want it to be better than usable - I want it to be cozy, private, and look like a terrace in the English countryside. High hopes. Very high hopes. Small budget....very small budget.

We started by planting a row of arborvitaes along the side of the yard that runs along the street. We did this early in the season when we found the trees on sales at Home Depot - instant privacy for 400 bucks. Next we mapped out where we wanted the fence to go because in Amesbury you have to have the town survey your fence if it runs along the property border. I plan to install the fence in stages due to the cost - focusing on the back property line and the side along the street first. While I wait for the fence activity to fall into place, I've started work on my patio.

I decided on Pennsylvania Bluestone. The palettes available were in gorgeous tones of grey-green, grey-blue, and grey-lilac. I purchased all the materials directly from Landscaper's Depot and, rather than hire a landscaping company, hired a local tradesman to do the heavy lifting, then Rob helped lay the stones. Doing it this way is literally saving us $4-5K vs. what the landscaping companies were quoting. The final result is TBD, but so far I am really pleased on the progress and design.....more to come!